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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Theo R Cwithin" data-source="post: 5278337" data-attributes="member: 75712">[edit: effectively ninja'd by RC... but his is northern N.America, mine's desert s.w. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ]A random encounter table generally simply states what is encountered.  Rarely does it put conditions on that encounter.  When I go hiking in the desert, I know the "random encounter table" has things like rattle snake, coyote, buzzard, hawk, horny toad, cactus, javelina, etc on it.  I also know that most of them are not immediately hostile encounters; the javelina might charge on sight, but the coyotes and buzzards will probably be wary, and the hawk will almost certainly ignore me.  The one "SoD" on the list-- the rattler-- will usually rattle first, at which point I make a Knowledge check, maybe a spot check to see where it's hiding, and back off-- all without ever even dealing with the SoD effect save vs poison. So when I roll basilisk in a dungeon, why can't the circumstances start similarly, with a warning, or indifference, or fleeing, or etc?  The thing certainly has some chance of being uninterested (feeding, hunting or mating) or wary (the party outnumbers it 5:1), as it has of being hostile (guarding its young or stalking the scrawny party wizard).  Maybe it's simply smart enough to just hang back in the shadows, so as not to incur the wrath of the 3 or 4 out of 5 PCs it knows it probably won't TTS on the first round. There's nothing wrong with contextualizing an encounter (planned or random; SoD, SSSoD, or otherwise) in a way other than "charge into combat, roll saves!" or "it jumps up and goes RAWR, roll saves!".  Suppose the medusa doesn't want to fight because she's just looking for something.  Suppose the poisonous snake just scurries off without striking, like any other animal would.  Suppose the bodak is distracted because he's looking at girlie mags.Imxp, that's not "bubble-wrapping" the encounter, it's just making it interesting.</blockquote>

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