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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7013695" data-attributes="member: 6787650">It can even come from a simple change in tactics with no stat tweaks at all. That platoon of twenty goblins is dead meat against a 7th level party if they all just clump up and shoot arrows at the party down a dungeon corridor. They'll die to a couple of Fireballs, though they'll do some damage to the PCs in the process. If they spread out and catch the PCs in a courtyard while the goblins fire from the walls surrounding the courtyard, they'll last much longer (it may not be efficient to Fireball them at all).And if the goblins ambush the PCs, fire a couple of volleys (losing say 6 out of 22 goblins in the process), and then drop down behind the walls and Hide, they remain a force in being to threaten the PCs. The PCs can attempt to pursue the retreating goblins over the walls and possibly into an ambush, or they can play it safe and stick together. Now the PCs know there's a bunch of goblins in the area, and everything they do for the next hour or so is going to be more tense unless and until they've dealt with the goblins with finality. Stuff like this is why I say that I sometimes have "encounters" that take hours of game time. By remaining a force-in-being, you've got a monster that's interacting with the PCs for potentially hours at a time. Sometimes the monster even has the chance to get one or more short rests in, in between strafing the PCs. (Or sometimes the PCs just run away and I'm left with a bunch of tactics I wanted to use but didn't get the chance to. Le sigh.)</blockquote>

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