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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5561704" data-attributes="member: 4937">This presumes that a DM is supposed to tailor his challenges to the skills and abilities of the PC party.  I don't concur.I do concur that monsters that are intelligent should be played intelligently.  I'm will to stack my ability to play a monster intelligently against pretty much anyones.  Nonetheless, I don't design encounters according to what I think is necessary to challenge the PC's.  I design encounters according to what I think is the game reality.  Locks don't increase their difficulty when a PC takes skill focus.  Monsters across the world don't take additional archery skills just because the PC's are good at negating melee attacks.  Monsters won't have Energy Resistance (Electricity) up just because the spellcaster is an air elementalist.  The monsters will act and plan according to what they know, but I don't metagame versus the players.Yes, but I found that under the stock rules, to a missile specialized party, the terrain was largely irrelevant except in extreme cases like a burrowing creature tunneling into a small room such that every place you could stand was in the monsters reach.  The 5' step rule and things like multishot made it simply too easy for an archer build to remain in melee range and still out damage a melee attacker.  Melee attackers could do some slightly convoluted things like attempt to sunder the bows or take ready actions, but doing so required oppurtunity and planning to do so reduced their options and tended to have costs in the all important action economy.  Melee attackers are much more terrain dependent:a) Attacker is beyond an obstacle like a moat: Missile just shoots over it.  Melee needs a tactical plan.b) Attacker is at range: Missile just exchanges shots.  Melee needs a tactical plan.c) There is difficult, perhaps slippery, and maybe dangerous terrain between the attacker and the party: Missile just shoots over it.  Melee needs a tactical plan.d) Attacker is flying: Missile just does its normal thing.  Melee may be screwed.e) Attacker is in a defensive position: Missile just fires into it.  Melee may be screwed.In short, my experience with the game is that if you make missile comparable to melee in outcome, all you've really done is obseleted melee.</blockquote>

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