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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7036093" data-attributes="member: 42582">Well, I don't really know what is going on with the reference to LFR - are they examples of poor DC-setting, or of good DC-setting, or perhaps of good DC-setting that can look like poor DC-setting if you don't pay attention to some broader context?But I've always treated the 4e DC-by-level chart as playing the same sort of role as the difficulty progression chat in HeroQuest revised (which came out in mid-2009). The mechanics work most smoothly - in terms of difficulty, and resultant pacing and pressure on the players - if the GM uses the DC-by-level chart; and it is the GM's job to make sure that the narration fits the difficulty, and (as part of that) to ensure coherence in narration.A key thing (I think) in using "subjective" DCs is to abandon the question "But what is the real DC?" That's a question that makes sense for Rolemaster, or Classic Traveller, or Burning Wheel; but not for HQ revised, and in my view not for 4e either.One consequence of this is that at your table the iron-shod doors might be DC 17; and at mine DC 20. At your table frost giants might be AC 30 (brutes of around 17th level) and at my table AC 37 (brutes of mid epic level). Yet, in the fiction, there is no concrete element (eg tougher armour, bigger shields) that explains that difference.Each table generates its own fiction, and its own particular thematic vibe, and there is no guarantee or expectation of replication from table to table, or even at the same table when the game is replayed. Nor can one point to DCs to generate counterfactuals - because the DCs aren't the cause of the background fictional context, but a consequence of it - and their function is simply to generate actual results in actual play, not to provide a basis for counterfactual projection as if they were the "physical laws" of the gameworld.(WotC recognised, and exploited, this feature of the system in publishing the Neverwinter Campaign book, which is mechanically heroic tier but thematically extends through what is, in the defaulot game, paragon stuff. This has caused no end of confusion in discussions of 4e with posters who don't seem to grasp the way that subjective DCs work.)</blockquote>

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