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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FitzTheRuke" data-source="post: 9819734" data-attributes="member: 59816">I'm different than many here in that I don't (usually) simply decide what is in the world (easy or hard encounter-wise) and let the balance figure itself out, but instead I try to make for an interesting encounter - with new tactical decisions, different enemies, and an interesting location. As different as possible than the last encounter. So, yeah - sometimes it means that this one will be hard (in particular if the last one was easy) or vice-versa. Or if the difficulty remains (approximately) the same, then at least the situation is very different. I also try to use narrative stakes as much as possible, so that even something that is mechanically trivial feels like a life-or-death struggle, or something that is, balance-wise, a close call, feels like a glorious victory. I often (but importantly not always) strive for the only "balance" being that my favorite encounter-result is this: Just when the players start to think that they might actually lose this fight, they then soon win.It's why I've never understood those that think that combat is "boring" or that it's somehow different from "role-play" or that it should be considered a "lose condition". I generally run combats that are exciting, and I think my players tend to agree.(They can sometimes grind a bit when I run them here by PBP, but I think that's because they can take a whole month to run, and I haven't found a good way to adjust for that or to keep them moving more quickly, but that's another story).</blockquote>

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