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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 3477124" data-attributes="member: 30001">I absolutely do not think you're a complete goon.  You could be a nobel-prize winning physicist for all I know.  What I DO think I know is that you don't completely understand how to manage the information in a DnD game.  This is not an issue of basic intelligence, this is an issue of experience and listening to other people's ideas, which is what I did.  And so I'm trying to pass along what I figured out as a DM and what others told me.No, there's no obvious reason to think that the chains aren't +2 chains unless you're telling them that.  At what point in the game are you giving the PCs statistical information about your campaign world and the likelihood of possession of magic items by NPCs?As the DM, I thought your job was to primarly tell them what they experience in reaction to what their characters do.  Unless your PCs have gone around and done a survey of every single NPC in the campaign, then for what reason would they conclude that the particular monster they're fighting, that looks like a Kyton isn't carrying a +5 chain?You don't seem to understand how to apply the basic relationship between fear and information in order to achieve the desired result.  It's not the rules that create fear, it's uncertainty.  And telling them every scrap of information about the foe they are facing (or even acknowledging such information), is not helping your cause.If I tell you that a tall, gaunt shadow is coming down the alley dragging some bloody chains behind it, that's got much better potential to be scarey than if I say "you see a Kyton with 44 hitpoints and non-magical chains walking towards you."  That rule did not give her in the information that she needed to conclude that her weapon was not in danger.  Had you not given the players information that their characters could not have known, they would not have known they were safe until the battle was over.If it was a fun encounter for everyone, then how could you look like an idiot?  What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to man-handle the last 1% of the game that you're not in control of in order to create suspense and fear.  99% control, which you have, is plenty enough.  I agree with your instincts that tell you that your players would resent you trying to control that last 1% anyway.  That's usually how players are.</blockquote>

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