Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 5393836">Even when I've played games where we fight an assortment of intelligent beings, they rarely demonstrate tactics or smarts of any sort.  It's really on the DM here I suppose, and how much work they want to put in to the dozen bandits they just cooked up. Personally, I think that's the point.  Epic tier is "normalcy" taken to 11+.  Instead of pirates and kidnapping, you have flying alien warships dropping genocidal plagues upon entire cities.  Intead of a nutty mage who summoned up some elementals, you have a dozen nutty mages worshipping a titanic elemental who wants to merge with the world to become the most powerful elemental ever. IMO, there's nothing wrong with "the basics" taken to 11. Of course, which is why, as above, I detailed the fact that the truly epic foes aren't going to present themselves right away.  And they aren't going to charge into battle because they've learned that lackies exist for a reason.  Certainly some incredibly strategic thinking on the part of the players could be utilized to stop even the most foolproof escape.   IMO, if the players are REALLY that cunning, the villains may kick it up a notch on their next attack.  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, for the smarter the PCs become, the cleverer the villains become.  For the more traps they avoid, the harder the traps become to detect. Villains are not, in my book, static bosses who wait in their alcove till the players arrive.(I'm looking at you MMOs!), they are cunning, crafty, constantly thinking foes who are constantly improving themselves and their plans.   All the best villains in (fictional)history are the best not because they are powerful, that's expected.  They're not great because they wait around to get beat up.  They're great because they're smart, and it's only when you outsmart them that you win.  Even Superman's might cannot always overwhelm Luthor's smarts, and he often seeks help from other heroes/heroines when this is the case.  And the best heroes are the best for the same reason, because they are cunning and wise up to this stuff. Yes, in a nutshell, Epic tier is "the basics" taken to 11.  But Luthor and Galactus are still worlds apart from lesser villains.</blockquote>

Verification