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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bullgrit" data-source="post: 5593562" data-attributes="member: 31216">There is a place protected by a great, terrible, and awesome guardian. The existence of this creature is well known in legends and tales around campfires, but even sages are not completely sure exactly what it is. Divination magic fails to reveal useful information.Many adventurers before you have tried to defeat it and get past it, but no one has ever returned in victory. Very few have even returned at all, and they relate no reliable information about the creature or their battle. It has been undefeated for all the centuries it has been known of.Your party of adventurers is considering taking on this challenge. You know the location, and you have a means of getting there.But should you? Can you take on a centuries-undefeated monster? Should you gain a few levels before going to it? How many should you gain?Metagame questions:[The monster in question *is* a real creature -- it is not a trick or metaphor or riddle, or anything like that. It is an actual being with game combat stats.]What level is such a creature? Can PCs level up to be able to defeat it? If you were playing a PC in this game, at what level would you consider taking on the battle?* * *What got me thinking about this was the trope: "No one has ever returned alive!" I've seen this rumor mentioned in an adventure for 1st-level characters. And there are similar concepts/adventures that begin with the PC party having to overcome some challenge no one before them has been able to overcome. Was the party just more powerful (higher level) than those who tried before?This thinking lead me to considering whether there could be, should be, can be a challenge that is actually, in the game world, truly undefeatable. I mean, there are examples of PCs defeating gods throughout D&D's history. Is it possible for something to be beyond the PCs no matter how powerful they get? Is it a good idea to include such a thing in a campaign world? Should there be some challenge that exists beyond PC ability to match it?And how many PCs would perish attempting to beat it? How early, (level), would most PCs start considering tackling it? If PCs first heard of this thing when they were level 10, would they soon go after it? Is there the expectation, (trope), that the PCs will only hear of things they can overcome? Would it be a reversal of the trope, maybe even "unfair," to throw the PCs a plot hook that they can't and shouldn't bite on?Bullgrit</blockquote>

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