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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pacio49" data-source="post: 2023934" data-attributes="member: 28472">Rolls vs. CombatOne thing that I've found over the years of DMing is that the players really like to roll dice as solutions to stuff. Combat is the best outlet for that kind of thing because a bad roll one round quickly leads to interesting results and the chance to redeem the bad luck of the dice the next round. If things look like the players have actively circumvented planned or plausible random combats, then instead of railroading I change things around a bit to up the stakes slightly and try to give each player a situation which relies on multiple dice rolls with story consequences. Give the rogue a chest  to unlock and make sure it's trapped, there are traps within the chest, there's jewellry that needs to be appraised, etc.  Give the fighter's mount some kind of disease or natural animal episode (balky horses, mount goes into heat, hoof infection, etc.) that needs them to resolve it.  Encounter some kind of puzzle with consequences beyond just needing to figure things out.   Tell the lore types that their initial survey of the strangely written scrolls leads them to believe that the information they need should be contained within, or information about a notable side-quest, or a possible resolution or advancement of the players' individual stories.Not all players mind the lack of combat, either, so if that's the case then there's no need to worry about how many combat encounters you have.   If they do, then a good way to insert a combat into a place where killing or maiming would be highly inappropriate is to have a guard or a non-enemy npc develop attitude and call one or more of the pc's out to a fight, mano a mano, so that the characters need to worry about combat without any of the fancy plusses or spells, and/or concentrate on dealing nonlethal damage only.Several ways around it.  First rule is to know your group and what they want.  Second rule of thumb is to tinker with game balance ONLY if there's a pattern of unbalance.  Occasionally disappointing certain players is good.  If the game bogs down this session to deal with fact finding, recovery, and plot advancement, it just means that the players will be much more likely to motivate themselves into action for the next game.   It could also be a symptom that the party has been too hasty, there has been too much combat in relationship to the story arc, and this one session is an adjustment to compensate for overmuch hack and slash.Games are organic things that defy best intentions of players and DMs alike. And nearly every movie or plot has a deadpoint where nothing overt happens as the story adjusts to its past and begins to launch into the next stage.</blockquote>

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