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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 6146073" data-attributes="member: 1165">DM should warn players, but it doesn't always take. Some DMs will got to incredible lengths to warn players, and sometimes it still does not take.Here, I'll give an example from my own Dark Sun campaign. The PCs were 7th-level, and they were facing an 11th-level boss (plus allies). Not fighting him directly yet, but they knew who he was, and he knew who they were, and that he was coming for them, since they carrying "psychic Jesus", as one player described an allied NPC. The villain was a high templar, not the StarCraft variety <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Templars are basically evil cleric/warlock-types serving the sorcerer-king of a city, so this was the templar's turf.The PCs didn't immediately head out of town (like they were "supposed" to do) because the bad guy had captured a bunch of their friends and they wanted to get them back. Even putting aside this guy's power, they would probably fail. A real-life jailbreak is hard to do, and while the PCs had extraordinary abilities, so did their opponents, so it "evens out".The PCs were too motivated to do the smart thing, so I had to find a way to curb their enthusiasm. Overnight, the bad guy, who was frantically trying to catch them, spent a big chunk of his office's finances spreading Alarm rituals near the docks (since he figured the PCs would try to steal silt skimmers from there), and each Alarm would specifically should out the name of the sector it was in (using names like "Red Beans" because the NPCs were generally illiterate). He also took the giant-killer teams (consisting of dwarf slayers and some other elite troops, about the PCs' level, although he couldn't have known that) off their usual giant-killing duties and spread them in the dock area.The PCs tried to sneak to the docks, only for the Alarms to go off. The Alarms were set to the templar's level (so they used his stats; they were nearly impossible to see and nearly impossible to sneak past because they were +4 levels on the PCs) but the PCs didn't even seem to notice that. However, they did notice that sneaking was basically impossible. The first team of giant-killers fell on the PCs, and the PCs won, but only barely. Only then did they realize they were in over their heads. They figured they'd prompt multiple teams to fall on them and possibly kill them before they even met the boss! The PCs left the city, and a very angry templar wasted several hours trying to find them before he realized they had left! Also, he was tired, and had to be taken after them on a relatively slow wagon. (The PCs later killed him, several days later, when they occupied a strong position and were able to free their friends. Total victory for them, just not right away.)That was... a lot of effort. It's a good thing I've basically memorized the rules behind the most interesting rituals and pre-made "traps" out of them. (The Eye of Alarm trap in my notes was only level 2, because it's a 2nd-level ritual, but I could consult the DC by level chart for the level 11 version.)Actually, it seems like the DM gave "some" warning, though insufficient.The familiar's level is normally that of the wizard, so that should have given some hint. However, the DM should have given more hints, such as making that ogre cook and frankly everything else about the castle really tough.You should have retreated after the first PC died. As many people have stated, round 1 was enough warning at that point. (Or not. It's hard for NPCs to escape, but after the first round, the PCs might have been cooked had the wizard pursued.)</blockquote>

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