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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6146262" data-attributes="member: 22424">Aye. If I recall correctly, "Forge of Fury" is also pretty much the last published adventure to include such an 'overwhelming' encounter. After it was published and used, and the "Roper encounter" had become infamous, there was a huge backlash from players at such an 'unfair' encounter being in print. And WotC, learning their lesson from this, never did it again.Shame it was the wrong lesson they learned, but oh well...I do the same at the start of a campaign, and will also insert in-game warnings where they are appropriate in the setting. (If everyone knows the Lord of Blades is a badass, and the PCs decide to go after him, then of course they should hear the warning!)I also have a policy that if the PCs decide to retreat, most opponents won't go all-out to stop them. As Doug McCrea notes in his post, it's a problem in 3e that most parties have at least one member with a move of 20 and most monsters are considerably faster. So, if they choose to run then I'll generally let them get away.But...What I don't agree with is the notion that the DM must always telegraph that the upcoming encounter is particularly tough. Sometimes, it's just not appropriate - indeed, some monsters and most traps base their lethality precisely on their ability to hide their danger. I'm not out to screw over my players (in fact, a TPK probably hurts me more than it does any one of them, since all my prep work has just gone up in smoke), but their PCs are generally operating against dangerous foes and on deadly ground - they need to have their wits about them, and if they don't... well, that's on them.</blockquote>

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