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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4621435" data-attributes="member: 4937">Shark, we usually agree on many things, but here I must disagree.But this is irrelevant.  Even if the PC's are unlikely to ever know, the DM still needs some notion about the source of any resources.  The reason is very simple.  Abstract resources tend to be unlimited and invincible.  Fighting something that has abstract resources is like fighting a ghost that can materialize and become ethereal at will.  Concretely imagined supplies tend to be limited, interdictable, capturable and even subvertable.  'Tucker's Kobolds' tend to not only never suffer in logistical problems - never suffer from the friction of war - but by virtue of having an abstract supply line are also immune to indirect assaults.I'm fairly sure that I indicated that it was not the tactics or the resources that annoyed me.  Any of the tactics or any of the resources are in isolation fine.  What annoys me about 'Tucker's Kobold's' is the unlimited nature of these resources.  In Tucker's Kobold's type encounters, all of these tactics and resources are applied together and there is a tendency for the Kobold's to be perpared to defeat any tactic.Given the number of kills a player character can expect to rack up, if a group of humanoids is encountering hostile adventuring groups on a regular basis the logical assumption is that the humanoids are all long since dead. Sure, they'll do their best to prepare for adventurers.  I'm fully willing to believe that monsterous humanoid's ability to plan goes far beyond even what you suggest here.  For example, I assume that the various tribes are engaged in manufacturing, and that they regularly trade surplus goods to neighboring tribes for mutual economic advantage.  I further assume that the humanoid tribe tends to be part of a vast rumor network, where invovative ideas are spread by wandering humanoid bards, shamans, itenerent craftsman, mercenaries, and merchants.  So I wouldn't even have to assume that a particular tribe had seen a fireball before they'd be able to take some steps to defend against one.But that's not the problem I have.  The problem I have is PC resources are not infinite.  Even if the PC's were asked to harden an area against attack, there would be some precautions that they'd simply find too expensive, too laborous, and too troublesome to undertake - and I say that with full respect for player ingenuity and devotion to detail.I mean, let's look at the specifics for a second.  In the original 'Tucker's Kobolds' articles it refers to kobold archers, moving, then firing, then finishing their move.  In 1st ed., that's a non-standard rule that allows the kobolds to snipe at the players without recieving return fire.  Now, why haven't the PC's archers been allowed to pull this trick since the beginning of the campaign?  Surely the high level PC's are more capable archers than the kobolds, and capable of employing whatever tricks relatively unskilled kobolds can?  And if they have been able to since the beginning, why weren't they informed that they could?  And if they can, why aren't they able to pull the same trick on the kobolds and hense neutralizing the tactic or turning the tables on the kobolds?Why not spread the resources around?  Instead of having a bunch of dumb demihumans waiting to be killed, and a few tribes of smart humanoids with virtually unlimited resources, why not assume all humanoids are reasonably clever and resourceful?  Why not make the reutine reasonably clever, reasonably bright, and reasonably resourceful and save the 'full imagination and cunning of the DM' for monsters that are supposed to be wealthy super-geniouses?In point of fact, if I'm encountering 'Tucker's Kobolds' in 1e with something like a 12th level mage on hand, I'm going to deal with it something like this:"I cast Invisible Stalker.""Invisible Stalker, I command you to kill all the Kobold's on the first level of the dungeon."I wouldn't expect a tribe of kobolds to last more than a day against a highly intelligent vaporous flying permenently invisible assassin that is utterly lethal to a kobold with every attack.   But of course, with true Tucker Kobolds serving the role of DM's pets, this attack would be undoubtably be dodged immediately.  The Kobold's would immediately recognize the presence of the invisible stalker, and they'd automatically know the exact instructions the stalker was given, and they'd immediately be able to organize a flight of the entire tribe to some special bolt hole technically on another level of the dungeon, at which point the Invisible Stalker would immediately consider its instructions fulfilled and the kobold's would then immediately resume all their battle stations with a speed comparable to them all possessing unlimited teleportation.  It's that sort of thing that annoys me.</blockquote>

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