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Unearthed Arcana: Get Better At Skills With These Feats
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<blockquote data-quote="bganon" data-source="post: 7713849" data-attributes="member: 60886"><p>CR 20 melee bruisers are few and far between for a reason (and many of them are immune to fear). But I'm not saying don't set up the encounter! I'm just saying if you don't want unexpected outcomes, then don't allow for unexpected outcomes.</p><p></p><p>If you don't want the heroes to be able to face down the foe, then don't let them face down the foe. You're the DM. It's OK.</p><p></p><p>The Star Wars example is rather instructive, really. Luke and co don't directly even face Vader in ANH - the NPC (Obi-Wan) holds him off pretty capably before sacrificing himself, Leia's disarmed before she's ever in his presence, and in the finale Han is quite successful keeping his TIE fighter from interfering with Luke. In ESB Vader ambushes Han and Leia (I believe only Han is armed) and fights Luke (chops off his hand) basically by splitting the party. And in ROTJ I think the only direct confrontation is the final one where Luke ultimately prevails.</p><p></p><p>So the DM didn't just toss the big bad against the inexperienced party and expect him to win. The first intro encounter was entirely out of PC control and used a DMPC to make him scary, and the next few encounters were ambushes and traps against a split party!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="bganon, post: 7713849, member: 60886"] CR 20 melee bruisers are few and far between for a reason (and many of them are immune to fear). But I'm not saying don't set up the encounter! I'm just saying if you don't want unexpected outcomes, then don't allow for unexpected outcomes. If you don't want the heroes to be able to face down the foe, then don't let them face down the foe. You're the DM. It's OK. The Star Wars example is rather instructive, really. Luke and co don't directly even face Vader in ANH - the NPC (Obi-Wan) holds him off pretty capably before sacrificing himself, Leia's disarmed before she's ever in his presence, and in the finale Han is quite successful keeping his TIE fighter from interfering with Luke. In ESB Vader ambushes Han and Leia (I believe only Han is armed) and fights Luke (chops off his hand) basically by splitting the party. And in ROTJ I think the only direct confrontation is the final one where Luke ultimately prevails. So the DM didn't just toss the big bad against the inexperienced party and expect him to win. The first intro encounter was entirely out of PC control and used a DMPC to make him scary, and the next few encounters were ambushes and traps against a split party! [/QUOTE]
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