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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5045942" data-attributes="member: 80487">I think you have implied that the answer is that the DM must unfairly have imposed upon the players. Are you not appealing to the specter of such hypothetical encounters as evidence for the necessity of ad hoc "encounter balancing" by the DM?Others assume that the DM ought to set up a game such that players can make strategic choices -- and take the consequences. That's the kind of D&D game I like to play, and there have always been plenty of fellows with whom to do so.Except that it would not be a case of impossibility! What the players should know, if it is the case, is that an open fight (as opposed perhaps to a carefully prepared ambush) is likely to go against them. If they don't know that -- which it is part of play to learn -- then they should know that they don't know. If they choose to gamble that the best defense is a good case of willful ignorance, then they are due whatever the dice decree. That could be a surprise victory for them. That is not in fact the logical dichotomy; that some ways are instant death does not mean that there are not a variety of viable approaches! In any case, advantage is -- in the nature of a game -- most customarily something for players to pursue, not to take for granted. The foundation that makes strategy possible is the fact that some ways are more advantageous than others.Perhaps it is not clear to you that a basic assumption of the game is that the players choose their paths through the environment as much as you and I choose our courses through the real world.That kind of game may not be to one's taste, but it is most certainly an actual game form admitting of actual balances.Although my acquaintance with the game is fleeting, IIRC that is not precisely true -- as it would be in the case of, e.g., Snakes (or Chutes) and Ladders. Also, one might observe that chance plays a profound role especially in survival of a character to 2nd level. However, the point is well taken that AD&D was designed to put a premium on managing that chance factor by avoiding it as much as possible. That's a radically different aim than the dependence upon prescribed default probabilities that figures so prominently in, for instance, 4e.</blockquote>

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