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Message: <blockquote data-quote="roguerouge" data-source="post: 4114312" data-attributes="member: 13855">For the record, I don't play the game to beat PCs and I've never DM'ed a TPK. Please read my sig.The OP said he wanted ways to challenge his players in combat. That's what I'm providing advice to help him to do. Let's see: Putting them on a time line is simply an unusual challenge. Intelligent villains who know about the strengths and weaknesses of famous heroes is simply good storytelling with 3-D NPCs. Enchantments, silent summons, and battlefield control spells respond to his request for "core-only" tactics, and those are pretty vanilla tactics to boot. They're 10th level and he'd just be using this tactic now, so we concur, obviously. It's not below the belt to make use of character backgrounds after the months and years it takes to get characters to 10th level. I wrote: "If the character hasn't faced it before or seen that spell before, they don't know a thing about it." So we largely agree again.And if they haven't directly faced it, it's perfectly legitimate to have them use the skill that's supposed to provide exactly this kind of information, along with bardic knowledge. If you need a justification, it's the difference between having heard of the spell and being able to remember the information in 3 seconds while ducking energy missiles.So, clearly, your problem is with either the audit or the masochistic dragons. The masochistic dragons was a joke to make a point about the combat-readiness of a prepared vs. an unprepared party. I hope to the Old Ones that you're not upset about THAT!The audit concept is simply knowing exactly what the PCs can and can't do and forcing the players to think creatively to cover their weak points. Opponents who strike weak points is basic good tactics, basic good storytelling, and basic to providing a challenge to players who are asking the DM to fast-forward combats.</blockquote>

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