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<blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5063582" data-attributes="member: 54846">Things went very amiss recently. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> This weekend I ran a game. I had intended for the players to battle three powerful members of Tiamat's church, and then a dragon. I had balanced the encounter for six players - and then one dropped out, and I ended up running the character of a player who didn't show (and then dropped out later).Mid-way through the battle, it became obvious that the PCs were outmatched. I either made the enemies too tough, or they were rolling terrible (their paladin could hit NOTHING, for instance). The PCs could have won, if they threw everything they had at the enemies - leaving them utterly empty for the dragon. So I had the dragon storm out, furious at both sides and finally decide to just negotiate with the PCs. It's a complicated situation, but basically it was a loose and uncomfortable alliance the Dragon had with the Tiamat followers, and she had aided them in something she felt sorrow over. And for story purposes, the paladin refused a battle to first blood with the dragon, because of a quest he was on. To accommodate the story, the dragon eased up on that.Iin the end, the too-tough encounter turned into an almost comical situationw here the dragon gave the PCs what they wanted and left.The point of this thread is not to dwell on the &quot;Heh, I screwed up&quot; or &quot;Man I am a bad DM&quot; but, more, I just was very amused how bad the situation ended up, from behind the DM screen, and how I had to scramble to salvage it, and the end result. So I want to hear about you guys: how have things went south for you? Where the ball seriously was dropped, and how you managed to get it back (or not!).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rechan, post: 5063582, member: 54846"] Things went very amiss recently. :) This weekend I ran a game. I had intended for the players to battle three powerful members of Tiamat's church, and then a dragon. I had balanced the encounter for six players - and then one dropped out, and I ended up running the character of a player who didn't show (and then dropped out later). Mid-way through the battle, it became obvious that the PCs were outmatched. I either made the enemies too tough, or they were rolling terrible (their paladin could hit NOTHING, for instance). The PCs could have won, if they threw everything they had at the enemies - leaving them utterly empty for the dragon. So I had the dragon storm out, furious at both sides and finally decide to just negotiate with the PCs. It's a complicated situation, but basically it was a loose and uncomfortable alliance the Dragon had with the Tiamat followers, and she had aided them in something she felt sorrow over. And for story purposes, the paladin refused a battle to first blood with the dragon, because of a quest he was on. To accommodate the story, the dragon eased up on that. Iin the end, the too-tough encounter turned into an almost comical situationw here the dragon gave the PCs what they wanted and left. [B]The point of this thread[/B] is not to dwell on the "Heh, I screwed up" or "Man I am a bad DM" but, more, I just was very amused how bad the situation ended up, from behind the DM screen, and how I had to scramble to salvage it, and the end result. So I want to hear about you guys: how have things went south for you? Where the ball seriously was dropped, and how you managed to get it back (or not!). [/QUOTE]

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