D&D 5E When you've made the battle too much to handle...

[overgeeked]

What does their agency have to do with the OP's concern that they may have accidentally created an unbalanced encounter and asking for possible options besides just mowing down the party unceremoniously?

Because "the players not being too stubborn to run away" is a viable option.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm sorry you've been so hurt before that you see this as the one and only truth.

I don't play RPGs to be spoon-fed a pre-written story...I have actual fiction, written by actual writers for that. RPGs aren't fiction. They're not prose or movies. They're their own thing. Let them be their own thing. Sorry you've been so hurt by honest die rolls before.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Exactly my point. When the player's back story is so ludicrous, for that player such an encounter might seem a good idea to handle straight on. None of my group even thought of going go to toes with a Blue dragon that was obviously not a hatchling. None died at the hands claws of that dragon. Only people with extravaganza back story habits would try it. When you know that encounters are not necessarily balanced, you act as if you could actually die. If something is to be learned from that, it that when failure is a possibility, people actually start thinking about consequences in both their choices and actions. In my book, that is a great story mover/motivation.

Or... you know... it could also have been a bunch of people playing D&D for the very first time who had no idea just how powerful an "adult blue dragon" was compared to a bunch of 1st level PCs.

So yeah... YOU would see engaging the dragon as ludicrous. Which is good for you. But what you know is not universal. And painting it as it is either only players like you OR a bunch of arrogant players who make extravagant backstories thinking that their decision to make their characters massively powerful adventurers even at 1st level would thus shield them from any consequences of their grandiose actions... is rather ridiculous.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

@toucanbuzz

I want to add that, at this level, having a pc or two die won’t end the campaign. If they can escape with the bodies, Surviving PCs can level, clerics and druids can raise dead or reincarnate, other members can sell gear to hire someone to bring them back.
If they don’t have access to the slain character’s bodies, they can hire mercenaries (players can roll up new temporary characters) and they can prepare better and go back in to rescue their fallen comrades.

 

[Helldritch]

Or... you know... it could also have been a bunch of people playing D&D for the very first time who had no idea just how powerful an "adult blue dragon" was compared to a bunch of 1st level PCs.

So yeah... YOU would see engaging the dragon as ludicrous. Which is good for you. But what you know is not universal. And painting it as it is either only players like you OR a bunch of arrogant players who make extravagant backstories thinking that their decision to make their characters massively powerful adventurers even at 1st level would thus shield them from any consequences of their grandiose actions... is rather ridiculous.

Page 9. The breath of an adult blue dragon will outright kill a 1st level character. Be sure to demonstrate the destructive nature of the dragon's breath to the players before turning the dragon onto them.

The warning was there. It is even mention to make the players witness its destructive power on NPCs. But who reads the adventures beforehand to be sure to clearly understand how to run it? Only old grognards like me it appears...

 

[DEFCON 1]

Because "the players not being too stubborn to run away" is a viable option.

No argument here. But that wasn't the OP's concern though, was it? At no point did they say in their post that they can't convince the party to cut and run. Rather they were looking for any other options people could think of. But the response of what seems to be several of you of "Nope, no other options, let them just die, they will appreciate it" doesn't exactly answer their question.

 

[beancounter]

What does their agency have to do with the OP's concern that they may have accidentally created an unbalanced encounter and asking for possible options besides just mowing down the party unceremoniously?

One of the possible options is for the party to figure out that they are in over their heads.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

If you had said that being bailed out would not be some players cup of tea, I wouldn't have responded to you. But it was only because you had made a seemingly universal declaration (which I had quoted) that I felt the impetus to reply somewhat cheekily.

That being said, I agree with you. Some people would find it to be a betrayal of the game and the ethos of playing it-- no argument there. But we do have to acknowledge that it isn't a universal response and that there will be plenty of tables wherein a DMing copping to a mess up (especially if it's the first time of it ever happening) would be seen as graciousness and concern for the enjoyment of the players.

I will be sure to preface all my posts with ‘in my experience’ so that I don’t confuse people on the boards and create unnecessary misunderstandings.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't play RPGs to be spoon-fed a pre-written story...I have actual fiction, written by actual writers for that. RPGs aren't fiction. They're not prose or movies. They're their own thing. Let them be their own thing. Sorry you've been so hurt by honest die rolls before.

Not at all. I see honest die rolls all the time, because I live in a gaming world of grey, rather than one of black and white.

"No dice fudging at all" is not the opposite of "being spoon-fed a story". Sorry. It ain't. There's a LOT of grey space between those two black and white things, even if you don't want to believe it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I will be sure to preface all my posts with ‘in my experience’ so that I don’t confuse people on the boards and create unnecessary misunderstandings.

Good idea! I'd even suggest some other options could be words like "Often" or "many" or "some". Those work too.

You use any of those kinds of things, I suspect the responses you receive stating you are not wholly correct will probably decrease. If indeed people replying to your posts disagreeing with you actually matters to you. I mean that's not a universal either-- there are people here on the boards who LOVE it when people misunderstand them, and we'll see threads that hit 30, 50, 100 pages of the same three people posting back and forth, back and forth, back and forth cause it's what they seemingly live for.

Unfortunately, I am not one of those people... so pretty soon I'm probably going to go to lunch, at which time my auto-responses to the bunch of you will probably slow down if not end. But it was fun while it lasted!