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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6722557" data-attributes="member: 6790260">You say "but isn't that cheating? No." but my immediate, visceral response is "YES...."If you're creating an illusion of following rules, when really you're making ferdamsher that my choices don't matter, any information my PC has collected is worthless, and that Things Will Proceed Exactly As You Have Foreseen no matter how clever/synergistic/lucky I get...I'm going to feel cheated. And if you're hiding this fact from me, I have to ask...why? If you're hiding it, that presumably means you don't want it to be known because that would be a bad thing. Why would it be bad for me, as a player, to know you're doing this? Presumably because it would upset me. If you're hiding something from players because knowing it would upset them, maybe there's something wrong with what you're doing.We had a whole thread about this very topic a few months back. Let's just say that, at the very absolute least, that thread suggests it is not an open-and-shut case as to whether "creating an illusion of following the rules" counts as cheating, and further, whether or not it's a good thing to do.I didn't comment on the rest of your post because none of the other points were as...objectionable to me...as that one was. In fact, I agree that those moments where something well-planned gets curbstomped by the PCs tend to be memorable things. Once had a campaign where the DM overtly tried to put us in a losing position (so we would go out and explore the world, rather than focusing solely on this one city)...and failed every time, because we managed to find some clever solution (occasionally by exploiting the "negative" consequences of prior events!), got lucky, or simply outmaneuvered him. It was only by pulling our heartstrings, rather than posing another major threat, that he got us to move (and quite effectively, I might add).But for people who look to things like CR, XP budget, etc. as meaningful guidelines...for people who lack the time, patience, and mechanical experience to constantly craft their own opponents...a lot of your other solutions aren't especially helpful. And constantly changing the mechanics as a fight goes? Well...there are some DMs who consider that an unacceptable form of behavior on their part, even a violation of trust between player and DM.</blockquote>

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