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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7622316" data-attributes="member: 4937">Your example assumes that the players know OOG that rot grubs exist and have some idea what to do about them because they've read the entry, and that the party is of sufficient level that some solution is available and non-lethal.&nbsp;&nbsp; In too many cases, they are just whoops, &quot;Die.&nbsp; No save.&quot;, and in the rest of the cases they get rather old fast.&nbsp; At least they usually have a period of time where the party can respond to them before they become lethal.&nbsp; Things like the Bodak, which are randomly lethal and a pushover if they aren't, aren't ever fun.I tend to get really annoyed by monsters that just come down to, &quot;Do you roll well?&quot;&nbsp; This can include in 1e things like the Death Knight, where if you win initiative as a party it will probably not survive the round, but if it goes first then Power Word: Kill or 20HD Fireball, and someone in the party is probably dying (without a save, or even if they save), turning the initiative into a save or die roll.Say what you will about the danger of 1e AD&amp;D, I have had far more glorious combats using 3e D&amp;D than I ever had in 1e AD&amp;D, which for all the fun we were having on the whole tended toward the grindy, the random, or the anticlimactic.&nbsp; Possibly things would have been better with more OD&amp;D power level of PCs, but at the time I lacked the knowledge to adjust things.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7622316, member: 4937"] Your example assumes that the players know OOG that rot grubs exist and have some idea what to do about them because they've read the entry, and that the party is of sufficient level that some solution is available and non-lethal. In too many cases, they are just whoops, "Die. No save.", and in the rest of the cases they get rather old fast. At least they usually have a period of time where the party can respond to them before they become lethal. Things like the Bodak, which are randomly lethal and a pushover if they aren't, aren't ever fun. I tend to get really annoyed by monsters that just come down to, "Do you roll well?" This can include in 1e things like the Death Knight, where if you win initiative as a party it will probably not survive the round, but if it goes first then Power Word: Kill or 20HD Fireball, and someone in the party is probably dying (without a save, or even if they save), turning the initiative into a save or die roll. Say what you will about the danger of 1e AD&D, I have had far more glorious combats using 3e D&D than I ever had in 1e AD&D, which for all the fun we were having on the whole tended toward the grindy, the random, or the anticlimactic. Possibly things would have been better with more OD&D power level of PCs, but at the time I lacked the knowledge to adjust things. [/QUOTE]

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