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<blockquote data-quote="firesnakearies" data-source="post: 4600465" data-attributes="member: 71334">I pretty much agree with the &quot;hard fight or no fight&quot; DMing philosophy.&nbsp; I don't necessarily think every fight has to see one or more PCs on the ground making death saves, but every fight should give the feeling that such a result was certainly very likely.&nbsp; If the players make it through a battle without anyone dropping, they should be proud of themselves, and know that only their use of good tactics, teamwork, and some luck prevented that from happening.Mostly, I just want to see at least one moment in each combat encounter when the PCs are thinking, &quot;Oh man, we're so not going to win this fight.&quot;&nbsp; Maybe that moment will be at the very beginning, as the forces arrayed against them appear very tough. &quot;You round the corner to see six mindflayers and a dracolich.&nbsp; They look displeased.&nbsp; Roll initiative!&quot;&nbsp; The players freak out, &quot;There's no way we can take this encounter!&quot; But then, after a hard-fought struggle, they manage to succeed, and feel all of the glory that is their due.Or maybe it will be several rounds into an encounter that looked easy in the beginning . . . &quot;Whatever, it's just a few hobgoblins guarding a chokepoint.&nbsp; It might take us several rounds to clear them out, but it's not like we're in any serious danger&quot; . . . until the unseen lurker finally got into position to jump out and drop the wizard in one round, just as the enemy controller was at last able to use his AoE encounter power to blind most of the party.&nbsp; Suddenly the tables have dramatically turned, and the players are looking at each other with this grim nervousness, &quot;Wow, we're actually going to die here...&quot;&nbsp; Once again, their victory means something.I love those kinds of scenes, and to me, there's little point in having long, drawn-out combat encounters with tons of dice rolls and math and bookkeeping, unless that sort of dramatic tension is evoked in the process.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="firesnakearies, post: 4600465, member: 71334"] I pretty much agree with the "hard fight or no fight" DMing philosophy. I don't necessarily think every fight has to see one or more PCs on the ground making death saves, but every fight should give the feeling that such a result was certainly very likely. If the players make it through a battle without anyone dropping, they should be proud of themselves, and know that only their use of good tactics, teamwork, and some luck prevented that from happening. Mostly, I just want to see at least one moment in each combat encounter when the PCs are thinking, [I]"Oh man, we're so not going to win this fight."[/I] Maybe that moment will be at the very beginning, as the forces arrayed against them appear very tough. [I] "You round the corner to see six mindflayers and a dracolich. They look displeased. Roll initiative!"[/I] The players freak out, [I]"There's [B]no way[/B] we can take this encounter!" [/I] But then, after a hard-fought struggle, they manage to succeed, and feel all of the glory that is their due. Or maybe it will be several rounds into an encounter that looked easy in the beginning . . .[I] "Whatever, it's just a few hobgoblins guarding a chokepoint. It might take us several rounds to clear them out, but it's not like we're in any serious danger"[/I] . . . until the unseen lurker finally got into position to jump out and drop the wizard in one round, just as the enemy controller was at last able to use his AoE encounter power to blind most of the party. Suddenly the tables have dramatically turned, and the players are looking at each other with this grim nervousness, [I]"Wow, we're actually going to die here..."[/I] Once again, their victory means something. I love those kinds of scenes, and to me, there's little point in having long, drawn-out combat encounters with tons of dice rolls and math and bookkeeping, [B]unless[/B] that sort of dramatic tension is evoked in the process. [/QUOTE]

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