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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6656662" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Alternately, there is an implicit suggestion that challenges in high-level locations will involve things other than Cave Slime. That's how I would read it anyway: in a hypothetical 5E system where you get +1 prof bonus/level instead of +1/4, knowing that Cave Slime is DC 10 implies &quot;high-level adventurers don't have to worry about cave slime (unless they're untrained in Acrobatics).&quot; Instead of worrying about slipping on cave slime you worry about a qualitatively different threat, like whether the dragon whose cave you're slipping into has emplaced Symbols of Insanity in the chokepoints. Or rigged an Explosive Runes to blow up the dam and drown you.To me, qualitative threat progression (tactical ==&gt; operational ==&gt; strategic) is way more interesting than just scaling up the quantitative DC (&quot;it's really, really slippery slime&quot;) of a familiar threat. E.g. Aboleths aren't just upgraded orcs, they're qualitatively different and operate on a completely different, more strategic scale which could involve creating three minions a day every day for a thousand years and sending those minions out to capture more potential minions for you to dominate. If you think a Necromancer with 100 skeletons is bad news, consider that a master Vampire can vampirize an entire army of thousands of hobgoblins. Rakshasas infiltrate your organization and subvert it from within with telepathy and illusions (a la X-Men's Mystique) to defeat it in a way completely different from an orc chieftain or a hobgoblin warlord. Fixed DCs encourage graduation to new types of threats instead of just variations on the same old threat: Ultra Slippery Acidic Cave Slime.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6656662, member: 6787650"] Alternately, there is an implicit suggestion that challenges in high-level locations will involve things other than Cave Slime. That's how I would read it anyway: in a hypothetical 5E system where you get +1 prof bonus/level instead of +1/4, knowing that Cave Slime is DC 10 implies "high-level adventurers don't have to worry about cave slime (unless they're untrained in Acrobatics)." Instead of worrying about slipping on cave slime you worry about a qualitatively different threat, like whether the dragon whose cave you're slipping into has emplaced Symbols of Insanity in the chokepoints. Or rigged an Explosive Runes to blow up the dam and drown you. To me, qualitative threat progression (tactical ==> operational ==> strategic) is way more interesting than just scaling up the quantitative DC ("it's really, really slippery slime") of a familiar threat. E.g. Aboleths aren't just upgraded orcs, they're qualitatively different and operate on a completely different, more strategic scale which could involve creating three minions a day every day for a thousand years and sending those minions out to capture more potential minions for you to dominate. If you think a Necromancer with 100 skeletons is bad news, consider that a master Vampire can vampirize an entire army of thousands of hobgoblins. Rakshasas infiltrate your organization and subvert it from within with telepathy and illusions (a la X-Men's Mystique) to defeat it in a way completely different from an orc chieftain or a hobgoblin warlord. Fixed DCs encourage graduation to new types of threats instead of just variations on the same old threat: Ultra Slippery Acidic Cave Slime. [/QUOTE]

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