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<blockquote data-quote="lichmaster" data-source="post: 9304285" data-attributes="member: 6683330">These two sentences summarize the kind of games I prefer to run.Instead of &quot;punishing&quot; players because they built strong characters and trying to constantly come up with ways to directly counteract them, I'd rather they seeked challenge by themselves.Shooting land animals while flying isn't that fun. Or maybe the feeling of being &quot;untouchable&quot; can be fun for one encounter, but players will quickly come to ignore those encounters, and this is GOOD.There's nothing interesting in a fight against defenseless animals for instance. But, if those animals were attacking a caravan, being able to protect it from above would be useful and cool, and the PCs would definitely look like super-heroes to the rescued party. Plus, animals will flee when outmatched. So the (standard) combat encounter almost becomes more of a social encounter.If instead of animals the caravan were attacked by purely melee monsters or humanoids (why don't they have ranged weapons?), they'll also quickly realize they're outmatched. Most of them will run away looking for revenge, or will try to take hostages instead. In any case, the dreaded one-sided encounter becomes a social encounter with much more at stakes: how do they handle with the hostages? Do they let the monsters run or do they murder them while pretty much defenseless?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="lichmaster, post: 9304285, member: 6683330"] These two sentences summarize the kind of games I prefer to run. Instead of "punishing" players because they built strong characters and trying to constantly come up with ways to directly counteract them, I'd rather they seeked challenge by themselves. Shooting land animals while flying isn't that fun. Or maybe the feeling of being "untouchable" can be fun for one encounter, but players will quickly come to ignore those encounters, and this is GOOD. There's nothing interesting in a fight against defenseless animals for instance. But, if those animals were attacking a caravan, being able to protect it from above would be useful and cool, and the PCs would definitely look like super-heroes to the rescued party. Plus, animals will flee when outmatched. So the (standard) combat encounter almost becomes more of a social encounter. If instead of animals the caravan were attacked by purely melee monsters or humanoids (why don't they have ranged weapons?), they'll also quickly realize they're outmatched. Most of them will run away looking for revenge, or will try to take hostages instead. In any case, the dreaded one-sided encounter becomes a social encounter with much more at stakes: how do they handle with the hostages? Do they let the monsters run or do they murder them while pretty much defenseless? [/QUOTE]

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