D&D 5E Would you change a monster's hit points mid-fight?

[SirAntoine]

No matter how small, fudging can disrupt immersion. You should only do it without the players' knowledge, if you feel it's called for. That said, there are naturally some things which call for it, and in a general sense it is not cheating. What's so bad about it is the disruption to immersion, not so much any question of fairness.

 

[KarinsDad]

I have had characters end an encounter I spent time on in the surprise round, you know what, tough noogies for me.

Yup.

 

[ExploderWizard]

No matter how small, fudging can disrupt immersion. You should only do it without the players' knowledge, if you feel it's called for. That said, there are naturally some things which call for it, and in a general sense it is not cheating. What's so bad about it is the disruption to immersion, not so much any question of fairness.

So long as your players are fine with fairness being dispensable no problem. Selling fairness and not delivering is terrible. I can respect a DM who is up front that the campaign is story focused and play will be guided by those concerns first. Someone who advertises a fairly run game then fudges would irritate me. No one likes to be lied to and have their valuable time wasted. Doing that to your players is disrespectful.

 

[Grazzt]

As the title asks: it's the middle of an encounter, would you change a monster's hit points?

This might be during a boss fight where the PCs roll well and it looks like the big bad is going to die before taking a turn. Or maybe during a long fight that looks like it might drag. Or perhaps a tense fight where the party is toeing on a TPK.

Would you?

Yep. I've done it, plenty of times. Dropped them when the fight was going on too long or maybe a TPK was on the horizon and it was too early for such a thing. I've also jacked them up when the fight seemed like it was going to end too soon or the party seemed to be cake-walking through the encounter.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Something's been bothering me about this story. I finally realized what it was:

I guess the DM had previously expanded the function of that magic item?

I just figured that the item had changed since AD&D--there are several editions I never played.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

As a guideline, like everything in this game: no. In my 25+ years of DMing, I have fudged very occasionally, but usually to make it harder for the PCs (I have never ended a fight early), but I had an evil druid NPC that wild shaped onto a hawk and flew away (to maybe come back later), only for a player to get out his bow and at max distance nail him, of course I let it ride.

I have had characters end an encounter I spent time on in the surprise round, you know what, tough noogies for me.

The only sad part about that is that your players may never know just how much pain they avoided by killing him quickly. It's not like they KNOW the assassin just saved them from a Meteor Swarm to the face, unless you tell them somehow, in-game or otherwise. It's the flip side of bad guys not knowing the PCs' capabilities.

Reputations and intel can help with this a bit. If they take a funny hat off the smouldering corpse, some NPc can later recognize the hat as belonging to Cyril McViim the Starkiller Mage... which may be good or bad for the PCs depending on the NPC's relationship to Cyril.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

The only sad part about that is that your players may never know just how much pain they avoided by killing him quickly. It's not like they KNOW the assassin just saved them from a Meteor Swarm to the face, unless you tell them somehow, in-game or otherwise. It's the flip side of bad guys not knowing the PCs' capabilities.

Reputations and intel can help with this a bit. If they take a funny hat off the smouldering corpse, some NPc can later recognize the hat as belonging to Cyril McViim the Starkiller Mage... which may be good or bad for the PCs depending on the NPC's relationship to Cyril.

I totally see what you mean, fortunately he was already known to the PCs, some foreknowledge (history), so, they really felt a glowing victory, and knew something special happened, so, result!

 

[Tony Vargas]

I just figured that the item had changed since AD&D--there are several editions I never played.

That quote was 3.5, not substantially different from the classic Brooch of Shielding. In 4e it gave resistance to force. Not aware of it ever stopping arrows.

 

[SirAntoine]

So long as your players are fine with fairness being dispensable no problem. Selling fairness and not delivering is terrible. I can respect a DM who is up front that the campaign is story focused and play will be guided by those concerns first. Someone who advertises a fairly run game then fudges would irritate me. No one likes to be lied to and have their valuable time wasted. Doing that to your players is disrespectful.

What I'm saying is that it's actually immersion that's at stake. The DM can't cheat, not because he has the authority to do anything (which he does), but because he isn't ever trying to "win". The players will get immersed in the game, and if that is "sold" as going by the dice and not fudging, that is what is interrupted.

 

[SirAntoine]

If your players ask you ever if you fudge anything, always tell them no.