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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6571297" data-attributes="member: 6787650">RE: your question in bold, that's easy: it's because you want to see if Prince Harry gets squished like a bug while the PCs are escorting him through the ancient tomb (he's trying to prove himself a man so his parents will let him marry his love interest). The golems are pre-placed, so the things that matter are party decisions like "what formation are you using?", "do you have anyone scouting ahead?", "is anyone protecting the prince?", and "did you say Klaatu Verata Nikto before pushing the big red button?" If the golems wake up, is Harry right in the middle? Does he run away or bravely stand and fight? (Does a PC grapple him and drag him free?) There's lots of interesting questions, but the key thing is that the tension ends when Harry and the PCs escape, and not when the golems hit zero HP. They may never even hit zero HP at all.Hopefully that helps you see why the scenario exists. The question is "do the golems kill Harry?" and the scenario ends when that question is answered, unless the players clearly have a new dramatic question on their minds like "(how fast) can we waste these golems?" Zero HP is not and should not be the end condition for all or perhaps even most encounters.For your second paragraph, I can't tell if you were agreeing with and expanding on what I said, or disagreeing with it, or misunderstanding it and disagreeing with the misunderstanding while agreeing with the actual point. I certainly agree that if the PCs want to roll dice and thump golems, they can do so, just as they can attempt to befriend random triceratopses that they find while travelling. I run a sandbox, which means that I live to serve. My observation however is that I've never yet gotten pushback from dropping out of combat mode into story mode using combat stats, a la "everyone gets two free rounds of attacks while the neogi are running for their ship!" If I did get pushback, and someone wanted to keep rolling initiative round-by-round while the neogi are running, I would oblige. But it hasn't happened yet.</blockquote>

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