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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Starfox" data-source="post: 6110852" data-attributes="member: 2303">My experience both as a DM and player is that story trumps balance; as long as the players are more interested in story than balance, balance is not generally an issue. The core problem here was that the DM was thinking more form a balance perspective and I from a story perspective and the two didn't mesh. There were also lots of other factors involved that are irrelevant to our topic here. I didn't take this up here to get neutral arbitration - I took it up as an illustration of the issue of PC vs. DM control of character concepts. What I wanted to point out is that there are two sides to every coin - what the DM thinks of as a balance issue might be something else in the mind of the player. In this case, it is a good idea to sit down and try to find the core of each side's view of the situation rather than to arrange a rust monster ambush.On the other hand, the Gygax example was actually empowering in a way for the player - the bad guys recognized his ability and tried to arrange an ambush specifically for him. Wow, campaign world recognition! And presumably there should be a chance for the PC to escape the ambush. On the other hand again, if the enemy has the resources to arrange an ambush against any hero anywhere... how come there are still live heroes? And doesn't that foster a siege mentality among the players, where every action has to be considered from a rather paranoid perspective? Turning the fantasy saga into a cold war thriller. These issues are complex - what is right for one story is wrong in another. Trying to stay consistent and avoiding bait-and-switch are core concepts here.Some artifacts do this welll (IIR the Axe of the dwarfish lords is an example), leaving a "legacy item" in the player's hands when it disappears, which still gives the PC a mighty axe with a story, while removing the full power of the artifact.</blockquote>

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