|
4 years ago ::
Mar 17, 2009 - 1:17AM
#31
|
Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2001
|
At my last table, the DM decided it would be a better challenge to take 2/3 of the first encounter and add it to the last encounter.
Needless to say, it did not go well for us.
Unfortunately few DMs know that the gap between an enounter that the characters can do without loosing a hit point using only at-wills and a TPK is narrow.
Unfortunately some DMs think they are really good at judging encounter difficulties while they are not.
Unfortunately, some DMs think it was the fault of their players when they screwed things up...
I hope at least this DM has learned a lession.
Ceterum censeo scrinium puniceum esse delendam
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 17, 2009 - 3:39AM
#32
|
|
|
And unfortunately, sometimes players do screw up and blame the DM  We are all human, and people screw up on occassion on both sides of the screen.
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 17, 2009 - 3:48AM
#33
|
Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2001
|
And unfortunately, sometimes players do screw up and blame the DM We are all human, and people screw up on occassion on both sides of the screen.
Well, true. But since there are usually more players than DMs, the chance is much greater that all DMs screw up rather than all the players screw up
Ceterum censeo scrinium puniceum esse delendam
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 18, 2009 - 11:27AM
#34
|
|
|
I find it impossible to judge what really happened from forum posts, but both players and DMs should try to learn from their mistakes. The trick is figuring out what was really a mistake and what was just some bad dice. I have seen both players and DMs over react to bad dice, I always try to play back the sequence and see how it would play out with perfectly normal die rolls. Mistakes are things that go badly regardless of good or bad dice or personality issues.
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 18, 2009 - 4:33PM
#35
|
Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2001
|
I find it impossible to judge what really happened from forum posts, but both players and DMs should try to learn from their mistakes.
Yes, that's totally true of course. However, when I DM, I try to blame the mistakes on the DM, and when I play, I try it on to blame it to a certain player. This helps. Unfortunately I sometimes don't succeed - then I often blame it on the adventure, which isn't fair, too, of course.
The trick is figuring out what was really a mistake and what was just some bad dice.
Yep. Die rolls can make an amazing difference. A missed daily or a failed opportunity attack can sometimes make the difference between an easy fight or a tough battle. And a string of bad luck can result in PC deaths in an encounter which should have been no problem.
I have seen battles turn the tide several times when for a while the DM did not manage to roll better than 4 and then the bad luck went to the players.
However, IMO being enranged about bad die rolls is part of the fun of D&D :D
Ceterum censeo scrinium puniceum esse delendam
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 19, 2009 - 2:02AM
#36
|
|
|
It is easy to blame the dice, but I haven't seen dice be the only factor in a death yet. Fights can definitely become more difficult, and the concequences of a mistake can certainly be heightened by dice. I feel it is one of the bigger improvements of 4E over 3E... In 4E the dice still cause random havoc as is only propper for D&D, but is not just bad luck that results in a TPK or even 1 death.
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 19, 2009 - 2:21AM
#37
|
Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2001
|
but is not just bad luck that results in a TPK or even 1 death.
TPK no, 1 death yes.
We had our DM rolling one crit after the other (he rolled openly) with orcs which dealt extra damage on a crit. We could have prevented PC death, but it was impossible to prevent the char from dropping. Ok, maybe it was a little crazy to take a lvl 1 char into a high tier adventure...
Ceterum censeo scrinium puniceum esse delendam
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 19, 2009 - 12:14PM
#38
|
Date Joined:
Apr 29, 2008
|
It is easy to blame the dice, but I haven't seen dice be the only factor in a death yet.
I killed a Cleric a couple weeks ago because of a fluke of the dice. Made a huge difference in the fight. I had four ranged attacks against the cleric and by the odds I should never have gotten more than one or perhaps two hits for perhaps 15 damage total. Two crits and an additional hit for almost max damage later and he went from not even bloodied to stone cold dead.
This little signature is my official and insignificant protest to the (not so new now) community redesign.
The layout is lousy. The colour scheme burns the eyes. The wiki is a crippled monstrosity. So many posters have abandoned this site that some major forums are going days without posts. The 4e General Discussion board regularly has posts on the front page from two or even three days ago. This is pathetic.
Since I have to assume Wizards has a vested interest in an active community I wish someone in charge would fix this mess.
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 19, 2009 - 8:16PM
#39
|
Date Joined:
Jul 26, 2003
|
Two crits and an additional hit for almost max damage later and he went from not even bloodied to stone cold dead.
I am curious whether you rolled all the attacks at once. It's unlikely, although possible, that one hit would have taken him from conscious to dead. If the first two hits (crits) rendered him unconscious, there's really no reason for the third enemy to target him.
|
|
|
|
4 years ago ::
Mar 19, 2009 - 11:11PM
#40
|
Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
|
I am curious whether you rolled all the attacks at once. It's unlikely, although possible, that one hit would have taken him from conscious to dead. If the first two hits (crits) rendered him unconscious, there's really no reason for the third enemy to target him.
It could have been a crit, then the almost max damage hit, leaving him up with only 1 or 2 hit points, followed by the second crit, killing him at the same time it would have dropped him unconscious.
Sometimes bad things happen.
|
|
|
