Gorck
Prince of Dorkness
I’d consider the Fellowship to be pretty heroic, but they sure as hell ran away from the Balrog that would otherwise have obliterated them.Because running feels bad and unheroic in this heroic fantasy game.
I’d consider the Fellowship to be pretty heroic, but they sure as hell ran away from the Balrog that would otherwise have obliterated them.Because running feels bad and unheroic in this heroic fantasy game.
Fair enough. I'd love to see more of that sprinkled into the game and not mostly in one marketing pitch for one adventure, and also see it outside the Fey theme (which I'm not a huge fan of and which IMO WotC has overused).
I don't disagree, but on the flip side, there's a difference between watching a party run away in a book or movie, and deciding to run away as a player. I think the key is for the GM to set expectations in a "session zero" as to whether challenges will be potentially manageable or not. If everyone goes in knowing that there will be threats in the game that are out of their league, then running away becomes an easier decision.I’d consider the Fellowship to be pretty heroic, but they sure as hell ran away from the Balrog that would otherwise have obliterated them.
That's because Encounter design and the Adventure Day are a limit on a sliding scale, not an absolute rule. Anything more than the suffered limits will likely get deadly, anything too far less might see certain characters overperform relative to others, but finding the sweet spot for a group is pretty chill.First, I apologize but I did not have time to read post this first paragraph (meeting starting in 5 minutes).
Your thesis may or may not be accurate; however, one great thing I found in 5e early on (like about 8-9 years ago) was that you don't need to worry about encounter balance in 5e. Just populate your world with people and monsters that make sense for the story of your world and it pretty much works. The idea that you need to fine tune encounters with an XP budget and such is hogwash IME.
So, while you may be correct - is also something (the encounter balance) that can be complete ignored with ease in 5e (IME)
Note that I specifically called out this adventure as a great example of what I'd like to see more of in the future.
I haven't read the whole thread, so forgive me if someone else has pointed this out, but: Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the very first 5E adventure book, starts out with a level 1 party encountering a town under siege by an Adult Blue Dragon. The objective of the encounter is just to wound the dragon and drive it off. The adventure was ROUNDLY and vigorously condemned for this. Since 5E was in its infancy at that point, I don't think you can say that the expectation of balance is unique to this edition.The level 5 party will not encounter an Adult Red Dragon and have to creatively navigate around it; they'll encounter, at best, a Young Red Dragon, if that, maybe even just a Wyrmling.
None of that makes their motives irrelevant.Sure. And arguably the inflexible 4e license suggests that, too. But irrespective of their motives, the nature of the game and community always forced them to backpedal on whatever clamping down they attempted.
At the same time, the dragon's motivation for being there (he is only present at the siege for contractual obligations and doesn't like being exposed) and for leaving ("oh, no, Adventurers, that wasn't in my contract, I'm out") are pretty well explained.I haven't read the whole thread, so forgive me if someone else has pointed this out, but: Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the very first 5E adventure book, starts out with a party encountering a town under siege by an Adult Blue Dragon. The objective of the encounter is just to wound the dragon and drive it off. The adventure was ROUNDLY and vigorously condemned for this. Since 5E was in its infancy at that point, I don't think you can say that the expectation of balance is unique to this edition.