This thread brings up some great points about running a D&D game, specifically about handling rogues and how to make a seemingly simple encounter like "the guards" more dynamic and challenging.
Respect the Rogue's Class Fantasy: Rogues are designed to be stealthy assassins, and taking away their ability to use sneak attacks or surprise enemies can feel like you're nerfing their core abilities. If you don't want a rogue to be able to take out a guard in a single surprise attack, it's a good idea to signal that to the player ahead of time so they can chose a diffrent class.
Design Encounters with Intent: Instead of using a standard, easily defeated "Guard" stat block, tailor the encounter to fit the level of challenge you're aiming for. You can:
Give the guard more hit points so they survive the initial hit and can call for help.
Make the guard a more relevant creature, like an experienced warrior or even a low-level monster in disguise.
Have the guard's cry for help immediately trigger a larger combat with reinforcements, like other guards and a captain.
Scale the Challenge to the Party: A fun, high-level example: having a metallic dragon in humanoid form guarding a castle entrance. This is a perfect illustration of how you can make a seemingly simple guard an epic challenge, all based on your intent as the Dungeon Master.
The overarching theme is that your intent as the DM should guide how you design the encounter. Rather than "arbitrarily" taking away a player's core abilities, you can design the scenario to provide a fun, engaging, and appropriately scaled challenge.
This thread brings up some great points about running a D&D game, specifically about handling rogues and how to make a seemingly simple encounter like "the guards" more dynamic and challenging.
Respect the Rogue's Class Fantasy: Rogues are designed to be stealthy assassins, and taking away their ability to use sneak attacks or surprise enemies can feel like you're nerfing their core abilities. If you don't want a rogue to be able to take out a guard in a single surprise attack, it's a good idea to signal that to the player ahead of time so they can chose a diffrent class.
Design Encounters with Intent: Instead of using a standard, easily defeated "Guard" stat block, tailor the encounter to fit the level of challenge you're aiming for. You can:
Give the guard more hit points so they survive the initial hit and can call for help.
Make the guard a more relevant creature, like an experienced warrior or even a low-level monster in disguise.
Have the guard's cry for help immediately trigger a larger combat with reinforcements, like other guards and a captain.
Scale the Challenge to the Party: A fun, high-level example: having a metallic dragon in humanoid form guarding a castle entrance. This is a perfect illustration of how you can make a seemingly simple guard an epic challenge, all based on your intent as the Dungeon Master.
The overarching theme is that your intent as the DM should guide how you design the encounter. Rather than "arbitrarily" taking away a player's core abilities, you can design the scenario to provide a fun, engaging, and appropriately scaled challenge.
I thought the original post was looking to do the exact opposite of you suggestions? Yes your suggestions are really good, but run counter to looking to do a 1 shot kill.
I thought the original post was looking to do the exact opposite of you suggestions? Yes your suggestions are really good, but run counter to looking to do a 1 shot kill.
James_Bard's response looks AI generated to me. I don't know if their account is entirely a bot, or if they just copy-pasted from ChatGPT but the formatting is exactly like how ChatGPT formats its answers, and the first sentence has that "let me summarize for you" tone that ChatGPT does all the time.
I thought the original post was looking to do the exact opposite of you suggestions? Yes your suggestions are really good, but run counter to looking to do a 1 shot kill.
James_Bard's response looks AI generated to me. I don't know if their account is entirely a bot, or if they just copy-pasted from ChatGPT but the formatting is exactly like how ChatGPT formats its answers, and the first sentence has that "let me summarize for you" tone that ChatGPT does all the time.
I thought the original post was looking to do the exact opposite of you suggestions? Yes your suggestions are really good, but run counter to looking to do a 1 shot kill.
James_Bard's response looks AI generated to me. I don't know if their account is entirely a bot, or if they just copy-pasted from ChatGPT but the formatting is exactly like how ChatGPT formats its answers, and the first sentence has that "let me summarize for you" tone that ChatGPT does all the time.
I mean that wouldn't be surprising - that user's posts frequently seem to refer in one way or another to something LLM generated. I don't think the user is a bot, just one of those folks who seems to think that LLMs are capable of producing something useful. [Side note, I'm personally critical of LLMs for the rampant Intellectual Property violations and extreme waste of energy they are built on].
Hah not a bot but after a few warnings for posts that where to "opinionated" i usually run my post through ai to tone them down and make them pallatable to the community at large.
Hah not a bot but after a few warnings for posts that where to "opinionated" i usually run my post through ai to tone them down and make them pallatable to the community at large.
Hah not a bot but after a few warnings for posts that where to "opinionated" i usually run my post through ai to tone them down and make them pallatable to the community at large.
What you're running into now is the bot's tendency to spit out irrelevant pablum. It's not that anything in that post was wrong, it's just not usefully responsive to the question being asked.
Hah not a bot but after a few warnings for posts that where to "opinionated" i usually run my post through ai to tone them down and make them pallatable to the community at large.
Opinionated or rude? GPT isn't going to help you learn how to express an opinion respectfully. Using GPT to filter out meanness is a crutch that will hurt you in the long run, I think.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have Darkvision, by the way.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
This thread brings up some great points about running a D&D game, specifically about handling rogues and how to make a seemingly simple encounter like "the guards" more dynamic and challenging.
Respect the Rogue's Class Fantasy: Rogues are designed to be stealthy assassins, and taking away their ability to use sneak attacks or surprise enemies can feel like you're nerfing their core abilities. If you don't want a rogue to be able to take out a guard in a single surprise attack, it's a good idea to signal that to the player ahead of time so they can chose a diffrent class.
Design Encounters with Intent: Instead of using a standard, easily defeated "Guard" stat block, tailor the encounter to fit the level of challenge you're aiming for. You can:
Give the guard more hit points so they survive the initial hit and can call for help.
Make the guard a more relevant creature, like an experienced warrior or even a low-level monster in disguise.
Have the guard's cry for help immediately trigger a larger combat with reinforcements, like other guards and a captain.
Scale the Challenge to the Party: A fun, high-level example: having a metallic dragon in humanoid form guarding a castle entrance. This is a perfect illustration of how you can make a seemingly simple guard an epic challenge, all based on your intent as the Dungeon Master.
The overarching theme is that your intent as the DM should guide how you design the encounter. Rather than "arbitrarily" taking away a player's core abilities, you can design the scenario to provide a fun, engaging, and appropriately scaled challenge.
I thought the original post was looking to do the exact opposite of you suggestions? Yes your suggestions are really good, but run counter to looking to do a 1 shot kill.
James_Bard's response looks AI generated to me. I don't know if their account is entirely a bot, or if they just copy-pasted from ChatGPT but the formatting is exactly like how ChatGPT formats its answers, and the first sentence has that "let me summarize for you" tone that ChatGPT does all the time.
You are not alone in thinking that.
pronouns: he/she/they
The "This thread brings up some great points" bit does sound very AI.
I mean that wouldn't be surprising - that user's posts frequently seem to refer in one way or another to something LLM generated. I don't think the user is a bot, just one of those folks who seems to think that LLMs are capable of producing something useful. [Side note, I'm personally critical of LLMs for the rampant Intellectual Property violations and extreme waste of energy they are built on].
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
Hah not a bot but after a few warnings for posts that where to "opinionated" i usually run my post through ai to tone them down and make them pallatable to the community at large.
This is so depressing.
pronouns: he/she/they
What you're running into now is the bot's tendency to spit out irrelevant pablum. It's not that anything in that post was wrong, it's just not usefully responsive to the question being asked.
Opinionated or rude? GPT isn't going to help you learn how to express an opinion respectfully. Using GPT to filter out meanness is a crutch that will hurt you in the long run, I think.
I have Darkvision, by the way.