If you’re doing it all the time, then yes it’s a problem and the DM should plan encounters better. However if you see a battle going wrong it’s a quick and easy fix.
If the players attack the castle, and you’ve said the guards are strong, but they’re about to go down in one hit, beef them up.
Especially, as it relates to the article, if you find players using all their resources and trivializing everything.
If the players are using their resources to smash through strong guards, and the GM covertly buffs them to counteract that fact, then that is precisely the point I am making about it undermining the players’ agency. The players decided to burn those abilities on those guards. Let them trivialize them. That’s why they used the resources. That was their decision.
The GM robs them of that agency by changing it behind the scenes, without telling them, and becomes the sole arbiter for how an encounter is “supposed” to play out.
No, my point is that I said “strong guards” but in fact they were not (until buffed).
The point of the linked article is that players are finding too many encounters trivial because they have too many long rests. If the DM isn’t providing the right level of encounters, doubling HP is an easy quick fix.
Obviously it’s a balance. If you always double HP, improve your planning. Don’t always take away or invalidate a players decision.
Doubling HP is not an easy fix; it’s a lazy cheat. That’s my point.
If you’re truly disappointed as a GM at how weak your strong guards were, say that to your players. “Wow, I messed that one up. Can you all please give me five minutes while I reevaluate the next encounter?”
If you’re doing it all the time, then yes it’s a problem and the DM should plan encounters better. However if you see a battle going wrong it’s a quick and easy fix.
If the players attack the castle, and you’ve said the guards are strong, but they’re about to go down in one hit, beef them up.
Especially, as it relates to the article, if you find players using all their resources and trivializing everything.
If the players are using their resources to smash through strong guards, and the GM covertly buffs them to counteract that fact, then that is precisely the point I am making about it undermining the players’ agency. The players decided to burn those abilities on those guards. Let them trivialize them. That’s why they used the resources. That was their decision.
The GM robs them of that agency by changing it behind the scenes, without telling them, and becomes the sole arbiter for how an encounter is “supposed” to play out.
No, my point is that I said “strong guards” but in fact they were not (until buffed).
The point of the linked article is that players are finding too many encounters trivial because they have too many long rests. If the DM isn’t providing the right level of encounters, doubling HP is an easy quick fix.
Obviously it’s a balance. If you always double HP, improve your planning. Don’t always take away or invalidate a players decision.
Doubling HP is not an easy fix; it’s a lazy cheat. That’s my point.
If you’re truly disappointed as a GM at how weak your strong guards were, say that to your players. “Wow, I messed that one up. Can you all please give me five minutes while I reevaluate the next encounter?”