Conversations With the Enemy: The Story of Pfc Robert Garwood

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If it were simply APL-4, okay, there's a hard and fast rule for it--though it's still dumb because I don't believe in robbing a PC of their class features without a reasonable cause (AKA something is affecting them, which usually has a saving throw connected to it). If I decided to use some really low CR plebs just to be fodder/filler, then generally they wouldn't count unless there is a mass ton of them (GM discretion). My gripe is that Soloarian has written into the class that Stellar Mode shuts down if a fight reaches a certain threshold. A band of 6 PCs at level 10 generally shouldn't really consider a bunch of CR 5s as a threat (CR -4), but 15 or so of them might be by sheer numbers, which a GM could say they would be considered a threat (GM discretion).

I get the notices smoke spotted from the _________ and head in that direction but often find nothing after 3 hours. I'm not 100 percent sure this is how it works but I also think that the whole apl -4 thing is for the whole encounter, not the single enemy you fight. He had already survived malaria, dysentery and other illnesses in the most appalling conditions that led to the demise of his fellow prisoners.

This ability manifests only in high-stakes situations, when your training takes over and connects your mind to the universe. In general, a creature with a CR less than or equal to your character level – 4 is not a significant enemy. I've been playing RPGs for a long time, and I've never seen a written rule where the GM can decide if you get to use your class features today or not. I think it fits the game well because improvisation is one of the primary play aesthetics and one of the goals is to make every battle feel like a memorable experience. He suddenly appears years after the war has ended, and tells anyone who will listen that there are still American prisoners in Vietnam.

I agree with your second point about that not being able to use powers out of combat is lame, but that doesn't change Rysky's point either that this specific example is as much an issue of a GM going off the rails as anything else. If you were to double the encounter rate using these guidelines, you'd want about (32 * 2) + 25 = 89 different Enemies in your database. I’m thinking they can do this for 2/4/6/8/10/unlimited enemies until dead dependent on difficulty level. Because while you and I understand the intention, it's not immediate obvious and Stellar Modes does say you can't use it against non-significant enemies.I'll be more charitable and say your GM didn't do it to deliberately screw you, but did because they didn't understand what the rule way saying. I’m visualising a white-helmeted mutated Scab Shooter with a medical backpack to replace the Lasgun.

She began to see that these people, who were very different from her family, and who she initially perceived as the enemy, were willing to listen, to engage in civil Twitter exchanges and to treat her as human, which inspired her to do the same with them. I'm gonna hope that you're just imagining situations where a really combative GM could use these rules to screw the player, and trying to shut down those arguments before they come up. We have our work cut out for us when it comes to navigating complex problems, in large part because we are hard-wired to seek certainty as quickly as possible.At Fearless Assassins Gaming Community (=F|A=) we strive to bring you the best gaming experience possible. To answer your question, if players will average 100 total encounters in your game (this suggests either fairly short length, or a low encounter rate), and 15 of those are unique bosses or minibosses, you could figure on about 25 unique enemies just for the mini/boss fights, leaving 85 encounters. That's what this feels like to me, a mechanic to allow GMs to poorly design fights for players and have an excuse to make it harder rather than work at making it challenging. And with your numbers, an enemy would be used a maximum of eight times (on average) in the entire game, because every battle will contain only one new and seven old enemies, which means that you need to drop used enemies (or don't use newer enemies as often as 8 times). Any use of those rules beyond shutting down player rules-abuse goes against the intent of those rules.