Red_Rob wrote:Kaelik wrote:Beholders have a spot modifier and the ability to channel encounters, so they absolutely can use those abilities to give them advance warning of approaching enemies. Whether or not a monster gets advance warning should be determined by its abilities, but monsters should most often, even and especially when "wandering" be in their home field.
Okay, I think I agree now. The way I read the encounter initially was that the Beholder was always up the tunnel, always ready for the PC's and always waiting to drop a rock on them, which seemed to me to be artificially inflating the difficulty. I agree that if an enemy gets warning of the PC's coming it can take appropriate actions, and in the case of Beholders this is more likely due to appropriate bonuses, and their appropriate actions could include flying up tunnels and using their powers. Thanks for talking me through the logic.
On a side note, the DMG does state that in situations where circumstances give the enemy an advantage the encounter should be worth more xp. Does this mean that if the PC's fuck up stealthing into the goblin camp and the goblin archers all get enough time to get into their palisades the PC's should get extra xp for defeating them? I guess it makes sense, as the encounter is harder, but it seems to punish clever play.
IMO, the DMG is nuts here. Monsters should be worth less xp if the situation denies them the ability to use their abilities. In your example, the pallisades are things the goblins built themselves, being able to use them is perfectly justified.
The only time an encounter should be worth more xp than listed is if the situational advantages are above and beyond what the creature could create itself with its own abilities. I actually have a great example from a 2nd edition campaign I ran.
Party was in a large cavern which was damp and slick with lichen. The cavern sloped down towards a lake that was freezing cold, and being in the lake dealt damage every round. So the party is carefully picking their way across this cavern when they get attacked by bats. I don't even think they were anything special, just regular bats who were disturbed by the party's torches. Attempting to fight the bats forced balance checks (pure Dex check in 2nd iirc) or slide down into the lake.
This was a level 9 party. I disabled half of them (we were playing death at -10hp iirc) before the bats were chased off. The situation was well-beyond anything the bats could create themselves, and the true difficulty of the encounter wasn't the bats at all, it was the environment. (And being of animal intelligence, it's not like the bats deliberately arranged for the situation either).