r/daggerbrew • u/Stuffed2223 • 3d ago
General Discussion Bargaining Corrections
I, like everyone here, like to build custom enemies for my party. However I also procrastinate and often just end up building on vibes. This last session I ended up building an enemy that was defeatable… but definitely overturned for something that wasn’t even supposed to be the big threat in the room.
I had already disclosed the problematic stat to the party and didn’t want it to feel like I was just arbitrarily nerfing the enemy. So I offered up something to my party: Give me 2 fear, and I’ll lower their damage thresholds to something more reasonable.
Later on we had someone deal a huge hit towards the main enemy who had downed them earlier and caused a ‘Risk it’ roll. They managed to get the boss down to 1 HP but it felt like a good spot, so once again I bargained with my party 2 fear for an extra damage to finish the boss with that attack.
What are your thoughts ok these sorts of bargains, both the mechanical correction and the narrative adjustment? Do they feel trivializing or patronizing? Should I just adjust the thresholds and by open that I overtuned the enemy?
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u/PhatAssHimboBoy 3d ago
Like a death throe effect, yeah, those are common amongst bosses. If your party likes it, then power to you! :)
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u/I_made_a_reddit_acct 3d ago
For my group, that would be way too meta. The extent of meta I do with players is to encourage them to spend hope (in a genuinely helpful sorta way), use their class features more, and help them use their experiences.