Re: What difficultly level do you play one?

On Wed, 10 Jul 2024 09:28:12 +0100, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB
wrote:

Another one of my pet peeves, monsters that just inhabit rooms waiting
to be killed by some passing adventurers. Do they never eat, sleep, work?

Ah, the Gygax approach. Yeah, that's why 2e introduced this whole novel
concept called "ecology." That and the idea that creatures - that should
be mortal enemies - are just hanging out in one room, never leaving,
while the other group they hate hangs out in another is silliness.

My pet peeve though is when you get ambushed in one of those games where
you'll actually arrive at the ambush at a completely arbitrary time,
sometimes days or weeks long variability. What? Do they have perfect
scouting? Is a scry spell being used 24/7? Do they just sit there staking
out the location day after day waiting for the eventual group of enemies?

Icewind Dale II was particularly egregious on ambushes. You'd stealth
scout an area, see that there were four or five monsters, and then start
the encounter and creatures that were never there in the first place
started "beaming in" and ganking your squishies in the back. It was the
"monster closet" approach, but there was no closet.

Finally, mages with a full-on combat spell loadout. Um... what? Why does
the wizard have nothing but magic missile, scorching ray, fireball, and
ice storm memorized? Does this guy not use utility spells at all?

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten