I ran huge and potentially challenging encounter last night, and I found the PCs pretty much cleaning up the bad guys. Looking back at the NPC and monster information this morning, I realized I forgot to use a lot of special abilities and magic items that the NPCs and monsters had at their disposal. Now I'm beating myself up for screwing up such a potentially challenging encounter and turning it into a cakewalk. Has anyone else had this experience?
Yes, it does happen, particularly on those off-the-cuff encounters. Sometimes it may be the case that the baddies just didn't have time to use all their fun powers because the PCs pasted them so quickly. Other times, it's just because you're not familiar with a particular creature on a random encounter chart and don't use them to their full potential. The best way to avoid it is with good planning and forethought; most intelligent enemies will have some sort of predetermined attack strategy to utilize their special abilities to the fullest. I myself, for example, have learned to keep random encounters limited to simple creatures with straightforward tactics rather than complex and intricate abilities, which gives me time to focus my planning on "set-piece" encounters with more complicated creatures and villains.
I ran huge and potentially challenging encounter last night, and I found the PCs pretty much cleaning up the bad guys. Looking back at the NPC and monster information this morning, I realized I forgot to use a lot of special abilities and magic items that the NPCs and monsters had at their disposal. Now I'm beating myself up for screwing up such a potentially challenging encounter and turning it into a cakewalk. Has anyone else had this experience?
Constantly. The usual culprits for me are any environmental factors (light, terrain, etc.) and for some reason I seem to have brainfarts when it comes to remembering Spell Resistance
Don't beat yourself up, it happens to everyone.
I had my party mop up a pair of Fire Giants because they neglected to use their Power Attack feat...there have been times where spell effects are forgotten about (both in my favor or the group's favor)...as mentioned above, light/terrain/timing gaffes have been favorable to one side or the other...other monsters or NPCs have been in adjacent rooms and miraculously heard nothing of the battle next door...
No one is perfect; the good DMs can just cover it up and weave the errors into a viable and believable story, as opposed to backing up time and trying to replay it (which I've discovered doesn't work well at all).
M
ALL... THE... TIME...
I'm constantly forgetting that an NPC has a potion of cure serious, or a scroll of invisbility, or some-such-thing. I try not to be too obvious about it with regards to my players (I don't want them to think that they "got off easy") but every once and awhile its hard to miss the DM yelling "s***!" after combat is over. :-P
What I try and do in that regard, if its an item, is remove it from the NPCs item list. That is, the party won't find the offending article and wonder "why the heck didn't he/she use it?" and also it demotes the treasure to balance out the "easier" run the PCs had. Is it fair? Maybe not. But I play by the adage that what the PCs don't know won't hurt them. I want them to have fun (and me too) and I want the story to progress. And they aren't suffering for it by any means. I'm currently running Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and they haven't had nearly as many character deaths as I've heard of on the boards. And they are certainly not hurting for magic either. (I believe the term "loaded for bear" comes to mind. :)
My biggest problem is that life gets in the way of good prep work. Family and work usually means I have only the 1/2 hour or so of time waiting for people to show up before each game to prep. And when the PCs take an unexpected turn, it can be right into an encounter I hadn't even guessed they'd get to. I try not to worry about it, but it can really pi** me off when I forget the BBG should have buffed up with that potion of bull's strength or whatever.
Greg
For me, it usually happens when I run published adventure encounters. Specially when the baddies have complicated class/abilities (like a fiendish-dire-lycanthrope-two-race-five-class-mummyfied-demon-vampire).
Ultradan
ALL... THE... TIME...
I'm constantly forgetting that an NPC has a potion of cure serious, or a scroll of invisbility, or some-such-thing. I try not to be too obvious about it with regards to my players (I don't want them to think that they "got off easy") but every once and awhile its hard to miss the DM yelling "s***!" after combat is over. :-P
What I try and do in that regard, if its an item, is remove it from the NPCs item list. That is, the party won't find the offending article and wonder "why the heck didn't he/she use it?" and also it demotes the treasure to balance out the "easier" run the PCs had. Is it fair? Maybe not. But I play by the adage that what the PCs don't know won't hurt them. I want them to have fun (and me too) and I want the story to progress. And they aren't suffering for it by any means. I'm currently running Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and they haven't had nearly as many character deaths as I've heard of on the boards. And they are certainly not hurting for magic either. (I believe the term "loaded for bear" comes to mind. :)
My biggest problem is that life gets in the way of good prep work. Family and work usually means I have only the 1/2 hour or so of time waiting for people to show up before each game to prep. And when the PCs take an unexpected turn, it can be right into an encounter I hadn't even guessed they'd get to. I try not to worry about it, but it can really pi** me off when I forget the BBG should have buffed up with that potion of bull's strength or whatever.
Greg
Greg, that's exactly what I'm dealing with even down to the adventure module I was running! Last night's encounter was with the Fire Temple! I find life making it difficult to prepare for Monte's quirky encounters. I decided to cut the adventure short by ending it with the Fire Temple and having the PCs discover that without the relics found in the moathouse, their plans to free Tharizdun are completely hindered... for now!
!!!SPOILER!!!
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Stupid Tessimon with her demonic claw, tentacle rod, and controlling a moving platform that can ascend into the false ceiling!
Greg, that's exactly what I'm dealing with even down to the adventure module I was running! Last night's encounter was with the Fire Temple! I find life making it difficult to prepare for Monte's quirky encounters. I decided to cut the adventure short by ending it with the Fire Temple and having the PCs discover that without the relics found in the moathouse, their plans to free Tharizdun are completely hindered... for now!!!!SPOILER!!!
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Stupid Tessimon with her demonic claw, tentacle rod, and controlling a moving platform that can ascend into the false ceiling!
IT CAN ASCEND INTO THE CEILING?!?!?! Damn, blew that part too :-P. Amaril, that was the last battle we had also, oddly enough. (We're on a 3-week break due to various scheduling conflicts.) I completely forgot that thing could move up. So she sat there, trying to cast spells, getting caught in a Chains of Vengance spell (Book of Eldritch Might) and being largely ineffective for most of the battle. While her minions and the party battled at one of the entrances. Crap. (I think that false ceiling just ceased to exist ;-)
Oh well, I'm going to divert them inwards now to the outer fane (I'm getting bored of the CRM as they've take out 3 or 4 temples). So I'm going to TRY and be more prepared for that part.
In spite of all my screw-ups its been a gas for me and for the rest of the group (the water-cooler discussions the next morning is sometimes even more entertaining than the game the night before!) so my attitude is just keep going. They are really keen on the plot and I have the cleric pretty much dedicated to wiping out the Triad. In the end, I'd rather error by making it too easy for them, than by making it too hard for them. Ideally the middle ground is the best, but I don't think I have that kind of accuracy. :-)
Greg
A few simple facts of D&D are that NPCs never have imagination when it comes to battle, carry magic items and potions just so when the PCs kill them they have something good to loot, bypass the weak mage to go for the strong, high HP fighter, randomly change targets if they feel they are about to kill a PC, never negotiate, dragons always fight while laying down....
Im joking, of course. But, when you are running several different NPC's and its usually, as Ultradan stated, something out of a purchased module.
It happens, but dont let it get you down. Just make a dragon fall out of the sky. Even if you run it badly it will be tough. :]
Man, I do it all the time too. Here's my biggest blunder to date:
Our Three-part story-arc of Istivin took on a life of its own after we decided to keep the backdrop as an ongoing campaign for our high-level adventurers.
I picked up where another DM left off and wanted to cap the campaign with the githyanki lich from Dungeon (issue 100 I think). I worried about the PC’s ability to defeat the lich so I handed them an arrow of greater slaying (lich).
The big battle goes down against the lich, and the PCs are extremely successful in manhandling the bad guy, and then the ranger shoots the arrow into the lich. I looked at the lich’s saves and scrambled for a way to make the battle more difficult. Something was wrong, it seemed too easy.
This was the problem: it was 3:00 am on Friday night and I am blazing tired. I rummaged through my notes the next day and saw that I had ignored the eight different protective spells that the lich had cast on it. I tend to make these kinds of mistakes (the obvious ones) when I am dead tired.
I think that the common points made by all of the DMs here indicate a common underlying theme - missing the details of the material or gameplay.
This might be a good time to offer other good tips to avoid these forgetful screw ups - did I miss any?
- PRE-READ the material thoroughly!
- Be intimately familiar with your villains, monsters and NPCs!
- Avoid ultra-complex monster/half-breed/template/multi-class/prestige-class NPC villains that are loaded with feats and spells, unless you have already met the previous condition (or created the NPC yourself just for this encounter).
- PREPARE for your session before it starts - review!
- Think like the villain/NPC; you want to kill them as badly and efficiently as they do you - just avoid meta-gaming as the DM while you do so...
- TRACK EVERYTHING you can manage without slowing the game - I use a combat sheet and write down all character/monster/NPC actions for each round, so I can refer back to them as I go.
M
Hah!
I had one of these moments just in the last game session. I have a group of 8 characters going through the Shadows of the Last War adventure for Eberron, and despite doing a bunch of work to modify the encounters for the large group, I still screwed the pooch on one of them.
The characters reached their goal, done what they came to do, and I started to read off the text for the vampire encounter that was to come up at this point. And forgot completely that they had waited until just shortly before sunrise to enter the area, and it was now daylight. ARGH!
Rather than blow a potential surprise, I had to backtrack and just have the nearby horde of bad guys show up to chase them off.
With my group, I'm sure it'll go down in the history books. Hrmph.
Great, I just realized I completely forgot another NPC cleric, too. That could have been another bad guy slaming them with spells and bolstering the undead skeletons. *sigh* Oh yeah, bolstering the undead would have been handy, too. *groan*
I think I'm understanding now why many gamers prefer low-level adventures. A 10th-level campaign cap might not be a bad campaign option. :P
I think that the common points made by all of the DMs here indicate a common underlying theme - missing the details of the material or gameplay.
This might be a good time to offer other good tips to avoid these forgetful screw ups - did I miss any?
- PRE-READ the material thoroughly!
- Be intimately familiar with your villains, monsters and NPCs!
- Avoid ultra-complex monster/half-breed/template/multi-class/prestige-class NPC villains that are loaded with feats and spells, unless you have already met the previous condition (or created the NPC yourself just for this encounter).
- PREPARE for your session before it starts - review!
- Think like the villain/NPC; you want to kill them as badly and efficiently as they do you - just avoid meta-gaming as the DM while you do so...
- TRACK EVERYTHING you can manage without slowing the game - I use a combat sheet and write down all character/monster/NPC actions for each round, so I can refer back to them as I go.M
The poblem with this is time in my personal life to be so thorough. Now the question arises, is it easier and faster to make your own adventures or to use prepublished adventures?
Great, I just realized I completely forgot another NPC cleric, too. That could have been another bad guy slaming them with spells and bolstering the undead skeletons. *sigh* Oh yeah, bolstering the undead would have been handy, too. *groan*
I think I'm understanding now why many gamers prefer low-level adventures. A 10th-level campaign cap might not be a bad campaign option. :P
As a DM, I cheat. When an encounter that I foresee as tough is breezed through by the players, I just use the encounter "boss" and cheat with him. His stats say 20 HP and an AC of 18? That just became 60, 70, or 80 and an AC of 22 or higher. Rolled crappy on your dice? Fake it. "He comes down with a mighty overhead blow doing....21 points of damage." Seriously, nothing is more pleasing to a player than defeating a tough foe. My players dislike easy fights and if they just keep blowing through encounters, just cheat it up. They wont know. However, if your tough encounters are destroyed by well planned out attacks from the PCs, reward that by NOT cheating :p
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As a DM, I cheat. When an encounter that I foresee as tough is breezed through by the players, I just use the encounter "boss" and cheat with him. His stats say 20 HP and an AC of 18? That just became 60, 70, or 80 and an AC of 22 or higher. Rolled crappy on your dice? Fake it. "He comes down with a mighty overhead blow doing....21 points of damage." Seriously, nothing is more pleasing to a player than defeating a tough foe. My players dislike easy fights and if they just keep blowing through encounters, just cheat it up. They wont know. However, if your tough encounters are destroyed by well planned out attacks from the PCs, reward that by NOT cheating :p
Well, there's a big difference between adjusting encounters and cheating. If it's not in a tournament type situation, jigger with stats as is needed! The DM's job is to offer a story/combat situation that the players will find satisfying (well, if they survive, of course). If you have miscalculated and the players are cleaving through baddies like they have chariot wheel-knives a-la Ben Hur, you will want to adjust the difficulty to challenge them. Along Marc's line of thinking, as long as you aren't using meta-thinking to foil them at every turn, there is nothing wrong with in-game tinkering.
As a DM, I cheat. When an encounter that I foresee as tough is breezed through by the players, I just use the encounter "boss" and cheat with him. His stats say 20 HP and an AC of 18? That just became 60, 70, or 80 and an AC of 22 or higher. Rolled crappy on your dice? Fake it. "He comes down with a mighty overhead blow doing....21 points of damage." Seriously, nothing is more pleasing to a player than defeating a tough foe. My players dislike easy fights and if they just keep blowing through encounters, just cheat it up. They wont know. However, if your tough encounters are destroyed by well planned out attacks from the PCs, reward that by NOT cheating :p
While I do that at times, to draw out the drama and tension of an encounter by prolonging the survival of a big foe...relying on that tactic too much implies poor DM planning, if you'll pardon any offense at my saying. Such a tactic is a short term correction, not an acceptible 'equalizer knob' for every encounter.
The problem with this is time in my personal life to be so thorough. Now the question arises, is it easier and faster to make your own adventures or to use prepublished adventures?
In previous Editions, I generated 95% of my own material, both modules and random field encounters; I maintained a binder of random encounters categorized by terrain for the group.
I would pull encounters from the binder until the party entered either a module of my own making or a published one. About once a month, I would scan the MMs and restock the binder, as well as generate NPC groups and scenarios. Some campaigns were no more than a constant chain of field encounters in the wild.
But, with the complexity of 3.5 rules today and the pressures on my time as a family man (and a girlfriend to boot), I find prepublished material indispensable.
Since starting out with 3.0 play, I've run nothing but the SCAP series - for over TWO YEARS. By the time we finish, I hope that the AoWAP is hitting hardcover! *hint* ;-)
M
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I haven't read all of the above...
I learned that it had never been tougher being a DM than it is now with 3.5! Sure, for new players its so much easier to learn than the previous editions, but as a DM you have so much "running behind your screen" that sometimes I got overwhelmed!
Especially the NPCs with character levels. Man, I can't tell you how often I've read the entry of Bazim-Gorag (#101 / Prison of the Firebringer) or the beginning encounter of "Secret of the Soul Pillars (#109), you might remember those three assassins send by...(no spoilers here!).
I don't know a good advice on how to "learn" such entries, I just find it that sometimes I am ahead of things and the encounter is really tough while on the other hand I blow up potentially deadly encounters, with my players ploughing through the enemies like hell...
Being a DM is not always easy - but one thing for all those DMs who blow it up sometimes:
I learned, that my players almost never realize I blew it up and always feel great afterwards, feeling like heroes. And that's what's it all about, isn't it?!
I agree with you that having to make constant adjustments on the fly is a result of poor planning. However, I believe the intent a purpose of D&D is simply this: fun. However you arrive at that final destination is a method left up to your and your group. The means by which you reach it are not to be judged by any other, nor do they warrant explanation.
Furthermore, I believe that spending more time in preparation that in actual play detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game and what it can offer.
I preprint most of the encounter stats on 4x6 or 3x5 cards so I can refer to them easily in the game.
I have a "cheat sheet" with the most common pre-combat "buff" spells summarized so I can refer to them more quickly and remember the various buffing and protective effects that an NPC bad guy would have up and running.
It isn't perfect, but it helps.
I think that the common points made by all of the DMs here indicate a common underlying theme - missing the details of the material or gameplay.
This might be a good time to offer other good tips to avoid these forgetful screw ups - did I miss any?
- PRE-READ the material thoroughly!
- Be intimately familiar with your villains, monsters and NPCs!
- Avoid ultra-complex monster/half-breed/template/multi-class/prestige-class NPC villains that are loaded with feats and spells, unless you have already met the previous condition (or created the NPC yourself just for this encounter).
- PREPARE for your session before it starts - review!
- Think like the villain/NPC; you want to kill them as badly and efficiently as they do you - just avoid meta-gaming as the DM while you do so...
- TRACK EVERYTHING you can manage without slowing the game - I use a combat sheet and write down all character/monster/NPC actions for each round, so I can refer back to them as I go.M
Hear hear.
It happens sometimes that the villian is much to easy purely one DM forgetfulness - but the fact that it happens to everyone does not make it some how desirable.
The poblem with this is time in my personal life to be so thorough. Now the question arises, is it easier and faster to make your own adventures or to use prepublished adventures?I think that the common points made by all of the DMs here indicate a common underlying theme - missing the details of the material or gameplay.
This might be a good time to offer other good tips to avoid these forgetful screw ups - did I miss any?
- PRE-READ the material thoroughly!
- Be intimately familiar with your villains, monsters and NPCs!
- Avoid ultra-complex monster/half-breed/template/multi-class/prestige-class NPC villains that are loaded with feats and spells, unless you have already met the previous condition (or created the NPC yourself just for this encounter).
- PREPARE for your session before it starts - review!
- Think like the villain/NPC; you want to kill them as badly and efficiently as they do you - just avoid meta-gaming as the DM while you do so...
- TRACK EVERYTHING you can manage without slowing the game - I use a combat sheet and write down all character/monster/NPC actions for each round, so I can refer back to them as I go.M
Their both pretty time consuming if done well IMO. I feel like I'm starting a flame war but maybe you should consider handing over the screen to some one not so time cramped?
Their both pretty time consuming if done well IMO. I feel like I'm starting a flame war but maybe you should consider handing over the screen to some one not so time cramped?
Nah, they like playing, and I like DMing. We're all still having fun. :)
Besides, none of us really have the time to DM the way we'd like to; we just work with what we have. It's also more about getting together and having fun than it is about gaming accuracy.
Their both pretty time consuming if done well IMO. I feel like I'm starting a flame war but maybe you should consider handing over the screen to some one not so time cramped?
Nah, they like playing, and I like DMing. We're all still having fun. :)
Besides, none of us really have the time to DM the way we'd like to; we just work with what we have. It's also more about getting together and having fun than it is about gaming accuracy.
Yep, that's exactly my situation. If I had the time, I'd prepare a heck of a lot more. As it is I already put all NPC's and monsters on index cards - but thats about the extent of it (and sometimes it just doesn't seem to help :-P). But with a 4 year old, 3 year old, and 1 year old, plus the full time job, free time is just not an abundant commodity in my life. I'm just thankful my wife lets me have the one evening a week to game at all :-)
And of all of us, I'm pretty much the only one interested in DMing. I've often said to the guys that if they wanted to, I'd be more than willing to step aside and let someone else DM. But in the 6 or so years we've been playing together, its only ever happened on one occasion. Besides, I like the storytelling aspect of DMing. Oh, and I like reading the modules beforehand, too. :-)
Greg
Keep the dungeon issue with your next adventure session and a highlight pen in the bathroom, on the top shelf where the kids can't reach. If you read for 10 minutes a day, you can preview/review most of your encounters for the week's session, while getting a much needed break from your beloved screaming children. Highlight the 4-5 spells, feats, magic items that you definitely don't want to forget about for your next encounter. With the new stat blocks it's easier. I also highlight DCs for traps, etc., so I can find it quickly on the page when I know it's there. The highlighter helps me remember what was important 5-6 days (or weeks) after I reviewed it.
My group was in a fight in a corridor with the majority of the party trapped in the middle with a bunch of melee cronies hitting us from both sides. But since they could only get at us one at a time we were cleaning up. An evil cleric (The leader) comes out and starts making trouble. So the ranger ridirects his fire and starts filling the cleric with arrows. 9 hits later the fight is winding down and the DM says "oops! none of those arrows had any effect , I forgot the cleric used protection from arrows before he came out" So now the DM rfills the clerics hp and kills several cronies instead "saying the ranger would have shot at them after realizing arrows were no good.
My group was in a fight in a corridor with the majority of the party trapped in the middle with a bunch of melee cronies hitting us from both sides. But since they could only get at us one at a time we were cleaning up. An evil cleric (The leader) comes out and starts making trouble. So the ranger ridirects his fire and starts filling the cleric with arrows. 9 hits later the fight is winding down and the DM says "oops! none of those arrows had any effect , I forgot the cleric used protection from arrows before he came out" So now the DM rfills the clerics hp and kills several cronies instead "saying the ranger would have shot at them after realizing arrows were no good.
That, IMHO, is the wrong way to handle it. If I screw up, but I realise no more that one round later, I may "fix" it, but only if the effect is minor or if it favours the PC's (yeah, I'm a softy). However, if it means a significant change in the tide of battle, or it's more than a few rounds later, I just suck it up and live with it. IMO, you err on the side of the players and not on the side of "being right". We try to have fun, and pissing off the players is not the way to go about it. In general I can have fun regardless of whether the NPC get a fair shake or not. PCs, however, tend to have less fun if they are getting the short end of the stick.
Greg
My group was in a fight in a corridor with the majority of the party trapped in the middle with a bunch of melee cronies hitting us from both sides. But since they could only get at us one at a time we were cleaning up. An evil cleric (The leader) comes out and starts making trouble. So the ranger ridirects his fire and starts filling the cleric with arrows. 9 hits later the fight is winding down and the DM says "oops! none of those arrows had any effect , I forgot the cleric used protection from arrows before he came out" So now the DM rfills the clerics hp and kills several cronies instead "saying the ranger would have shot at them after realizing arrows were no good.
That would have been my fault, running 3FoE, Theldrick being the cleric. It was late, and I was tired, but yes, it was a big blunder. It would have been better if I had just had him spend a full round producing a cure potion to restore said lost hp, then the potion of protection from arrows. Since that time, whenever I'm running an NPC with potions and scrolls and such that will change their stats, I make plenty of notations throughout my sheets to make sure I see it and remember it. I'd have to say that's the biggest in-battle DMing blunder I've ever let show through.
Careful planning of the main BBEG is key here. I don't use ANY random encounters in my game. I have a long list of encounter TYPES, which i am familiar with that i randomly inject into play to keep the action moving in the direction i want it to go. Random encounters drag game play down and i like to keep the action moving toward the story goal. i feel as though random encounters take away from this path and take up too much time.
That being said, i make sure i have everything about a BBEG right in front of my face, plastered to my DM screen with all relevant abilities highlighted with red. things like this are written in huge permanent marker and underlined: "CANNOT BE CRITTED AT ALL!!", "DON'T FORGET MAGIC RESISTANCE! AND IMMUNITY TO FIRE, COLD!", "REMEMBER PROTECTION FROM ARROWS AND BROOCH OF SHIELDING!" or even "STONE SKIN DAMAGE REDUCTION 10!!!" These little reminders usually help me with the details and make my bad guys more potent because i tend to forget a lot less. Also, running the encounters a few times before hand usually helps familiarize myself with all of the tactics the bad guys or monsters have available and may use during the encounter. there is nothing so frustrating as forgetting the harpy's captivating song or the troll's regeneration ability in the middle of things and having these be the reason said monster was trounced so easily.
another thing, why would you give the players an arrow of lich slaying? that just seems to be WAY too nice to your players. but that's just my 2 francs. hope this helps.
Happens to me sometimes. The encounter seemed too easy for them and then... BANG! You see it crystal clear, either a ability i didn´t use it or a item...
I let my mistakes lay down and just move long, time does not turn back and i´m not fan of that question, it´s bad enough to try to see all the doors on the WLD mapa anyway...
"Rubberbanding", as we call it always bad. That is, the classic "Oops, those last five attacks didn't actually hit, so let's go back to round one." Sometimes it's unavoidable like when I forgot to have the party's elf make Spot checks for the secret doors in a maze, but usually it's easier to just nerf the bad guy a bit to make up for damage that they should/should not have taken.
I'm usually pretty thorough on documenting the baddies (I, too, make big giant notes in the margins for abilities that I know will be a factor) and prep the heck out of pre-published stuff. The kicker is once the PCs start screwing up the battlefield. "What? I'm shaken? OK, I'll jot that down so I can forget about it in two rounds." I actually think a lot of it is because combat in the game has gotten so complex - two rounds may be ten minutes later the way higher level battles go.
As for not using magic items, a lot of that is easy to explain if players even question it. In our last session, the characters took down a stone giant mercenary who still had some potions of Cure Moderate or Serious (I don't remember) on him. Of course, by the time he might have started using them, he had three characters just waiting for the chance to drop Attacks of Opportunity on him.
Yeah, here's one I just flubbed up an hour ago. We we're running the Champions games, and I forgot the dwarf barbarians as the second fight. I went straight to Froghemoth and then Auric's band. With the ease they took out the Uglastakklssdjfsl or whatever that thing is called, the dwarves would of lasted 2 rounds or less.
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I see a lot of folks saying that they upgrade or downgrade the BBEG depending on any flubs they make. Don't forget to also upgrade or downgrade the CR and the amount of XP the party receives.
While it might be your fault that the ogre mage forgot that he had invisibility at-will, an ogre mage who never uses that ability is not very realistic (well, "realistic" as defined within the confines of the game world) and the challenge of the encounter has been watered down. In terms of how much to change the CR, you'll need to play it by ear. An important ability like invisibility might be worth 1 point of CR, but something minor like low-light vision might not affect the CR at all.