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~wicked smile~ I think that the next time I run someone through an area that has some kobolds, I will have a statue of a man holding a book with an inscription in kobold saying "The wise and powerful Tucker, bringer of strategy and tactics!"
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As has been said here, I think that Tucker's Kobolds were the first time a lot of people looked at the intelligence of the Kobold and saw that it was average. They weren't stupid, they were as smart as your average human. Tucker added traps and tactics to a critter that usually was seen as "kill 50 of these and you should be looking at second level (unless you were a thief, then you'd be looking at around 3rd)". For me, I remember suddenly thinking "Hey, adventures don't have to be in a closed system, the dungeon is a living creature and shouldn't just have things in there because I thought they'd be neat."
Rambling, I'm good at it.
Do you give extra XP and loot for facing kobolds that present a challenge far in excess of their CR?
The greater the challenge, the greater the xp. Tucker's kobolds probably have more funds thrown into their defensive operation by their overlord, so the xp should be greater.
Or you could give massive xp bonuses for breaking into and through each wing of the defensive complex, closer and closer to the goal.
Okay you pass the groinal scythe traps with the archers above (dex poison arrows to lower reflex), have some xp.
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I would certainly give out more XP for kobolds I designed to be extra-challenging. Absolutely.
Guessing y'all house ruled out casting times? Just about anything short of a pole arm was faster than a high level spell, and the magic user's initiative is when he started casting...
12th level Magic-User (who is supposed to be smarter than average): "We know there are kobolds on the first level who are organized and like to use missiles, fire, etc. and move around in small tunnels between the main corridors. OK, Cleric, make sure you memorize resist fire as one of your 2nd-level spells when you pray to your deity before we travel to the dungeon tomorrow. I'll memorize invisibility, fireball, fly, infravision, and wizard eye. Once we get to the dungeon entrance, I'll cast wizard eye to scout a bit to find out the nearby dungeon layout and locations of the nearby kobolds. After I describe/draw the layout and locations, I'll cast infravision and fly on myself; then you cast resist fire on me while I cast protection from normal missiles. I'll then cast invisibility and fly to a good location before casting fireball to roast as many kobolds as possible as the explosion fills all those small tunnels and sets off their oil. I'll then fly back to the entrance as the rest of the party and henchmen/hirelings move in quickly to secure the blasted area after hearing the explosion. Everyone should stand about 30 ft back from the entrance, just in case."
Rinse, repeat, etc. If the kobolds can replace losses of tens to hundreds per day, then you aren't fighting a tribe living in a dungeon, you're fighting a nation with advanced logistics. At which point, the game goes from being heroic fantasy to a fantasy warfare campaign.
Good ideas. But a few locked small doors will really slow that wizard right down. I'll use knock! How many knocks do you have? How many doors are there? If others move in to help, break, pick those doors, more targets, can they all be protected from ranged and fire/acid? Try and shoot fireballs through small murder holes for small creatures, and there is no guarantee you will not blow yourself up (remove some damage with resist fire) and break the oil containers down upon thee, creating a type of oven effect (on slow burn because of resist, unless its acid).
A wizard going ahead can also be cut up by kobolds dropping down and going to melee.
The wizard is not protected from poison and disease, and even protection from normal missiles has limits. An invisible wizard will quite likely set off traps, and there may be not enough space to effectively use fly without hurting yourself. Small tunnels are terrible for medium sized parties, a real pain to crawl everywhere.
Fear the dug-in kobolds.
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People forget how easy it was to neutralize high level wizards back then. Seriously. If they didn't control the field of battle 100%, it got bad quickly against an organized reasonably intelligent foe.
And, yeah, like the kobolds would just let someone walk up to the door and do whatever they wanted.
People forget how easy it was to neutralize high level wizards back then. Seriously. If they didn't control the field of battle 100%, it got bad quickly against an organized reasonably intelligent foe.
And, yeah, like the kobolds would just let someone walk up to the door and do whatever they wanted.
True. One false move and that wizard going alone would be toasted.
Flying + invisibility are relatively accessible spells, and intelligent kobolds could easily designed traps against those particularly expected spells. Objects need to be stowed away in order to become invisible in 1e/2e, which means that a simple flour/dust trap will counter an invisibility spell. Flying or not, it would be easy for the kobolds to include choke points where the wizard has to get through, whether he touches the ground or not.
As previously stated, grids and pits can serve as cloudkill siphons, grates and waterways can delay the group enough to waste lasting spells. Poison gases and drowning bypass quite a few magical protections as well.
The wizard would be better served with a charm monster spell and a good disguise for a VIP visit of the complex or escort through the kobold's territory...
12th level Magic-User (who is supposed to be smarter than average): "We know there are kobolds on the first level who are organized and like to use missiles, fire, etc. and move around in small tunnels between the main corridors. OK, Cleric, make sure you memorize resist fire as one of your 2nd-level spells when you pray to your deity before we travel to the dungeon tomorrow. I'll memorize invisibility, fireball, fly, infravision, and wizard eye. Once we get to the dungeon entrance, I'll cast wizard eye to scout a bit to find out the nearby dungeon layout and locations of the nearby kobolds. After I describe/draw the layout and locations, I'll cast infravision and fly on myself; then you cast resist fire on me while I cast protection from normal missiles. I'll then cast invisibility and fly to a good location before casting fireball to roast as many kobolds as possible as the explosion fills all those small tunnels and sets off their oil. I'll then fly back to the entrance as the rest of the party and henchmen/hirelings move in quickly to secure the blasted area after hearing the explosion. Everyone should stand about 30 ft back from the entrance, just in case."
All good ideas, no doubt. But that doesn't mean all of them are available to the party at the time. Assuming the 12th level wizard has a 17 intelligence (quite respectable), he's got a 75% chance to understand each of those spells if he had encountered it and tried to put it in his spellbook. And he'd be limited to 14 spells per level in his book. So he'd have probably been pretty choosy, perhaps not picking up infravision (relying on his demi-human compatriots for that ability).
Since this was also 1e, he'd be slinging 12 die fireballs. In tight quarters he'd be virtually unable to avoid taking damage from his own blowback. Resist fire would reduce any damage he takes by half and he'd probably make his save (probably at least 75% of the time), yielding quarter damage each time. If we use expected values here, he's doing about 10 points of damage to himself every shot. If he's got average hit points, he can survive two of those and pray like hell he didn't set off any damaging traps.
So, challenges still exist in this situation.
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12th level Magic-User (who is supposed to be smarter than average): "We know there are kobolds on the first level who are organized and like to use missiles, fire, etc. and move around in small tunnels between the main corridors. OK, Cleric, make sure you memorize resist fire as one of your 2nd-level spells when you pray to your deity before we travel to the dungeon tomorrow. I'll memorize invisibility, fireball, fly, infravision, and wizard eye. Once we get to the dungeon entrance, I'll cast wizard eye to scout a bit to find out the nearby dungeon layout and locations of the nearby kobolds. After I describe/draw the layout and locations, I'll cast infravision and fly on myself; then you cast resist fire on me while I cast protection from normal missiles. I'll then cast invisibility and fly to a good location before casting fireball to roast as many kobolds as possible as the explosion fills all those small tunnels and sets off their oil. I'll then fly back to the entrance as the rest of the party and henchmen/hirelings move in quickly to secure the blasted area after hearing the explosion. Everyone should stand about 30 ft back from the entrance, just in case."
Really? One fireball into a Column holding up the ceiling and the Dungeon falls in...
The average door in a dungeon would get blown off its hinges and incinerated in the path of a fireball.
a few doors aren't going to stop the wizard.
You also have to realize kobolds are d4 creatures. They effectively had -1 to hit, net. A 12th level mage should easily be walking around with AC 1 to -3...it would take a nat 20 for the kobolds to HIT him. In addition to him being immune to their flaming crap and missile fire. It doesn't matter how many of them are if none of them can hurt him!
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And if the dungeon falls in, the kobolds are dead and we can about digging out the path way, stone shaping up a new support, and otherwise act nicely.
Face it, the kobolds were smart, the party was stupid.
===Aelryinth
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The average door in a dungeon would get blown off its hinges and incinerated in the path of a fireball.
a few doors aren't going to stop the wizard.
You also have to realize kobolds are d4 creatures. They effectively had -1 to hit, net. A 12th level mage should easily be walking around with AC 1 to -3...it would take a nat 20 for the kobolds to HIT him. In addition to him being immune to their flaming crap and missile fire. It doesn't matter how many of them are if none of them can hurt him!
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And if the dungeon falls in, the kobolds are dead and we can about digging out the path way, stone shaping up a new support, and otherwise act nicely.
Face it, the kobolds were smart, the party was stupid.
===Aelryinth
You must have had a very soft DM. Wizards were the ultimate glass cannons in 1e. Didn't take much to disrupt spell casting at all.
You still had to HIT the wizard, and kobolds can't hit crap. You must have had a wizard hating DM. A level 12 wizard could MELEE the kobolds and kill them all. Eesh.
==Aelryinth
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You still had to HIT the wizard, and kobolds can't hit crap. You must have had a wizard hating DM. A level 12 wizard could MELEE the kobolds and kill them all. Eesh.
==Aelryinth
Yeah, uh-huh. No. We're talking about a warren of kobolds. And, that means several firing at or throwing rocks at the wizard a round. And it only takes one hit to disrupt casting. One. And several of those spells you mentioned are higher level, and AD&D was pretty good about the 1 seg. per level deal for most combat type spells. And you don't start your spell until your initiative turn. Which generally means the little suckers have ample time to get that one hit in.
Me thinks your DM just let your spell go off on your turn if you think it was that easy. I'd quote the DMG about casing in combat, but I'm sure you DM never actually read the book, so it is probably pointless...
Edit: I.E. if 20 kobolds are attacking from their various murder holes and hidey spaces, one will more than likely hit. It's only a d20, you know.
Dude. Protection from Normal Missiles. A million kobolds could be throwing stuff at you. You aren't taking ANY damage.
You don't summon an Elemental in the middle of a horde of enemies. You summon it before you enter the dungeon and let it loose on them. I actually think the summoning time was a turn!
20 kobolds cannot REACH you in combat unless you are a total tactical idiot, like, um, standing in the middle of multiple ceiling murder holes and making sure two ranks of kobolds can surround you on all sides...with polearms. And, you know, not bothering to surprise them by floating past all their traps invisibly.
And then one MIGHT hit you. or you could just throw out a 6 missile Magic missile spell in 1 segment and auto-kill six of them. Or maybe burning hands for the same.
Come on. You're trying to make a prepared, savvy PC play more and more like an idiot. Y'know, like the original PC's. I can see you like the kobolds, that's all nice...but that doesn't mean they are prepared to deal with someone who actually knows how to use spells.
===Aelryinth
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You're playing the typical "has every spell he needs all the time" wizard. What was your roll to even know "protection from normal missiles"? Is it in your spellbook?
You make assumptions that the players were idiots, but you don't know how many know spell rolls the wizard may have missed. 1e wasn't 3x, you didn't just get whatever spell you wanted. And chances are, you didn't have a 17 or an 18 in Int, which meant you were even more limited in your spell selection.
I'm still going with permissive DM.
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I don't remember the rules to 1st edition (I was all of about 10), but I'd have to assume that any argument that was predicated on the assumption that Roger E. Moore didn't know how to play D&D is one bound to lose.
You give XP based on what the characters overcome. If they have 50 1/6th CR traps and they bypass them all, then they get XP for them. If they only encounter 25 of them, and they bypass 15 and just blunder through 10, then they get XP for 15.
Traps don't raise the CR of the kobolds, traps have their own CRs. Easy peasy.
In 1st ed., depending on your DM, traps did not give xp.
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Do you give extra XP and loot for facing kobolds that present a challenge far in excess of their CR?
Depends what you, as GM, consider to constitute 'presenting a challenge in excess of their CR'.
Does the CR ¼ for a regular kobold refer only to its combat stats (which are pitiful)?
Or is it meant to include and allow for their tactics and trap-making ability?
It could be argued that without the tactics, a kobold fighting toe to toe, on the flat, should be CR 1/6, 1/8, 1/10, 1/16? Maybe even CR 0? CR negative?
If the CR ¼ includes an assumption of tactics and trap-building, then why would you give extra xp?
Obviously, if the dungeon is some uber-deadly trapfest, a la Tomb of Horrors, where the traps are the main event, are beyond the crafting skill of the kobolds, who are there as an incidental dressing, to polish and reset them, then the xp should be based on the deadliness of the traps, with a few extra thrown in for the kobolds as an afterthought.
But for regular kobolds, using their natural gifts, to build simple tripwires, rockfalls, sneezing powders, etc? It's all part of their CR ¼, indeed, it could be argued it's the only reason such otherwise useless creatures even have a CR at all.
I always thought Flying Buffalo should have made Grimtooth a kobold instead of a troll. I mean, c'mon, who's ever heard of a troll that was smart enough to make those traps?
Well an extremely exceptional troll might have an intelligence of up to 14 at "0th" or 1st level (assuming a "roll" of 18 for intelligence then a racial adjustment of -4).
Dot!
An even simpler method:
1) Hire a 5th level illusionist that knows spectral force.
2) At the entrance of the dungeon, wedge open the doors and have the illusionist (standing 30 ft back with the rest of the party) cast a spectral force of a group of advenurers/soldiers heading down the dungeon corridor.
3) When the kobolds swarm out to attack ("The kobolds caught us about 60' into the dungeon..."; the range on spectral force for a 5th level illusionist is 90 ft), the 12th level wizard casts fireball down the dungeon corridor.
Result: Many dead kobolds for the use of two 3rd-level spells, and no one in the party took any damage.
As Aelryinth states, the party the Roger E. Moore described didn't play in a prepared, savvy fashion.
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I love the implication that the kobolds do nothing but prepare for the next group of adventurers to come through. The moment the heroes have entered, the door is barred and the corridor is on fire. You can imagine the little lizardmen squealing with glee. "Yes! Just as our food supplies are running low, more PCs show up!"
so tucker's kobolds consider the PCs kobold tucker?
You're playing the typical "has every spell he needs all the time" wizard. What was your roll to even know "protection from normal missiles"? Is it in your spellbook?
You make assumptions that the players were idiots, but you don't know how many know spell rolls the wizard may have missed. 1e wasn't 3x, you didn't just get whatever spell you wanted. And chances are, you didn't have a 17 or an 18 in Int, which meant you were even more limited in your spell selection.
I'm still going with permissive DM.
And I'm going with basic denial of reality.
A level 12 MU with a 17 Int has had 8 different chances to learn the Prot/Normal Missiles spells. The chance he has NOT been able to do so is 1/4^8, or .000001525%.
Chances are in most campaigns you DID have a 17 or 18 Int, because it was all important for learning spells. The regularity of spellcasters with a high primary stat was certainly higher then playing ones with crappy scores, unless you were a f/mu where it didn't matter so much.
In other words, you're trying to metagame the 'impossibility' of a high level wizard cleaning the clocks of a bunch of kobolds.
Dude, look at what you're arguing. That's HILARIOUS.
===Aelryinth
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so tucker's kobolds consider the PCs kobold tucker?
Australian Slang
tucker = food
Only if they were Aussie Kobolds.... then it would be worse for the PCs... Defence in depth, aggressive patrolling....
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You're playing the typical "has every spell he needs all the time" wizard. What was your roll to even know "protection from normal missiles"? Is it in your spellbook?
You make assumptions that the players were idiots, but you don't know how many know spell rolls the wizard may have missed. 1e wasn't 3x, you didn't just get whatever spell you wanted. And chances are, you didn't have a 17 or an 18 in Int, which meant you were even more limited in your spell selection.
I'm still going with permissive DM.
And I'm going with basic denial of reality.
A level 12 MU with a 17 Int has had 8 different chances to learn the Prot/Normal Missiles spells. The chance he has NOT been able to do so is 1/4^8, or .000001525%.
Chances are in most campaigns you DID have a 17 or 18 Int, because it was all important for learning spells. The regularity of spellcasters with a high primary stat was certainly higher then playing ones with crappy scores, unless you were a f/mu where it didn't matter so much.
In other words, you're trying to metagame the 'impossibility' of a high level wizard cleaning the clocks of a bunch of kobolds.
Dude, look at what you're arguing. That's HILARIOUS.
===Aelryinth
Dude, chances in 1e of having a 17 or 18 in anything were pretty slim. What game were you playing?
And I'm not discussing the "impossibility" of anything. I'm discussing the probability that even an intelligent party could find the situation difficult, considering the realities of 1e. Seriously, I know you're old school, but you sound like a 3x munchkin when you're discussing this. Even using 4d6 drop, a 17 or 18 is rare. And you have no idea if the wizard in the party under discussion even had a wizard with an 18 int. For all we know, he could have had a 15, which is much more probable. And he may have maxed out his spells for that level before he could take the ones you cite. Different game, different paradigm and a whole lot easier for DMs to make low level stuff challenging.
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so tucker's kobolds consider the PCs kobold tucker?Australian Slang
tucker = food
Only if they were Aussie Kobolds.... then it would be worse for the PCs... Defence in depth, aggressive patrolling....
Kobolds live in the Underdark, the most dangerous, monster-filled land on the Material Plane. Of course they'd use Australian slang.
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Dude, chances in 1e of having a 17 or 18 in anything were pretty slim. What game were you playing?
Seriously, I know you're old school, but you sound like a 3x munchkin when you're discussing this. Even using 4d6 drop, a 17 or 18 is rare.
EVERYONE KNOWS D&D STATS ARE THREE! D! SIX!
ONCE!IN ORDER!
NOW!
THEN GIVE ME A HUNDRED PUSHUPS!
What's all this talk of 4d6? Dropping dice? Rolling twelve sets?
Why not just add your birthday? Multiply by pi? S$&!, son, just give yourself six twenties if you're that way inclined!
If you want to play a sissified, limp-wristed pretence of a game, for bed-wetters and kindergartners!
If you want to admit to being a feeble excuse for a proper gamer, who can't handle the real thing!
PPfffssshh!
Get out of my sight! The lot of you!
You say you want to encounter kobolds?
You can't HANDLE the kobolds!
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Having recently stolen the Gm mantle at my table I was really excited at the prospect of running tucker's kobolds. However, some people seem to forget that running the opposite can be just as fun.
Cowardly, inept monsters, sleepy citadel guards and enemies with different agendas... I'm having a great time running RotR's goblins, and being especially inept with them (using total defence, ill advised manuevers, provoking AoO's, and all sorts of improvised weapons) lets me use twice the number I usually would, and lets my PCs feel like big damned heroes.
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Kobolds live in the Underdark, the most dangerous, monster-filled land on the Material Plane. Of course they'd use Australian slang.so tucker's kobolds consider the PCs kobold tucker?Australian Slang
tucker = food
Only if they were Aussie Kobolds.... then it would be worse for the PCs... Defence in depth, aggressive patrolling....
The Down Underdark, now with added Drop Bears.
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The Down Underdark, now with added Drop Bears.
don't forget to bring the vegimite.
PS: we use vergimite as drop bear repelent. no-one actually eats that stuff, even we aussies aren't that tough! ;)
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This thread makes me wonder if I should do my next campaign in 1st edition, but that would probably be too confusing for my players. :(
DoodleBug:
Give them an array of:
14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 8 to work with. This is slightly above average for "roll 3d6, no extra rolls, no drop the low die and re-roll."
9 point array FTW.
Dude, chances in 1e of having a 17 or 18 in anything were pretty slim. What game were you playing?
And I'm not discussing the "impossibility" of anything. I'm discussing the probability that even an intelligent party could find the situation difficult, considering the realities of 1e. Seriously, I know you're old school, but you sound like a 3x munchkin when you're discussing this. Even using 4d6 drop, a 17 or 18 is rare. And you have no idea if the wizard in the party under discussion even had a wizard with an 18 int. For all we know, he could have had a 15, which is much more probable. And he may have maxed out his spells for that level before he could take the ones you cite. Different game, different paradigm and a whole lot easier for DMs to make...
In 1E, the chances of getting a good score were dependent on how many times you rolled until you got a set you liked. If the DM was a scrooge, you just killed the character off and re-rolled.
Or he let you get 4d6, drop best, and assign where you like. Odds of a 16+ go way up.
Remember, in 1E, you got NO BONUSES until at LEAST a 15 in most scores...16 for Str, 15 for dex/con/wis. If you didn't have high stats, you basically didn't have ANY bonuses.
Then go back and look at the NPC's of 1E. They almost always had a 16+ in their primary scores, and if they didn't have a 16 Con, you didn't play them because they were too squishy.
Seriously, we metagamed back then just as much as people do now. Just because you didn't see fancy TH vs AC analysis all over the place didn't mean we didn't spot the sweet spots in the game.
And then, of course, Unearthed Arcana came out, and 16+ in your stats was basically a given using the alternate methods. In other words, you finally reliably got to play heros, and not useless scuds only good if they stumbled across a set of Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
Too many people think 1E was like the example above, 3d6 in order, pick your class, and go. That was hardly ever true except among the most hard-core and OLDER gamers. Us grade and high schoolers weren't having any of that nonsense. The most hardcore we ever went was 4d6, drop low, put where you want, and usually we allowed a 2:1 swap from opposing scores to lift the primary.
And your example falls down even with a 15 Int. 55% chance of learning over 8 levels is .18% of NOT learning the spell. A 14 Int is .8% of NOT learning the spell. Even a 13 Int, a measly 35% learn chance, has only a 3% chance of missing over his levels...your argument could only default to "Is that one of the few spells he picks to know?". Given that normal arrows shot from magic bows still were normal arrows, prot/normal missiles was a GREAT spell to know.
So, no, dude, your examples just aren't cutting it. The group I played with would have torn up those kobolds just to prove we could do it. It ain't like a d4 HD pack of scaled rats was going to slow us down.
===Aelryinth
DoodleBug:
Give them an array of:
14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 8 to work with. This is slightly above average for "roll 3d6, no extra rolls, no drop the low die and re-roll."
9 point array FTW.
The difference in 1E is that you now have a character who has NO bonuses.
Except maybe charisma, if you put the 13 or 14 there. +5% to charisma check rolls?
For the rest, you had nothing. Nothing!
16 Str got you your first bonus, +1 to damage.
15 Wis got you +1 on saves against mind-affecting.
15 dex got you +1 AC.
15 Con got you +1 hp/hd.
The ONLY class that benefited from int was the Wizard.
The ONLY classes that required Charisma were the paladin, an insane 17 that guaranteed they were a rare class, and the Druid, requiring a 15 so also rare. I rolled up 2 paladins 'honestly' in all my days. On the other hand, I managed to roll up 2 fighters with 18/00 over the course of ten years, go figure...(not counting half-ogres).
If you look at old stat blocks, you reliably see multiple scores of 16 or higher, because lower scores didn't mean anything, unlike in 3E+. This 'spreading the love' of stat scores is one of the things that really shifted the balance of 3E from earlier editions, as now you could get bonuses for having LOW stats, instead of having to really invest in core stats to perform well in your class.
Furthermore, all your XP bonuses were predicated on having a 15 in your primary stat. +10% was enough to assure that people wanted that high stat in their prime score.
'Easy stats' really shifted the balance of power in this version of the game, and it has made a difference.
==Aelryinth
Note that the "hire a 5th level illusionist that knows spectral force" is not dependent on (PC) ability score generation methods. A 12th level wizard should have plenty of funds from adventuring, especially considering that "buying/selling magic items" was pretty much not happening in 1st Ed; even copying spells into your spellbook still left you with a lot of money (unless your DM didn't follow the treasure tables, you also had a bunch of lower-powered magic items that you could use as loyalty enhancers).
Granted, illusionists weren't very common, but a large town would probably have at least one and a city would have several (if there is an organized "wizard's guild" or something similar, then there will be more of them). Since Tucker's Kobolds are part of a "classic mega-dungeon," periodic (lengthy) breaks to recover/train (on gaining a new level)/side trips (to a major city for rare supplies)/etc. are expected. If there are no suitable illusionists nearby, then all the party needs to do is take a trip to a large city and spend some "down time" on advertising and interviewing candidates.
Again, the party described by Roger E. Moore did not play in a prepared, savvy fashion. I'm not knocking the kobolds by saying that two prepared, savvy 5th level characters using two 3rd level spells (which are pretty iconic for their classes) could have killed them in batches with hardly any risk to themselves; that a "high level" party (in 1st Ed, once you hit "name level" at about 9th-11th, you were considered "high level") couldn't figure out a way to deal with them says more about the players' abilities relative to Tucker as a DM than it does about their characters' "limitations."
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Summon Bigger Fish. While the kobolds are eating, fireball.
You have now p*ssed off the rest of the kobolds and blocked the only other exit with a giant burning fish.
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Statement 1: "Monsters and tactics can beat stupid players" == alright true.
Statement 2: "The players were stupid, if they used tactics they could have beat the monsters as presented" == alright also true.
Statement 3: "Well now the oil is hidden behind doors, and and and and..(changing things from how they were to something that might ruin said smart players with tactics)" == crap GM that can't stand losing and has to fudge things when the players are being smart.