Melinglor,

I think we're just splitting hairs at this point. I agree with you on eschewing blunders in a heroic narrative but I like to promote the awesomeness of the PCs in separate scenes -- mundane fights. Obi Wan Kenobi v.s. that guy in the bar. The Terminator v.s. that biker with the coat. Batman v.s. the purse snatcher. Sherlock Holmes v.s. something trivial that Watson couldn't figure. Larger than life v.s. life. I establish it in a separately keep the pressure off later scenes where the characters are evenly matched. That way I don't have to keep reminding the players how awesome they are, I just have to point out that their foe is as awesome as they are which is very awesome indeed! (As established in Episode 1: Adventurers v.s. the purse snatcher with a nice coat in a bar who left a clue that Watson couldn't figure out.)

Last week I joined a drop in game for D&D. After looking over our characters, the GM made some light hearted jokes about how weak our party would be since we only had a pair of clerics for spellcasters, but he wasn't laughing when the clerics cast "hold person" on his arch-villain. Poor villain only got a move (20') and a free action ("Kill them, KILL THEM ALL!!!") before he was paralyzed, grappled and cudgeled to unconsciousness. Classic case of a badass doing something stupid and looking like a fool... ...which is ultimately the GM's fault.

I'm no expert at D&D but I suspect that our next baddie will be wearing a ring of "Hold person? Heck no!" or have some hired clerics, or hide better than running front and center and shouting "Kill kill kill!" ... or something. The point is, baddies need the D&D specific tools and tactics. It goes doubly so for fay and low hitpoint monsters since they don't last long deadlocked with a party of adventurers. My preference is cheat on the NPC's character creation but be totaly above board durring the game.

It's like on Survivor (the tv show). Rupert, the worlds most popular survivor, was voted off the island, so the producers came up with a sequel: Survivor Allstars: It's rigged so Rupert will win! He got voted off that island too so he missed out on the second million dollar prize. ....but the audience got to award a THIRD million dollar prize to their favorite survivor i.e. Rupert. If the producers had rigged the votes it would have completely undermined so-called reality of reality tv. But rigging the game was fine! Likewise I say, rig the game so that the satyress will do what you want but don't rig the dice.

(Ha! If all those tangents don't get the spotlight off your campaign, I don't know what will!)

One way to make sure that PCs have a better success rate is to pit them against monsters and challanges a CR or two less then even. This seems like cheating, but it's really not. CRs are just a rough measure of capability. If you, as the DM, are thinking that these characters arn't real tough (as they didn't consider the numbers when they were built, and are thus a little under the avarage), just pitch them some lower level opponents.

At level 1, that's hard. Nobody feels heroic kicking bunnies. There's another trick, though. PCs don't have to start off as level 1. Start them off at level 3 (Or just be extra generous with exp. until they level) and then pitch level 1 or 2 challanges at them. Natural animal ACs will drop compared to yours, your PCs will be able to afford better equipment, everyone's BaB will go up 1 to 2 points (a big deal early in that game) and everyone gets a Feat - make sure they spend it on something that will shore up whatever they're lacking in the most.

Good choices include: Skill Focus (Concentration) [casters of any stripe], Improved Init.(anyone) , Power Attack (high str. combatants), Weapon Finesse [high dex combatants), Point Blank and Precise Shot (anyone who regularly uses ranged attacks), Two-Weapon Fighting (rouges only), or, if they look like they're struggling to hit, something like Weapon Specialization might be the only way to bump up your to-hit bonus in the early game.