i disagree with you on that point the challanges provided in the system are made that way they can be overcome you are supposed to overcome them...
after all it's not fun for the players to lose!
of course its also no fun if there is no challange, but i always thought that the gamemaster should provide challanges that at least appear to be tough ;-). so the players can feel like they really accomplished something by the end of the day.
This is not quite on-topic, but it's a topic dear to my heart : IMO, PCs should sometimes lose. Or rather, potentially lose - the outcome should naturally not be rigged. For most campaigns it would be "losing a battle but winning the war" but with the right players & DMs the campaign could be about losing the war...
Of course it has to be part of the DM-player contract.
I leave you with this text by the author of the Amber roleplaying game (ignore the references to Amber mechanics like Bad or Good Stuff/Karma).
[spoiler]Two Great Characters
As a Game Master, I've got two favorite characters.
Back in 1985, when the first Attribute Auction was held, and I was the first novice Amber Game Master, there were many interesting characters. Some players came up with powerful characters, in fact, with the most powerful Amber characters I've seen, or ever expect to see. I love those powerhouse guys!
But they weren't my favorites.
My favorites were the two who were flawed, yet not fatally. Two characters very much of Amber, yet misfits. Were, and came to be, people totally apart from their players.
Don Woodward came up with Carolan, noble and forthright, an honest innocent among the cynics of Amber.
Mike Kucharski came up with Morgan, vile and underhanded, a rat among men.
These two characters, one based on Good Stuff, the other on Bad Stuff, were wonderful.
Because they were tragic.
They made mistakes.
Not little piddling mistakes.
No, Morgan and Carolan made world-beating, gasping, horrific and apocalyptic mistakes.
They were like the two sides of the Amber character.
Carolan was a Good Stuff kind of guy. Trusting, honest, and earnest about Amber. As Game Master I stomped all over him, abused his trust, and sent the worst of the elder Amberites to manipulate him shamelessly.
Morgan invested in Bad Stuff and loved it. No good guy he. He enjoyed back stabbing, murder and mayhem. In response to his Bad Stuff his luck was always out, and behind every door the Game Master placed enemies seeking his blood. Morgan, in his haste to eliminate opponents, also killed his share of innocents.
Six years later, I know why they were, and are, my favorites.
It's because they honestly grew.
Carolan, embittered by fate and his own gullibility, managed to maim a feared Uncle, and kill a beloved Aunt. He experienced betrayal of his every honest emotion. And turned to denial, denying responsibility for his own actions.
Don, the player, complained bitterly about a game where nothing was "fun" and where he found pain everywhere.
Worse, he seemed to bring pain to everyone he loved.
Eventually he got through it. Full circle, Carolan faced his guilt, and conquered it.
Morgan left a trail of bodies and saw nothing gained by it. Those he killed were no challenge, and were, in retrospect, blameless. He found fulfillment where he least expected it. He, Morgan, sought a team of killers. He found them, but in them he also discovered his own weakness. He turns out to be a better father than he thought possible.
And, Mike, playing Morgan, had plenty of cause for complaint, when I turned his lovely children into a new batch of argumentative player characters. Now tempted by violence, Morgan finds reasons to turn the other cheek.
Each of them, Carolan and Morgan, had to question their motives, and their character. With each turn of fate they grew.
Now, six years into the campaign, they each remain among the hunted, banished from Amber for their crimes, their lives forfeit by the order of the King.
Why are they my favorites?
Because they, unlike any characters I've ever witnessed, have been through the baptism of fire. They've been hammered, and bent, and hammered again, like swords in a forge, until their characters have emerged in glory.
Nowadays, when Morgan, or Carolan, speaks, there is no confusion. The characters have become real, and deep, and there is no simplicity
left within them ...
So, why go on about these guys?
Well, maybe it11 tell you something about putting together an Amber character.
[...]
The main thing, though, is that they both saw that they were making a beginning for their characters. They didn't try to do everything, or be all-powerful. Instead, they recognized, maybe subconsciously, that they were in the game for the long haul.
They took the time to grow.
[/spoiler]
I'm not saying he got everything right either : there's that player that complained about not having fun ; and not everybody wants this kind of deep playstyle. But I figure it could be thought-provoking for D&D optimizers.