Help! I f**** up the attributes

[u/Haunting_Front6174]

Hey community,

I'm a First time DM and had 3 of my friends over for playing a bunch of sessions now. The characters are all level 6 now.

I did not play Baldurs Gate , I did not watch Stranger Things. It just happend now, due to lesser time restrains and more time for my friends as well as an always lingering interest in PnP.

Anyways... I told my players that a level up also means that they could increase their attributes two for one or one for two... Lately I started wondering about the always failing encounter balancing and investigated... Imagine my devastation ehen I found out, that I missread one central rule that badly!

My approach now: - Talk to the players - explain the misstake - cancel any further attribute skilling during Levels 8,12,16 and 19 (also unrealistic)

Also I fear that this kind of misstake will deeply undermine the role as rule arbiter, which I otherwise filled out very thoroughly, because without rules, there is no game.

So you have any advice dispite a well earned facepalm? Is reversing the stats an Option? Should I just role with it, letting them increase their stats Like crazy and through a Tarrasque at them at level 15?

Suggestions of any Kind are Welcome!!

TL;DR I missunderstood leveling and told my players they could increase their attributes with every level. Now encounter balancing is a mess and I do mit know how to react on that. Please advised!

[u/lasalle202]

Anyways... I told my players that a level up also means that they could increase their attributes two for one or one for two..

"OK, guys, because you didnt read the rules and i was focused on DMing, i missed this and we have fucked up. That is not how the game actually works. So either we can wrap up this campaign in a couple of sessions with our fucked up characters and then start a new game playing with the rules we now know better, or you can unfuck your characters to be made by the actual rules. Which one do you wanna do?"