You know, I haven't found it to be too much of a problem. Some people have trouble challenging the superpowered PCs; others find that combat grind gets bad. I think these reinforce each other.
My PCs are level 25 and I've had a bit of trouble challenging them, but a few tweaks to my encounters fixed it. It helps that my players are fairly casual--none of the PCs are highly optimized. Combat grind hasn't been an issue, partly because the players are very familiar with their PCs (a few players are new, but most have been playing the same characters from level 1).
Here's what I'm doing to make combat work:
- Building all of my encounters from scratch. I've been doing this from (almost) the beginning; the pre-built encounters in WotBS 4e aren't very good. (I've actually been converting the 3.5e version of WotBS, rather than using the 4e version, since around mid-paragon.)
- Using a lot of "automatic" damage. Environmental effects, off-budget post-MM3 minions, terrain... I really play up the 'epic' aspect of the PCs surroundings to add things that will hurt the PCs without adding to combat grind.
- 100% post-MM3 monsters with lots of reflavoring. I search the online compendium for monsters that have the right "feel" in their powers, then gratuitously reflavor them to match the WotBS plot. Sometimes I'll add a custom power, but usually not, as I only have an hour or two to prep each week. I use the excellent power2ool.com to filter the levels I'm looking for and sort by source. It's easy to tell which monsters are "good" because they have the new-style stat block.
- Keeping encounter budgets low. I keep my encounter budgets between Lvl + 1 and Lvl + 3, with the goal that Lvl + 3 is a major challenge. I adjust the "automatic" damage accordingly.
- More monsters is better than fewer. I almost never use solo monsters, and I prefer not to use elites. I also prefer to use lower-level monsters (lvl - 1 or lvl + 0), which gives me more monsters for a given budget. The action economy is king, and the PCs just have too many ways to lock down a single monster.
- Switching it up. I look for things that will add challenge or interest to encounters without increasing the encounter budget. For example, this week's session is going to involve a lot of flight (we're starting Act II of adventure 10), so the PCs will need to protect their phantasmal steeds or they'll disappear out from under them.
- Good table control. I use lots of props to keep things moving: index cards to indicate initiative, pre-printed tokens for status effects, little plastic "gems" on the initiative cards to indicate when a condition ends. Last week, one of my players gave me a croupier stick.
I'm also pushy, in a friendly way, about players taking their turns quickly.All in all, I'm really enjoying the epic tier. Combined with the WotBS plotline, it really does feel like an epic capstone to the saga.
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