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I keep bottle-necking the heroes (advice)
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7596062" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>It's a valid enough tactic for the monsters to use, and one parties often use, too (a lot of parties would /love/ to have a convenient choke point in every encounter, and go out of their way to engineer them), so I don't see a problem, per se, if one side of a combat wants to delay the other and/or if it can bring all it's offense to bear along a narrow front, then adopting a defensive posture at a choke point is ideal, for them. </p><p></p><p>It's a good idea to change up encounters, of course. Some even-odds encounters with Standard monsters, some Elite+Minions, or double-teaming elites, the occasional Solo - the epic big boss fight with Solo, plus a standard or two /and/ minions. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>You can also do quite a variety of encounters by monster roles. An encounter with a band of skirmishers or lurkers, for instance, will have none of the issues you describe. </p><p></p><p>SO you can address the issue on your side of the screen by using more skirmishers, lurkers, and solos, and fewer combined-arms squads of soldiers-and-artillery. And by using more open-field scenarios rather than dungeon rooms and the like with inevitable choke points. You can also place items that address the problem, the occasional 'throwing' weapon to get melee-only players a ranged option, would be an example, items can add a little dose of mobility or control, too.</p><p></p><p>Also, consider that 4e tends to get grindy when other eds might fall into a death spiral, so consider it a waring sign - that you may be playing the monsters too smart, making the encounter too tough, or that your players may be slacking (which is, I'm afraid, more what it sounds like in this instance - and you have to put a lot of effort into slacking to get a broad lack of competence in range & control out of a 4e party... unless they're a bunch of Essentials Knights or something).</p><p></p><p>Your players can address the issue by playing more aggressively when this sort of thing starts to shape up - do some bull-rushing and/or improvised maneuvers to get past that front line and bring the whole party's offense to bear - and, in the medium term by taking feats to goose initiative and choosing powers with more control and ranged options, if not outright swapping out a character two.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7596062, member: 996"] It's a valid enough tactic for the monsters to use, and one parties often use, too (a lot of parties would /love/ to have a convenient choke point in every encounter, and go out of their way to engineer them), so I don't see a problem, per se, if one side of a combat wants to delay the other and/or if it can bring all it's offense to bear along a narrow front, then adopting a defensive posture at a choke point is ideal, for them. It's a good idea to change up encounters, of course. Some even-odds encounters with Standard monsters, some Elite+Minions, or double-teaming elites, the occasional Solo - the epic big boss fight with Solo, plus a standard or two /and/ minions. ;) You can also do quite a variety of encounters by monster roles. An encounter with a band of skirmishers or lurkers, for instance, will have none of the issues you describe. SO you can address the issue on your side of the screen by using more skirmishers, lurkers, and solos, and fewer combined-arms squads of soldiers-and-artillery. And by using more open-field scenarios rather than dungeon rooms and the like with inevitable choke points. You can also place items that address the problem, the occasional 'throwing' weapon to get melee-only players a ranged option, would be an example, items can add a little dose of mobility or control, too. Also, consider that 4e tends to get grindy when other eds might fall into a death spiral, so consider it a waring sign - that you may be playing the monsters too smart, making the encounter too tough, or that your players may be slacking (which is, I'm afraid, more what it sounds like in this instance - and you have to put a lot of effort into slacking to get a broad lack of competence in range & control out of a 4e party... unless they're a bunch of Essentials Knights or something). Your players can address the issue by playing more aggressively when this sort of thing starts to shape up - do some bull-rushing and/or improvised maneuvers to get past that front line and bring the whole party's offense to bear - and, in the medium term by taking feats to goose initiative and choosing powers with more control and ranged options, if not outright swapping out a character two. [/QUOTE]
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