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Sudden Death Combat
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<blockquote data-quote="Paul Strack" data-source="post: 4722018" data-attributes="member: 71340"><p>I am making up rules because I don't want to hand-wave the end of every combat. That feels anti-climactic to me.</p><p></p><p>Those last 2 or 3 rounds do have an effect on PC resources. They generally lose a few healing surges worth of extra hit points. On the other hand, those last 2 or 3 combat rounds generally involve 15-20 minutes of fairly boring play. I want to spice up the combat end-game by making it more swingy.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I am satisfied with the beginning of combat, so I don't feel the need to up damage for the whole battle. It is the end game that I am having issues with.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This is, in fact, how I design most encounters. My PCs are generally facing N+2 and N+3 encounters (they are good enough that they blow through anything weaker). My N+3 encounters usually outnumber the PCs, and are made up of N+0 to N+2 level monsters.</p><p></p><p>My players are very good at divide-and-conquer, and concentrate their attacks to remove individual opponents. So, in a typical encounter with 8 monsters, after 3-4 rounds the PCs have eliminated half of them with no losses on the PC side, and it is clear they are going to win. But the remaining 4 monsters are mostly unhurt, and it usually takes another 15-20 minutes to finish killing them off.</p><p></p><p>My group now gets bored at the end of most combats, because it is clear there is little risk of losing anyone but it still takes a while to play out. That's why I put together these rules.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Paul Strack, post: 4722018, member: 71340"] I am making up rules because I don't want to hand-wave the end of every combat. That feels anti-climactic to me. Those last 2 or 3 rounds do have an effect on PC resources. They generally lose a few healing surges worth of extra hit points. On the other hand, those last 2 or 3 combat rounds generally involve 15-20 minutes of fairly boring play. I want to spice up the combat end-game by making it more swingy. I am satisfied with the beginning of combat, so I don't feel the need to up damage for the whole battle. It is the end game that I am having issues with. This is, in fact, how I design most encounters. My PCs are generally facing N+2 and N+3 encounters (they are good enough that they blow through anything weaker). My N+3 encounters usually outnumber the PCs, and are made up of N+0 to N+2 level monsters. My players are very good at divide-and-conquer, and concentrate their attacks to remove individual opponents. So, in a typical encounter with 8 monsters, after 3-4 rounds the PCs have eliminated half of them with no losses on the PC side, and it is clear they are going to win. But the remaining 4 monsters are mostly unhurt, and it usually takes another 15-20 minutes to finish killing them off. My group now gets bored at the end of most combats, because it is clear there is little risk of losing anyone but it still takes a while to play out. That's why I put together these rules. [/QUOTE]
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