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Tension in combat
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<blockquote data-quote="Aegeri" data-source="post: 5409829" data-attributes="member: 78116"><p>I've actually found the simplest and most <strong>brutally</strong> effective way of doing this is to not show your entire hand at the start of combat. I like to have encounters where creatures will reinforce on another round, such as round 3/4. I've ever had a normal EL encounter (or most commonly, EL-1) and then suddenly introduced a solo on round 3/4 (making a tough EL+3 or EL+4 encounter). This has the effect - after the PCs change pants - of making them scramble very hard to keep up with the fresh enemies coming in. It also instills some paranoia, because they are never 100% of what enemies I have held in reserve that encounter. After a while, the variations add up to PCs being a bit more cautious and not trying to "alpha strike" every encounter immediately.</p><p></p><p>Because let me assure you, when your alpha strike backfires and that solo turns up on round 4 you are in <em>deep</em> crap. This is rather similar to having hazardous terrain or traps develop during an encounter as well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aegeri, post: 5409829, member: 78116"] I've actually found the simplest and most [B]brutally[/B] effective way of doing this is to not show your entire hand at the start of combat. I like to have encounters where creatures will reinforce on another round, such as round 3/4. I've ever had a normal EL encounter (or most commonly, EL-1) and then suddenly introduced a solo on round 3/4 (making a tough EL+3 or EL+4 encounter). This has the effect - after the PCs change pants - of making them scramble very hard to keep up with the fresh enemies coming in. It also instills some paranoia, because they are never 100% of what enemies I have held in reserve that encounter. After a while, the variations add up to PCs being a bit more cautious and not trying to "alpha strike" every encounter immediately. Because let me assure you, when your alpha strike backfires and that solo turns up on round 4 you are in [I]deep[/I] crap. This is rather similar to having hazardous terrain or traps develop during an encounter as well. [/QUOTE]
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Tension in combat
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