meltdownpass
Explorer
I agree with this. 4E lends itself to really fun and dynamic battlefields. I also tend to think that, like most miniatures wargames (because, IMO 4E is a tabletop miniatures wargame) -- You want to avoid having the game be "Fight until every last enemy is cleared off the board." It's a good idea to think about most fights as having objectives other than "Exterminate."I feel like 4E was hardmode on GMs. Every combat encounter is a setpiece. To work well the terrain always has something interesting, like rickety bridges, or lava flows, or gravity wells or something. All the monsters have differences and special things, controller/defender/lurker etc, AND the objectives are often also complex, e.g. stop the ritual before the rift is complete.
These make for great setpieces, but 4E struggles outside of epic setpieces.
As has been said, the 1/2 HP thing is pretty common and is rather needed at higher levels. I also have most NPCs do extra damage when bloodied, to make up for the action economy issues of enemies dying.
One practical tip is that if a player interrupts to use a reaction, they have to use it. They use it immediately or lose it. No umming and ahhhing over it. If the reaction does not work in that situation or work the way they thought, tough, they lose it for interrupting. Some of my players would stop every single action to tell the table what they 'might' or 'could' do about it.
- FantasyKingdom is under attack! Blow the horns on the towers to alert the people before the Orcs can destroy the horns & succeed at their sneak attack!
- Your ship is being grappled by the Kraken! Distract the Kraken long enough so the crew can unfurl the mainsail and get away!
- ImportantNPC is being kidnapped! Keep enemies pinned down so they realize they can't take him & flee!
- Villain is going to complete his dark ritual! Destroy the artifacts powering his ritual before it completes and he summons BigBad!
- The reinforcement guards will arrive soon! Get the key information and escape before they arrive!
- Volcano is erupting! Get out of there before the magma flows or falling rocks kill everyone!
At its best, the easy-to-understand math of the 4E system empowers a GM to let a player say, "I grab a beer mug and smash the drunk Orc over the head" and the GM can easily adjudicate this does Level/PowerAppropriate effect for the action, without missing a beat. Unfortunately the way 4E is often run is, "You can't do that because it's not a power on your sheet."