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Yep, that's a perfectly valid viewpoint. I try to give a little bit of that same sense of "this is how close you are to next level" with things like: "Okay, if you guys manage to make it out of the valley without dying, that'll probably get you to level 8" or "Hey, you guys are pretty close to...

Slightly off-topic, but I just read this editorial from Dungeon - Dungeon Editorial: Dungeon #162. In it, Chris Youngs mentions the idea of scrapping xp and just leveling the characters up at thematically appropriate points. Dausuul started doing this as soon as we started playing 4e, and after...

Interesting discussion by all on the old "find a chokepoint and bunker down" PC strategy. I like all of the suggestions for adapting and dealing with it everyone's mentioned. My own personal response is to avoid hallways and doorways as much as possible. I think about 80% of my encounters take...

Great to hear! Keep it up, it's a lot of fun. And steal from everywhere you can find stuff - check out the threads in the storyhour section here for some inspiration too. I recommend Piratecat's, anything by JonRog, and Shemeska's, though I'm sure there's good ones I've missed. Always a great...

They can be useful, but not by themselves. I frequently mix in some n-1 or n-2 monsters to round out a combat on the edges, but I would never design a whole encounter with all monsters lower level than the PCs.

Hmm - it's not exactly Jade Empire, but I have been tossing around a couple ideas in my head for re-skinning 4e as a Wuxia game. Here's my thoughts: Races - everyone is Human in terms of biology/appearance, but the core races are represented as different powerful martial arts clans with unique...

Sorry, people keep getting confused - you move first, then you charge. And if you move first, whether or not the first move gets stopped, there's no way the fighter can stop your charge.

Usually. It's better drama if the monster eats a lot of damage but gets cozy with the wizard where it can cause some chaos. Just like it's usually better drama when the monster eats the extra damage from the warlock's dire radiance so that it can get cozy with the warlock. :)

Indeed. A cleric's Healing Lore doesn't apply to Paragon Path powers either, for those who were wondering.

Sorry, meant to quote this one. I don't see how the monster can't just calmly charge past the fighter here.

That's why you move twice instead of shifting. You're going to get hit either way, so why risk the chance of not making it to the wizard?

How in god's name can the monster not charge the wizard from there? Charge doesn't have to be in a straight line anymore, you just have to move to the closest square adjacent to the target by the most direct route. The only time you can't charge someone is when there is exactly one square in...

Big, big tip for speeding up 4e play - use those Alea magnet markers. Want to keep track of who's cursed/marked/quarried? Give the warlock/fighter/ranger a set of white/yellow/grey markers and have make them responsible for putting their marker on their targer. Wondering who's currently...

Heh, true enough. I've been DMing a tiefling pyromancer wizard for quite a while now, I sort of forgot how good orb wizards can be at de-buffing a solo.

Hello again everyone! I hope you all had a good Christmas/Winter Holiday of Your Choice. I'm back with more! Tip #8) Use more monsters, not less The math can easily get off/grindy if you use elites or monsters that are much higher level than the PCs. You really want the PCs to have a to-hit...

Nice thread guys. One very basic thing that I didn't see mentioned above: roll your attack and damage dice at the same time. It's a little thing, but it definitely helps speed it up. We have a warlock in one of my groups whose round lasts forever because he likes to roll his attack roll for his...

Hmm . . . I completely disagree. 4e has the best pacing for combat of any version of D&D I've seen. You just have to DM it right. I've played OD&D, 3.5, McWod, Iron Heroes, SWSE, and Aberrant (not everything by a long shot, but a good variety of systems) and none of them compare to 4e in terms...

I think Shilsen and MyISP both had good follow ups to this. I'd like to chime in and agree that it's perfectly fine if the players try and focus on one opponent. That frees you up to move the other opponents around and hammer on the wizards etc hiding in the back. If you make an encounter that...

Well, Rule #1 is know your party. If it works for you, I certainly am not going to critique it. Obviously you have a bit of a unique situation with only 2 PCs. That being said, you're completely right that nothing slows down an encounter like a higher level soldier. When I advise building...

Hah! Consider your own idea strip-mined in return. I'm sure I'll be able to find a way to use this somewhere. 2 ideas you should consider: 1) Whenever you introduce a new element (like the landing knocking people prone, for instance), be sure to explain the mechanics to the players so that they...