Search results

I think that's because we GMs, as a tribe, have trained our players that any enemies who escape will return later with nasty reinforcements. Same thing with surrendering too, to be honest - we seem to love using that as the moment to inject realism and force the players to deal with difficult...

Thank you! I completely agree. I'm lucky enough to be in a couple different groups (DMing two, playing in one at the moment), and being able to pick up ideas from watching other DMs is great. Sometimes you learn what to do, sometimes you learn what NOT to do, but it always helps. :) Hmm - I'm...

Nothing wrong with keeping the same general flavor of enemies throughout. I just finished running my players through a 4 level stretch that was 65% undead, 25% demons, and 10% goblins. I just gave them lots of extended rests in there. One thing I've done some of in the past and I'll probably...

Hmm - I don't know if we can go that far. I think it is safe to assume that the designers view that as a fairly optimal buy - I remember seeing Mearls in a thread somewhere saying that if the players had bought an 18 and then used racial to get to 20 in their primary attack stat, then they must...

Not scary? Try using them in play instead of just looking at the stats. My warlord still twitches whenever he sees a rat . . . effing rat swarms . . .

Hmm - I've been thinking about it, and now I'm getting curious - Mearls, Rouse, anyone else at WotC if you're reading this - what's the internal play-style like these days? Do you guys use level-equivalent encounters still, or have you tossed them out?

I haven't seen this as typical at all. At 1st-3rd level, possibly. If the players are uncoordinated, use poor tactics, or have a 14-15 in their primary attack stat, possibly. If your groups are at all coordinated and well-built, a standard level equivalent encounter will eat up one or two...

Sorry Umbran, sorry Jack. Got a little carried away there. My apologies.

Exactly. And if you can play the combat to multiple people's strengths, then you can ramp up the challenge and give them a chance to handle an encounter that would be far above their capabilities if you hadn't tilted it to their strengths.

Removed due to being hot-headed and offensive. Sorry all.

Unconscious is a speed-bump in 4e. One minor action by the leader and you're back in it, or a standard action by someone else to use a healing potion on you (or make a DC 10 heal check if you haven't used 2nd wind yet). I'm not saying I end up knocking people unconscious every fight, but yeah...

Well, there seem to be a few of you out there enjoying this, so I'm gonna keep going. Today, an expansion on Tip 1 (Know your party) - which monster types are best (and worst) for which classes? Let's go through the list! 1a) Clerics Clerics tend to do radiant damage most of the time, which...

Completely unacceptable. The highest any attribute can be at first level is 20 (18 is the max you can get through point-buy or rolling, then +2 racial).

Ah, see, my goal is always to provide a good, thrilling fight. I try and set it up so that if things go normally, about half the party is down and the other half is bloodied at the point at which they knock off the last monster. Sometimes they have bad luck or make bad decisions and I kill one...

That does happen sometimes, sure. In that case I usually try and find some way to hand-wave the fight to an end. Generally though, you want at least one or two characters unconscious at the end of the fight - my suggestion to you is to up the difficulty of your fights - you'd be surprised at...

That's a little bit harsher than I would say it, but it does basically sum up my next tip: Tip #7) Don't enter 4e encounter design with a 3e mindset Combat in 4e is designed to be fast, fluid, dangerous, and yes, unrealistic. While a 3e combat in a 5x5 featureless room, or at a range of 100s...

I agree. The 100 foot distance cap does a lot of good things for the game - it helps you keep the fight on a realistically sized battlemap (and I for one love playing with miniatures), and if you have a villain that you need to stay alive for story purposes, having it fly 200 feet above the...

Haha. That reminds me of our first session as players. We were all, players and DM, still in 3e mode, so it was a tiny, cramped little goblin warren with no space for either side to maneuver, and we got attacked by 3 swarms with no wizard in the party. Our fighter got dropped from un-bloodied to...

Thanks for the responses and additional tips everyone! I was a little worried the thread was going to die at first! :) To answer Zapp's questions: Encounters that start at a long distance - it's been a while since I've run one of these, I usually handle this one of two ways; for both ways, it...

Yep, good advice there. Shilsen, I actually just threw this thread here up earlier today - might give you some more of what you're looking for: http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/247249-how-build-encounters-d-d-4th-edition-aka-only-you-can-prevent-grindspace.html