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<blockquote data-quote="chaotix42" data-source="post: 4606814" data-attributes="member: 40530">In 3e I designed dungeons with a lot of potential &quot;spill over&quot; between encounters, and monsters from one room would often join in while the PCs were battling something else. It made for some great battles, and a few delves turned into giant brawls where it seemed like the entire dungeon was after the PCs!In 4e I find myself designing encounters that are far more self-contained, with little potential for &quot;spill over.&quot; My dungeons are more sprawling now, or smaller and more sparsely populated. If in any encounter reinforcements are a possibility I'll try to factor them into the initial encounter. However, just recently my PCs ran afoul of an army of hobgoblins and had to deal with an unbeatable amount of reinforcements too organized to defeat piecemeal - they were eventually taken prisoner. This is an exceptional situation in my 4e campaign so far, and it's actually the PCs faults for sticking their noses where it don't belong.I think the idea of a skill challenge changing the progression of time in an important encounter is a great idea though. The PCs could be fighting a delaying battle, and with appropriate skill checks can draw the battle out with a lot of circling, posturing, intimidation, and dynamic scene changes. With one good check maybe the rogue gets his knife pressed up to the throat of an enemy and holds him hostage, turning one round of combat into a tense 1 minute stand-off. How would you implement a skill challenge to condense the PC's actions into a smaller time frame, though? 20 rounds in 20 seconds seems hard to swallow, especially if the battle covers a wide area and involves a lot of movement. It's an interesting idea though - perhaps the skill checks allow for drastic twists in the combat, like &quot;instant death&quot; for a few of the enemies? Knocking out the butler/guard before the countess arrives is a great idea that makes for a quick skill challenge with the the threat of a normal encounter upon failure.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="chaotix42, post: 4606814, member: 40530"] In 3e I designed dungeons with a lot of potential "spill over" between encounters, and monsters from one room would often join in while the PCs were battling something else. It made for some great battles, and a few delves turned into giant brawls where it seemed like the entire dungeon was after the PCs! In 4e I find myself designing encounters that are far more self-contained, with little potential for "spill over." My dungeons are more sprawling now, or smaller and more sparsely populated. If in any encounter reinforcements are a possibility I'll try to factor them into the initial encounter. However, just recently my PCs ran afoul of an army of hobgoblins and had to deal with an unbeatable amount of reinforcements too organized to defeat piecemeal - they were eventually taken prisoner. This is an exceptional situation in my 4e campaign so far, and it's actually the PCs faults for sticking their noses where it don't belong. I think the idea of a skill challenge changing the progression of time in an important encounter is a great idea though. The PCs could be fighting a delaying battle, and with appropriate skill checks can draw the battle out with a lot of circling, posturing, intimidation, and dynamic scene changes. With one good check maybe the rogue gets his knife pressed up to the throat of an enemy and holds him hostage, turning one round of combat into a tense 1 minute stand-off. How would you implement a skill challenge to condense the PC's actions into a smaller time frame, though? 20 rounds in 20 seconds seems hard to swallow, especially if the battle covers a wide area and involves a lot of movement. It's an interesting idea though - perhaps the skill checks allow for drastic twists in the combat, like "instant death" for a few of the enemies? Knocking out the butler/guard before the countess arrives is a great idea that makes for a quick skill challenge with the the threat of a normal encounter upon failure. [/QUOTE]

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