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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mengu" data-source="post: 6051238" data-attributes="member: 65726">One reason for my love of 4e is because I find 4e encounter design to be very cinematic, plot oriented, and goal oriented. I've never felt a previous edition was able to capture this, though after having played 4e, I think I have a much better understanding of this type of design, so I could probably apply what I've learned in 4e, to other systems (D&D or non-D&D).4e taught me action economy, and how many things a PC's should be allowed to do in a round to feel like their are contributing meaningfully to an encounter. All of this has impacted my encounter design through the years.I absolutely love the flexibility of intermingling combat, skill challenges, and various other game mechanics into an adventure. I can create dynamic scenes, have automated logic in my encounters to trigger events, actions of enemies, allies, and so on.I love the tools 4e provides for encounter design. Monster roles allow a brute to feel very different than an artillery, and the range from minions to solos of varying levels you can use creates granulated difficulties of foes. Swarms are a fantastic tool for resolving many different environmental or monstrous elements.Incorporating terrain, terrain powers, and other story elements into encounters is seamlessly done. It is possible to create dynamic encounters by varying round lengths, inserting end of round events, and the like.I can create encounters on the fly, with only about 3-4 numbers in front of me, which means I can incorporate much more freedom to the PC's choices, without cornering them onto a railroad to make sure the encounters I designed don't go to waste. Also when they do something unexpected, I don't have to squirm in my seat because I didn't prepare a contingency for their plan, I just make it happen on the spot.I've pushed the envelope in every aspect of encounter design. I feel the freedom to imagine up any situation the PC's can get themselves into, and can come up with a set of mechanics to resolve the conflict.Things like abstract combat are easily handled through expenditure of healing surges, if certain scenes don't require a whole lot of attention. For instance the PC's might storm the orc hold, cut their way through the ranks of orcs to get to the throne room to face the orc leader. I'm not going to set up a half dozen fights to depict everything they do in their assault. We roleplay our way through the hallways and courtyards, jumping over walls, ambushing guards, and so on, and I might only run 1 actual encounter with a map once they reach the throne room, but the path they had to cut through the enemy will certainly deplete their resources.Flexibility of 4e encounter design is limitless once you understand action economy, damage expressions and hit points, and PC resources.</blockquote>

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