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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kaomera" data-source="post: 5499061" data-attributes="member: 38357">I guess? I'm frustrated, and I think part of it / a lot of it is that I'm spending a lot of time designing encounters; and that's fun, but a lot of that fun is based on the idea that they're going to be cool in play. And in play they just seem to be complicated more than they are fun or even interesting. I am hoping that maybe my players will pay more attention to the monsters, terrain, etc. if the encounters are more difficult.I don't know, maybe it would. I've tried running them as published, and I was trying adding +1/2 level to damage, and neither of those worked. I've really just been working from the July 2010 update, but apparently a lot of older monsters have wonky damage expressions to start with? And I haven't been able to figure out which attacks are supposed to be "high" or "low" or "limited". You're suggesting that, frex., I change 1d8+5 damage to 1d8+10?I'm also liking that the MM3 and MV monsters seem more straightforward, with less stuff to track at once and fewer powers that rely on getting multiple things lined up just right.Yes, I think. At least the fighter and swordmage, the ardent may be 29 or 30 but his NADs are really high. And they all get various bonuses from marks, the shaman's conjurations and/or various powers. Also, I wasn't really considering the prone, or the flanking. I find that stuff like this, that requires several steps to set up, at some point the PCs always screw it up or I blow a roll. That's the real problem with the damage mitigation - I need to get several hits in a row (before it's a new turn and immediates refresh) to really do much, and I rarely do.OK, maybe I'm just unlucky and/or I'm being overly pessimistic. It seems like I need to use level 14+ monsters to generally ensure a 10+ will hit.I should have seen the flanking trick. Even if the Xorn are only going to be around for a round or so they can burrow up into position (well, not around the sorceress... Spark Slippers...).Yeah, I have been trying to fight fair. I also think that I end up being the one having to adapt more often than not.I think it's a bit of both. I know I'm generally doing better with MM3 / MV monsters, but some stuff I've tried was just a huge block of powers and auras and stuff and I'd always end up missing stuff. I have one of the players running initiative now, and I'm getting better at organizing things - I rearrange stat blocks now so that they're in the order I want to be considering options on a turn, instead of just printing them out. And I probably should be making reminder cards for some effects, etc. but I kind of feel like I'm already spending too much time on prep. (And the PCs really don't seem to have too many weaknesses, but maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.)Well, I was comfortable with homebrewing, except the stuff I was coming up with wasn't working... I'm stepping back from that for a bit, hoping that looking at the stuff I am using I can get a better idea of what works and what doesn't.Anyway, thanx for the advice. =]</blockquote>

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