Bad experience with a 1st level 4e encounter

[thecasualoblivion]

Am I right in that you normally have each individual monster on its own initiative?

Yes. When I use multiple creatures of the same type, I differentiate them on the table. I have spent thousands on D&D minis, so there is little my collection can not handle. When I use multiples of the same creature using the same miniatures, the bases are painted. One Hobgoblin Soldier has a black base, one has a blue base, the third has a green base ect.

Every non-minion enemy has its own unique initiative. Minions either go together, get split into two or three groups with their own initiatives, or are attached to the initiatives of non-minion creatures and act together with those.

 

[Zustiur]

This could have happened in any edition.

The one thing that would have made it easy in 3E is that it is easier in 3E for PCs to Nova with consumable magic items when they find they are in over their heads. But I am not sure that this is a good thing, overall.

Ken

This is one of the things about 4E that continues to irk me. If you're in a losing situation, why wouldn't you throw every last trick in to save your own skin? Going nova is precisely what should happen in certain desperate situations. 4E does not provide this option. Instead, the characters are limited to exactly the same actions they would have had in any less desperate situation.
That said, in earlier editions parties had a habit of going nova instead of running away, when running away was the more appropriate option. I'd prefer for both options to be available, and viable in the right situations.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

This is one of the things about 4E that continues to irk me. If you're in a losing situation, why wouldn't you throw every last trick in to save your own skin? Going nova is precisely what should happen in certain desperate situations. 4E does not provide this option. Instead, the characters are limited to exactly the same actions they would have had in any less desperate situation.
That said, in earlier editions parties had a habit of going nova instead of running away, when running away was the more appropriate option. I'd prefer for both options to be available, and viable in the right situations.

You can still nova with action points and daily powers, and it does have a similar effect. I've noticed that most players in my game hold back on the Dailies for the most part. That being said, running away is much easier in 4E and fairly easy to manage.

Blowing 3-4 Dailies and an action point by each member of the party is excessive, and well beyond what the vast majority of boss battles require. It more than qualifies as going nova in my book.

 

[malraux]

This is one of the things about 4E that continues to irk me. If you're in a losing situation, why wouldn't you throw every last trick in to save your own skin? Going nova is precisely what should happen in certain desperate situations. 4E does not provide this option. Instead, the characters are limited to exactly the same actions they would have had in any less desperate situation.
That said, in earlier editions parties had a habit of going nova instead of running away, when running away was the more appropriate option. I'd prefer for both options to be available, and viable in the right situations.

I dunno. I can lift 10 pounds all day (so lets say 1 rep a minute, for 12 hours a day). That doesn't mean I can go nova and lift 7200 pounds if I needed to.

That said, there are lower levels of pulling out all the stops. Burning dailies is one, relatively controlled, nova element. But there's also item daily powers, action points, consumable items like potions, etc. Plus, there's actions like using second wind, etc that at least my group doesn't use by default but get used a bit more when times are tough.

 

[2WS-Steve]

Back to the OP --

-- thanks for posting your comments here. I'm prepping to DM this scenario and that encounter already annoys me with its "wandering (in fact, one-way teleportaling) damage" feel. I'll pull it and replace with something that makes sense and is reasonable.

 

[Rechan]

Back to the OP --

-- thanks for posting your comments here. I'm prepping to DM this scenario and that encounter already annoys me with its "wandering (in fact, one-way teleportaling) damage" feel. I'll pull it and replace with something that makes sense and is reasonable.

My advise would be giving clues about the jelly's presence. Maybe acid marks along the floor and the back of the door. Maybe instead of a portal, it's a giant glass tank with glass fogged over. (The problem is that the tank has no lid, so the jelly can just flow out at its leisure).

I have a particular trick I like to use with the Ochre jelly. Either as a defensive ward/trap, or just to make the players feel like something Bad is going down: The PCs start to vomit. Lots, and lots of black, nasty vomit. Gallons of it. And when they're done... it congeals and attacks them. Use ochre jelly stats.