Dr_Ruminahui
First Post
I agree with Infiniti2000 - it's difficult to determine what "mark down" in XP is appropriate for a given encounter... especially as a blanket assessment. Rather, its one that needs to be done in assessing the strengths of the party in relation to the encounter.
For example, an encounter with 10 minions is likely easier than one with 2 waves of 5. This would be especially true if the only area/close damaging powers the party has are per encounter (for example, a party rely on their dragonborn's breath). This may change depending on how the minions are placed... for example, 10 archer minions scattered across the table behind cover/dangerous terrain are much more dangerous than 10 melee minions clumped in the open.
That said, I do believe that generally 2 waves of x monsters is less challenging than one wave of 2x monsters... though, again, that can depend on terrain, and the players specific powers. How MUCH less challenging will depend on various factors, which really can only be assessed by looking at the encounters itself.
Additionally, it may be worthwhile considering your XP budget as a whole - for example, perhaps you intend to run 4800 XP in an adventuring day for a 4 person level 8 party. You could do it as 4 waves of n-2 (1500 XP ea), which is roughly an n+7 encounter if they were to fight them all at the same time. Or you could run it as an n-1 (1200 XP), an n+1 (1600 XP) and an n+2 (2000 XP) with rests between them.
Now... which is more difficult? Again, it depends... with the low XP waves, the players may be able to pile on the enemies and prevent much of the damage they might be caused. additionally (especially if the enemy's need to come to them), the fact they can keep their dailies up for multiple waves may help make up for the fact they aren't regenerating powers. If you give action points for the waves as if they were encounters (especially if you go with even smaller waves than n-1), that also might make up for things.
One thing this thread has made me consider is running a chase scene I have planned as a series of mini-waves in the same encounter rather than artificially inserting short rests into it.
For example, an encounter with 10 minions is likely easier than one with 2 waves of 5. This would be especially true if the only area/close damaging powers the party has are per encounter (for example, a party rely on their dragonborn's breath). This may change depending on how the minions are placed... for example, 10 archer minions scattered across the table behind cover/dangerous terrain are much more dangerous than 10 melee minions clumped in the open.
That said, I do believe that generally 2 waves of x monsters is less challenging than one wave of 2x monsters... though, again, that can depend on terrain, and the players specific powers. How MUCH less challenging will depend on various factors, which really can only be assessed by looking at the encounters itself.
Additionally, it may be worthwhile considering your XP budget as a whole - for example, perhaps you intend to run 4800 XP in an adventuring day for a 4 person level 8 party. You could do it as 4 waves of n-2 (1500 XP ea), which is roughly an n+7 encounter if they were to fight them all at the same time. Or you could run it as an n-1 (1200 XP), an n+1 (1600 XP) and an n+2 (2000 XP) with rests between them.
Now... which is more difficult? Again, it depends... with the low XP waves, the players may be able to pile on the enemies and prevent much of the damage they might be caused. additionally (especially if the enemy's need to come to them), the fact they can keep their dailies up for multiple waves may help make up for the fact they aren't regenerating powers. If you give action points for the waves as if they were encounters (especially if you go with even smaller waves than n-1), that also might make up for things.
One thing this thread has made me consider is running a chase scene I have planned as a series of mini-waves in the same encounter rather than artificially inserting short rests into it.
Last edited:
