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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 286562" data-attributes="member: 413">Imagine watching a movie where one fight between 4 guys takes half the movie...Done right, it can be very cool.  Done wrong, you just want to get up and leave.  I think my players enjoy rolling their dice.  If I tried to take that away, there'd be a revolt.  Now...I agree that it can be overly time consuming for some players.  They do their little rituals like shaking the die or blowing on it like they are at the craps table.  It is very annoying...I try to encourage them to just roll already, but as long as they are enjoying it...Absolutely.  A disorganized DM can slow down a combat immensely.  I generally have all my monsters and NPCs printed out on 4X6 cards in advance (just typing them up is a HUGE help in learning what they can do).  I have the figures set aside and ready to put on the table in short order.   That may be good for you, but in my experience, it doesn't always work.  Not everyone is good at coming up with a one or two sentence description of the action on the fly without becoming repetative and dull.  As I said...let the players use their own imaginations.  You give them the basics, they do the rest.   Again...YMMV.Absolutely!  When I plan an adventure, I try to look at the planned (and "random") encounters.  Hopefully no more than 2 will be similar.  The PCs should face a variety of encounters so that different PCs will have an opportunity to shine.I disagree (sort of).  Just vary the Encounter Levels.  If you've got 4  5th level characters and want to put them through 5 encounters for an adventure, vary them from EL 3 to EL 6 or 7 with an average right around 5 (probably a little below unless they have a chance to avoid some of them).  The "climatic" encounter doesn't have to be the toughest...if you put the EL 7 in early (maybe 2nd or 3rd), you might just scare them enough to make them want to turn around and run...Include encounters the PCs can't handle.   Sometimes the only option is to run or negotiate.Also have smaller encounters able to combine into larger ones that the party can't handle...Sure...they can handle the two ogres easily, but what about the 6 others living down the hall who might hear the fight?Definately don't just have 4 EL 5 encounters...too predictable.</blockquote>

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