Did an experiment last night with an 'easy' encounter.

[the Jester]

If you want it to be over fast and still have a chance of doing enough damage to be worth playing out, do a level-3 encounter with monsters that have half normal hp but double damage dice (so a 2d8+5 damage attack would do 4d8+5 instead).

This is a fun, fast & furious variant that I mix in with regular monsters, especially on solo and elite creatures.

 

[MortalPlague]

When I run easy encounters, I like to add the potential for them to become significantly more challenging. For instance, the first combat of my new 9th level campaign involved a group of goblins protecting a barricade in their fortress. The floor at the entrance to the chamber was a trapdoor, which could be dropped with a pulled lever. The trapdoor would deposit anyone on it in a pit with an owlbear, forcing the party to decide whether to go save their friend(s) or finish off the goblins.

Unfortunately for my encounter, the PCs managed to get in a surprise round, and then won the initiative. Two rounds worth of attacks on the lever puller killed him before he could act. But the threat made the encounter worth running.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

well at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will bring up troll huant warrens (P1)

an early encounter (one repated later mind you) is 5 Trolls (lv 9 Bruts) and an Oger Magi (lv 10 elite lurker) Now I had 6 level 11 PCs, a Fighter (dreadnuagth), a Swordmage (wandering swordmage), a Warlord (battle captain), a Ranger (battlefield archer), a Wizard (wiz of spiral tower), and a rouge (I have no idea)... It is listed as a Encounter Level 11 (XP 3,000) I call it D&D on easy...

first lurkers have the least hp, second Brutes have both Low Def and Low attack...

The trolls where taken out in 2 rounds, the Magi hadn't even gone when the first troll was dead...

later there was this encounter:

Encounter Level 12 (3,500 XP)
6 troglodyte maulers (lv 6 Soldier)
2 Marrowmaw impalers (Lv 9 artillary)
Ssark, Marrowmaw chieftain (Lv 9 elite controler leader)

I mean really those soldiers were jokes...

then the worst one yet
Encounte Level 11 (3,000 XP)
Gloomfang, adult black dragon (lv 11 solo lurker) the party was level 12 for this one... The dragon went 1 time, dazed and unable to use action points...

 

[AllisterH]

Well, was planning on two experiments last night...one using Sly Flourish's 4e Hard Mode suggestions from his blog (Sly Flourish» Blog Archive » Dungeons and Dragons 4e: Hard Mode). The other was to see how a combat of a lower level would go against the PCs...who are 15th level. They went up against a 13th level encounter (but with 12th level monsters).

The combats still took quite awhile, even though the players were able to hit pretty much at will, and the players weren't challenged at all either (although admittedly I rolled to hit poorly, and the PCs work well together...especially coordinating the controller abilities).

Anyone else have any experience with 'easy' encounters? I was hoping to use them for flavour but to be over quickly. Didn't happen.

First question.

How many rounds are we talking here?

For my group for example, a normal level encounter is taking 3-5 rounds (depending on type) and a easy encounter is usually 2-3 rounds.