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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 5347125" data-attributes="member: 75065">With essentials newly released, you may have to wait some time until there are enough options that allow you to recreate you characters accurately.One of the keys to exciting combats is having interesting terrain. Being able to Slide an Orc 4 squares isn't much fun in a 20x20 stone walled room. But if your battling your way across a bidge with swarms of snakes in the pits below, well, then Sliding someone becomes absolutely fantastic. Being able to Pull you enemy 3 might seem bland on paper, but imagine if there are archers shooting down on the PCs from rooves or terraces. Pull your enemy takes on a new dimension.Also, take risks with your monsters, provoking opportunity attacks to move into flanking position,or ignoring the defender's marks to go after the wizard. This has two or three positive effects on combat. Defenders get to do their job and enforce their mark. This usually damages monsters more, meaning they die faster and combat moves faster.It also gives players things to do out of turn, keeping their attention when its not their turn.And of course it will scare the hell out of the wizard sitting pretty at the back!To balance this you need to take a look at the new monster damage values, that have increased monster damage by a lot. This will make sure your players respect your monsters. When they hit, it hurts. This should be amongst the fairly recent updates given free on the WotC website.Let your players know they can think outside the box. I stole an idea for PirateCat, a 4e DM Guru and moderator here on the boards, and have given my players an 'Encounter Power' called 'Do something Cool'. They can use it to alter their powers in ways that are cool but make sense or do something cool related to the situation at hand. I then figure out ways that they can resolve what they want to do mechanically. Even if they fail on their rolls something useful still happens when they attempt to do something cool. Example, Dwarven Cleric wanted to hurl her axe at the bindings of a tree house where several archers were raining arrows down on the PCs to bring the entire structure tumbling out of the tree. So I set an AC on the 'Key Knot' that if struck, would do just that and let the Dwarf make a strength based ranged attack with her magical axe. The roll failed, unfortunately, but as it was something cool, instead of just sucking, I ruled the axe smashed into the wall of the tree house shattering the wall and removing their cover completely. And as it was cool and the axe magical, well, it boomeranged back.This had got my players trying to think out of the box with their powers and what their characters can achieve all the time. I can probably write a long list of good ideas but I know that eyes begin to glaze over when posts get too long. Hunt down Stalker0's Guide to Anti Grind. That is a good place to start to keep combat from dragging into a boring dirge.One of the most important things for me and my DM Philosophy when I began 4e was 'saying yes' to the players ideas. This is usually a 'yes, but' (taking their idea, and expanding upon it or placing a condition or a challenging but not impossible complication)unless the idea is exceptionally good, and sometimes the answer is still know (not every idea is a great or even good idea), but it is a great core philosophy. Two of my players, used to my rulings when we played 3.5 together, were totally surprised when the other players, totally new to RPGs in general instictively attempted to think outside the box and were met with 'Yes, you can do this, this is what you have to do to pull that off' as opposed to me, snorting through my nose, and maliciously smiling as i mumbled 'you can try anything you want, whether you will pull it off or not is another matter ... all you need is a 30 ...' Either that or I had to stop the game and search for a rule in a rule book in order to feel I could adjudicate the action fairly. Now, I just make it up on the fly.That has been a hugely positive change on how I look at the game, and almost a release from the prison of 'what the rules say or what the DM thinks i should be able to do or not given my characters level' for my players, which they had unfortunately suffered from before.</blockquote>

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