After playing 4e for a while, I've started Dming. Now I've heard and seen talks of monsters that have way too many hp, grindy combats and the like, so I set out to try and curtail these problems without changing the rules as best as I could. Here is some of the things I have learned:
1) For creatures that hit AC only, they need to be close to the party's level (usually right at there level). The AC of players doesn't very that much (heck our wizard has the highest AC), and so creatures that aren't high level, and therefore don't have a good attack bonus, don't make for much of a threat.
2) For creatures with nonAC based attacks, its a different story. In many cases a party's defenses can very by a decent amount. A fighter's will defense is usually far lower than his fort for instance. What that means is I can often use creatures that are lower than the party's level, often several levels, while still having effective attacks.
This does a couple of things: Increase the variety of monsters I can use, and more importantly, makes those monsters quick and easy to kill. Players hit these monsters often, and the monsters don't have that many hp and so die off fast.
3) Get gimicky. 4e's combat is so mobile and tactical, that you are just shooting yourself in the foot if you don't make terrain and effects that take advantage of that. And I mean more than some difficult terrain here and there. I mean falling ceilings, objects that provide weird auras, and combat skill challenges.
Here are some examples I've used:
a) The players were killing monsters in a mine. In one room, there were two rock grinders. The players used forced movement to send the monsters through the grinders, doing huge amounts of damage.
b) The party faced some undead in a temple of Moradin that had been defiled. The altar was healing the undead 10 hp every round. I let the party engage in a skill challenge (I used my Obsidian system) during the fight to purify the altar. Once they had reached a partial victory, the aura faded. However, they kept going, and the altar start pumping out radiant damage and working on their side.
c) I used a forsaken skin (cool monster from open grave) and several other monsters. The fight was mundane, except for one well hidden pit. The skin has the ability to simply drag away a player it had grabbed, and it just started moving a player along. The player wasn't taking much damage so the rest of the party focused on the other monsters. When the player finally got close enough to see the very very deep hole, he got scared and called the others for help. The whole battlefield shifted as the party raced to help their friend.
4) How to make a fight seem deadly? Use AAA (not all the time of course).
a) Artillery: This is my favorite monster type so far. They have amazing attack bonuses, tend to do lots of damage, and frankly have better status conditions than controllers. However, they are usually frail and will go down quickly. They can really drain a party fast though.
b) Auras: The fun thing about auras is the only way to stop them is to stop the monster or run. Defenses can't stop them. Further, when a player falls unconscious, even though your monsters may leave him alone (aka the nice dm doesn't just gack his players idea), the aura is still slowly killing him.
c) Area Effects: These are especially nice if your party has a solid leader. Its relatively easy to heal a fighter that's taking all the pain, but when the whole party is suffering, things get tense. Further, once a player goes down, area effects will still often hit him...again leading to the idea that the 3 saves and your out rule isn't the only way to die.
1) For creatures that hit AC only, they need to be close to the party's level (usually right at there level). The AC of players doesn't very that much (heck our wizard has the highest AC), and so creatures that aren't high level, and therefore don't have a good attack bonus, don't make for much of a threat.
2) For creatures with nonAC based attacks, its a different story. In many cases a party's defenses can very by a decent amount. A fighter's will defense is usually far lower than his fort for instance. What that means is I can often use creatures that are lower than the party's level, often several levels, while still having effective attacks.
This does a couple of things: Increase the variety of monsters I can use, and more importantly, makes those monsters quick and easy to kill. Players hit these monsters often, and the monsters don't have that many hp and so die off fast.
3) Get gimicky. 4e's combat is so mobile and tactical, that you are just shooting yourself in the foot if you don't make terrain and effects that take advantage of that. And I mean more than some difficult terrain here and there. I mean falling ceilings, objects that provide weird auras, and combat skill challenges.
Here are some examples I've used:
a) The players were killing monsters in a mine. In one room, there were two rock grinders. The players used forced movement to send the monsters through the grinders, doing huge amounts of damage.
b) The party faced some undead in a temple of Moradin that had been defiled. The altar was healing the undead 10 hp every round. I let the party engage in a skill challenge (I used my Obsidian system) during the fight to purify the altar. Once they had reached a partial victory, the aura faded. However, they kept going, and the altar start pumping out radiant damage and working on their side.
c) I used a forsaken skin (cool monster from open grave) and several other monsters. The fight was mundane, except for one well hidden pit. The skin has the ability to simply drag away a player it had grabbed, and it just started moving a player along. The player wasn't taking much damage so the rest of the party focused on the other monsters. When the player finally got close enough to see the very very deep hole, he got scared and called the others for help. The whole battlefield shifted as the party raced to help their friend.
4) How to make a fight seem deadly? Use AAA (not all the time of course).
a) Artillery: This is my favorite monster type so far. They have amazing attack bonuses, tend to do lots of damage, and frankly have better status conditions than controllers. However, they are usually frail and will go down quickly. They can really drain a party fast though.
b) Auras: The fun thing about auras is the only way to stop them is to stop the monster or run. Defenses can't stop them. Further, when a player falls unconscious, even though your monsters may leave him alone (aka the nice dm doesn't just gack his players idea), the aura is still slowly killing him.
c) Area Effects: These are especially nice if your party has a solid leader. Its relatively easy to heal a fighter that's taking all the pain, but when the whole party is suffering, things get tense. Further, once a player goes down, area effects will still often hit him...again leading to the idea that the 3 saves and your out rule isn't the only way to die.
Keep reading down he goes into each one.
