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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5029651" data-attributes="member: 82106">My observation from DMing 4e pretty regularly is that pretty much all of the "dud" encounters I've run, ones that were too long and boring or frustrating for the players, incorporated higher level monsters. There were also great encounters that used higher level monsters, but the risk of a dud is closely associated with overleveling in 4e. Lots of DMs seem inclined to do this for some reason though and it seems hard for some of them to "get it".I'd also note though that the duds also usually had some other factor on top of higher level monsters. The usual culprit is an encounter with too few interesting options or too little room to move around. Higher level monsters can aggravate this too since they last a long time and its likely the fight will devolve into a slugging match towards the end.If you are going to use a higher level monster the fight has to be significantly dynamic. There's got to be ways to outmaneuver the enemy, pull off some kind of outrageous stunt, special tactics, or some objective besides just dealing damage to zero hit points.I unleashed a Carrion Crawler on a level 1 party for instance. This was interesting because the party spent most of its time figuring out how to maneuver so that it couldn't crawl around the front line and get to the warlock and the wizard that were doing most of the damage. Plus they had to be on their toes to avoid losing anyone. There were also some items like a barrel of oil they could burn it with when they got it to the right spot. The players liked this encounter a lot. The monster was fairly hard to hit, but not impossible and they moved around a good bit, plus they were definitely in fear of their lives! Later the CCs got a reprise at level 7 and that was fun too since now they were just a moderately tough monster.</blockquote>

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