D&D 4E Encounter Dynamic Change in 4E

[Propheous_D]

Trying to word this properly...

In 3rd edition and earlier the encounters were setup in such a way as to slowly strip the PC's of their abilities so that when they made it to a goal area or boss they would have to use what they had left. To this effect you saw alot of fluff encounters that the PC's could blow through before they fought something really tough.

I personally think that we no longer have to keep that mindset. It will now be totally possible to have the PC's gasping for breath in each encounter and wondering if they will get out alive. The reason being that we know they will be able to restore thier powers and heal up once it is over. Add in the new and improved Monster design and you can really keep the PC's on their toes and use tactics that will make the PC's feel like they are barely surviving with out having to make them stop and rest for 8 hours.

What are your opinions on this and what do you think about being able to unleash on the PC's a world of hurt and worry were they can die if they are not smart about thier combats and use thier heads and skills to get through them.

 

[kennew142]

For the most part, I believe that you are correct. Characters still have to manage their daily powers and their healing surges, but they can fight on with only encounter and at-will powers.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

As I posted in my 90 minute day thread (though now I realize it is only 30 minutes) This works fine and in terms of challenging players for 3-4 fights in a row but any more than that and Healing Surges run out and the characters will find a way to rest and recover.

The problem that I say posted in another thread was that with the new rules that the BBEG now has to be closer in power to previous encounters if the DM doesn't want to kill the players. Right now players have a harder choice about when to expend their daily powers because those daily powers are so much more powerful. What this means is that during the first encounter a party can choose not to go nova and have a difficult encounter bellow their CR while saving those powers for the BBEG. Or they can go nova early and be in a much worse position when the CR+4 shows up. With the new rules since dailies aren't that much more powerful the difference in power that can be unleashed in at-will+encounter+daily and at-will+encounter is not that much so the BBEGs can't be much more challenging than lead-up encounters.

 

[Propheous_D]

As I posted in my 90 minute day thread (though now I realize it is only 30 minutes) This works fine and in terms of challenging players for 3-4 fights in a row but any more than that and Healing Surges run out and the characters will find a way to rest and recover.

I am not totally convinced of this at all. This will be more defined by the meta influence then anything else. I mean if someone has 10 healing surges do they really need to blow 3 a fight. Are daily powers going to mean that much to an encounter? I think that we are still too used to the vacacian way of thinking and that this will go away as the game is played more and more and people get thier 4E legs as it were.

The problem that I say posted in another thread was that with the new rules that the BBEG now has to be closer in power to previous encounters if the DM doesn't want to kill the players.

Again this is not completely true when you take into consideration the way a 4E encounter is created. There are about 4 levels of monsters to contend with. You have minions, standard, elite, and solo monsters. This allows for a BBEG encounter to be of similar merit then say the previous ones, but with say only one monster. So the entire feel of the encounter changes. There is something to be said about the difference between going against a gang of kobolds, and then fighting the king and his pet shaman. The gang of kobolds might be more annoying , but when that king whacks you with his mace your attention will shift immediately.


I think this brings up another point were encounters are not going to scale in the same way we are used to. You will see alot of encounters scale horizontally rather then vertically. So yes overall the level of power will remain the same but the type of combat you are in will change drastically and require alot of different things to be brought to bear compared to the previous ones.

 

[hong]

As I posted in my 90 minute day thread (though now I realize it is only 30 minutes) This works fine and in terms of challenging players for 3-4 fights in a row but any more than that and Healing Surges run out and the characters will find a way to rest and recover.

Nothing wrong with 3-4 fights in a row.