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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5971322" data-attributes="member: 42582">It's fairly straightforward to run a below-EL encounter in 4e in which controllers don't dominate - many minions attacking from different positions, or multiple below-par standards, or some combination of the above. I certainly don't need to run the equivalent of 4 EPL encounters to make intraparty balance work - I know this from experience.Exactly what I've just described - namely, the ability to run encounters of varied strengths and at varied numbers and intervals without destabilising intraparty balance. Which is a consequence of some prominent mechanical features of 4e - the relatively reduced significance of daily compared to encounter and at-will powers; the fact that you start each encounter at max hp regardless of whether you have 1 or 10 healing surges remaining; the fact that all pre-Essentials classes have the same nova potential.This need to plan out is exactly the railroading that I am concerned about. I want each new scene to be the upshot of the previous one as actually resolved, in play. Not to be planned in advance in order to make my XP budget work.But the consequence of this, as Mearls himself points out, is that the balance of effectiveness between casters and noncasters will be upset. Which, as Mustrum Ridcully has been pointing out, is the main problem with the 15 minute day in combination with variable nova potential across classes.I've identified these upthread. I've played all-caster games. I've played games in which casters are nerfed so that, when nova-ing, they reach parity with non-casters. And I've played 4e, which has roughly uniform nova potential across classes. The second and third of these are mechanical solutions. The fact that 4e delivered it without me having to rewrite the system myself was a significant reason for me to choose it over Rolemaster to run gonzo/mythic fantasy.Exactly this.</blockquote>

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