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<blockquote data-quote="Benimoto" data-source="post: 4504851" data-attributes="member: 40093">The main thing I'm learning while DMing is that 4e monsters have a lot of HP and that you want to design encounters so that most of the monsters will die while the encounter is still interesting.One thing I noticed while converting encounters from 3e to 4e is that you don't really want to create situations where you combine two encounters worth of creatures into one encounter.&nbsp; The classic example is where you have two encounters set up in a dungeon close enough that if the party makes too much noise in one encounter, creatures from the next room over come to reinforce them.&nbsp; In 3e, this could create some tough and exciting fights.&nbsp; In 4e, this can create some grueling and boring fights, since a lot of the interest and variety in fights comes from encounter-level resources, which are spent early.Similarly, I found that you have to be careful how you use your elite creatures.&nbsp; They stay in the fight over twice as long as regular creatures, so you have to invest them with enough character to justify it.&nbsp; They can be twice as dangerous (and many are) or twice as flamboyant, or whatever, but they have to be twice as interesting in some way to justify their &quot;screen time&quot;.&nbsp; Twice as durable (which is the default) can fall flat pretty easily.EDIT: on the subject of battlefield props, I use miniatures pretty extensively, and I've found that little rings made of pipe cleaner are my favorite (and cheapest) prop to represent conditions.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Benimoto, post: 4504851, member: 40093"] The main thing I'm learning while DMing is that 4e monsters have a lot of HP and that you want to design encounters so that most of the monsters will die while the encounter is still interesting. One thing I noticed while converting encounters from 3e to 4e is that you don't really want to create situations where you combine two encounters worth of creatures into one encounter. The classic example is where you have two encounters set up in a dungeon close enough that if the party makes too much noise in one encounter, creatures from the next room over come to reinforce them. In 3e, this could create some tough and exciting fights. In 4e, this can create some grueling and boring fights, since a lot of the interest and variety in fights comes from encounter-level resources, which are spent early. Similarly, I found that you have to be careful how you use your elite creatures. They stay in the fight over twice as long as regular creatures, so you have to invest them with enough character to justify it. They can be twice as dangerous (and many are) or twice as flamboyant, or whatever, but they have to be twice as interesting in some way to justify their "screen time". Twice as durable (which is the default) can fall flat pretty easily. EDIT: on the subject of battlefield props, I use miniatures pretty extensively, and I've found that little rings made of pipe cleaner are my favorite (and cheapest) prop to represent conditions. [/QUOTE]

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