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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1891610" data-attributes="member: 3146">Actually, I would suggest that the way to give your combats rising action doesn't require any rules changes: simply don't put all your bad guys on the table (metaphorically speaking if you don't use minis) on round 1. If the PCs can see all of their enemies, they will focus their resources towards the most efficient means of eliminating them.On the other hand, if the PCs have to fight their way through the guards at the gate of the villain's throne room, then reinforcements pour in as the villain's soldiers tumble out of their barracks and finally, the PCs fight their way into the throne room to find the villain fully buffed and ready to go (on round 4 or 5 of the same combat), there is some rising action and the appearance of the villain is the climax. If it's resolved through ludicrous luck like getting a fighter to fail both saves against Phantasmal Killer or by quickly applying the beat stick, that works as the wizard shepherded his powerful magics saving his energy for the final blow. If, as is more likely, it is resolved in two or three rounds as the PCs hit the bad guys with Greater Dispellings and cast silence on the fighter who moves up to engage him and the bad guy moves back, only to, finally, be unable to escape the net cast for him, then those three climactic rounds serve as the keystone for an exciting encounter.The possibility of an expanding battle would have a salient effect upon the tendency to "use the biggest guns first." If a battle could expand, then PCs will be more reluctant to expend their resources on the biggest visible target and will make more of an attempt to measure their expenditure of resources to the threat presented.  However, if all of the pieces are laid on the board from the outset, then PCs can plan their strategies with more freedom.(That said, every battle doesn't have to be like that. Like death spells, Reciprocal Gyre, and Dispel Magic, that it is even possible makes a difference whether or not it is present in any given case. My fighter/wizard, for instance, keeps a dispel magic or greater dispelling in his ring of counterspells, not because it shows up every module, but because it has devastating potential if it does show up. A wizard invading the temple of elemental evil is likely to hold back from fireballing the bad guys if it doesn't look necessary, because reinforcements could show up at any time, not because he knows they necessarily will.)</blockquote>

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