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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Archus" data-source="post: 4466490" data-attributes="member: 25334">I've run my players through Kobold Hall (5 encounters) and we are 8 encounters into Keep on the Shadowfell - everyone is now 3rd level (some of the encounters are tough, made tougher in some cases with more minions and the quest xp has pushed them over).  I noticed that combats were dragging* in places, especially with elites and solos, and players were observing the kobolds had more hit points than they did.  The dragon encounter dragged so much I was leery of ever using a solo again (bad dice all around didn't help).So for the last 3 encounters (KotSF Excavation Site, Maze of Caves, and Kruthik Lair) I halved the monster HP.  The fights definitely went quicker but the characters were still hurt - in the case of the Kruthik Lair they felt like they were on the set of the Alien's movie.  The module doesn't mention it at all in tactics, but the kruthik all have burrowing so should be able to pop out of the walls and cut off escape as well as climbing to basically move over the group on the ceiling.I may play with the percentage of HP but somewhere between 50% and 75% of the current HP looks like sweet spot for me at least.  Enough to threaten the group and whittle away at their resources the way I expect encounters to do, but fast enough not to get bored.As an FYI, I prefer using more minions than the modules (or monster manual) seem to.  Because the group is 1 level higher in KotSF than expected, I've been padding the encounters with minions.  Minions are still a threat (especially the Kruthik with their area, or the goblin minions giving the guard drakes their bonus damage for allies being near).*We play face to face but recently switched to using Maptool and a projector for the map and it has slowed us down some while we get used to it.  But even with the old battle map it was slow.</blockquote>

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