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<blockquote data-quote="timbannock" data-source="post: 4580033" data-attributes="member: 17913">Turning the remaining badguy(s) into a minion is definitely an easy, behind-the-screen effect.&nbsp; Just say to yourself &quot;next hit and this guy's dead.&quot;&nbsp; I use that in 3.5E as well as 4E and it's great against encounters that are obviously a foregone conclusion.To combat the nova-rest-nova cycle, I make APs and milestones more a &quot;story&quot; mechanic than a gamey &quot;2 encounters = milestone&quot; thing.&nbsp; My rule of thumb (so far un-playtested, but I've seen other folks on this board do similar things in their campaigns) is that you get APs awarded once an encounter, and again if some action you take is REALLY fun for the whole party (successful or not, and I'm talking all Players get a good &quot;Wow&quot; or &quot;Haha&quot; moment out of it).&nbsp; I'm okay with a few extra action points in play, because it makes missing on your Daily attack rolls and the like a little less disheartening.But, if you take an extended rest...goodbye all but 1 of your 'banked' APs.For milestones, I provide a little more mileage, but I expect more mileage too.&nbsp; Normally, milestones are reallly only good for APs, right?&nbsp; Well, I let milestones recharge a daily power, allow you to change the nature of a daily power in a way that's still thematically linked to it, or otherwise do something that's normally &quot;not available.&quot;&nbsp; But, a milestone isn't at the &quot;every 2 encounters mark,&quot; but rather, it comes when a true milestone is achieved: you succeed at a quest, you stop the badguy's evil ritual, etc.&nbsp; It usually comes at a time when there's still some fighting or whatever left to do (you complete the milestone mid-fight, for example), but I suppose if you wanted the milestones to be divorced from a straight-up fight encounter, you could just hand out Hero Points to complement the players' Action Points or whatever.And same thing here: if you extended rest, bye bye Hero Point/milestone thingies.I'm more of a free-form DM though, so this may or may not sound good to you.&nbsp; And note that these aren't my original ideas...they've been lifted from various posters on this Forum.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="timbannock, post: 4580033, member: 17913"] Turning the remaining badguy(s) into a minion is definitely an easy, behind-the-screen effect. Just say to yourself "next hit and this guy's dead." I use that in 3.5E as well as 4E and it's great against encounters that are obviously a foregone conclusion. To combat the nova-rest-nova cycle, I make APs and milestones more a "story" mechanic than a gamey "2 encounters = milestone" thing. My rule of thumb (so far un-playtested, but I've seen other folks on this board do similar things in their campaigns) is that you get APs awarded once an encounter, and again if some action you take is REALLY fun for the whole party (successful or not, and I'm talking all Players get a good "Wow" or "Haha" moment out of it). I'm okay with a few extra action points in play, because it makes missing on your Daily attack rolls and the like a little less disheartening. But, if you take an extended rest...goodbye all but 1 of your 'banked' APs. For milestones, I provide a little more mileage, but I expect more mileage too. Normally, milestones are reallly only good for APs, right? Well, I let milestones recharge a daily power, allow you to change the nature of a daily power in a way that's still thematically linked to it, or otherwise do something that's normally "not available." But, a milestone isn't at the "every 2 encounters mark," but rather, it comes when a true milestone is achieved: you succeed at a quest, you stop the badguy's evil ritual, etc. It usually comes at a time when there's still some fighting or whatever left to do (you complete the milestone mid-fight, for example), but I suppose if you wanted the milestones to be divorced from a straight-up fight encounter, you could just hand out Hero Points to complement the players' Action Points or whatever. And same thing here: if you extended rest, bye bye Hero Point/milestone thingies. I'm more of a free-form DM though, so this may or may not sound good to you. And note that these aren't my original ideas...they've been lifted from various posters on this Forum. [/QUOTE]

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