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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4596234" data-attributes="member: 58197">I agree with everything above, and I'll add one more that only recently came into clear focus for me:Tip #6) Dynamic battlefieldsThe essence of grindspace is predictability.&nbsp; Stable terrain, foes who use the same attacks over and over, unobstructed sightlines, what you see is what you get... these things make for boring battles.So change it up.&nbsp; Put hidden traps in the terrain, like concealed pits or monsters lurking in ambush.&nbsp; Introduce dynamic terrain elements that reshape the battlefield round by round, like moving platforms or rolling boulders or a flood of (water/acid/lava/liquid Schwartz) that creates steadily shrinking islands of safety.&nbsp; Have the monsters pull out new and different abilities as the battle continues. Bring in reinforcements for the monsters.These things keep the players on their toes, forcing them to pay close attention and revise their plans as the battle unfolds. Vayden cited my cathedral battle above, I'll cite his bridge battle here: I won't go into all the details (see <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/247233-what-have-been-your-best-worst-d-d-4th-edition-combat-encounters.html" target="_blank">this thread</a> if you want the blow-by-blow), but to sum it up, our party was holding a bridge against an army of undead, Horatio-style.&nbsp; We had a couple of NPCs hidden below the bridge ready to collapse it at the critical moment.We fought back a couple waves of undead, and were starting to run a bit low on resources, when we discovered that three ghouls had slipped up and killed the NPCs!&nbsp; Suddenly we had to figure out how to get somebody down there, take out the ghouls, and collapse the bridge, while still holding off the undead who were pressing us hard up top.&nbsp; It really changed things up on us, and made the battle far more exciting.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 4596234, member: 58197"] I agree with everything above, and I'll add one more that only recently came into clear focus for me: [U][B]Tip #6) Dynamic battlefields [/B][/U]The essence of grindspace is predictability. Stable terrain, foes who use the same attacks over and over, unobstructed sightlines, what you see is what you get... these things make for boring battles. So change it up. Put hidden traps in the terrain, like concealed pits or monsters lurking in ambush. Introduce dynamic terrain elements that reshape the battlefield round by round, like moving platforms or rolling boulders or a flood of (water/acid/lava/liquid Schwartz) that creates steadily shrinking islands of safety. Have the monsters pull out new and different abilities as the battle continues. Bring in reinforcements for the monsters. These things keep the players on their toes, forcing them to pay close attention and revise their plans as the battle unfolds. Vayden cited my cathedral battle above, I'll cite his bridge battle here: I won't go into all the details (see [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/247233-what-have-been-your-best-worst-d-d-4th-edition-combat-encounters.html"]this thread[/URL] if you want the blow-by-blow), but to sum it up, our party was holding a bridge against an army of undead, Horatio-style. We had a couple of NPCs hidden below the bridge ready to collapse it at the critical moment. We fought back a couple waves of undead, and were starting to run a bit low on resources, when we discovered that three ghouls had slipped up and killed the NPCs! Suddenly we had to figure out how to get somebody down there, take out the ghouls, and collapse the bridge, while still holding off the undead who were pressing us hard up top. It really changed things up on us, and made the battle far more exciting. [/QUOTE]

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