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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hailstop" data-source="post: 4621855" data-attributes="member: 62201">Awesome thread.  It in fact, convinced me to finally ditch the published modules and go with one of my own (with some liberal stealing of encounters from H3).   The PC's hadn't fought much undead lately, so I sent them into a tomb on the way to find a second entrance to a shrine to Vecna taken over by a member of the Blood of Vol.   Of course then the Paladin PC tells me on the ride to the session that he's swapping out his Paladin for a Swordmage.  Still, the look on the player's faces when they opened the set of double doors to see a massive room full of more than two dozen zombies was classic. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /> A couple of points. 1.  I can't remember if it was mentioned in the tips above, but it's important to give the PC's a reason to move.  In this case, I knew the PC's first instinct would be to either close the door and flee <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /> or remain in the cooridor as a defensive position.  (They had just had a minor ass-handing to them in the entrance encounter by two Trap Haunts, a Flamejet trap and two Flaming Skulls). So a couple of elements were added to the room:  a Skull Lord and 2 Corruption Corpses on a 20' high landing accessable by stairs, and 2 Lasher Zombies (the Zombie Dragon article yesterday was very timely.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /> Because of those elements, the PC's did actually enter the room. 2.  Again I can't remember where it was mentioned, but the tip of dynamically adjusting hp was great.  The PCs had been getting their butts collectively kicked by a Zombie Hulk (who in the previous round had criticaled the Rogue with a Zombie Smash...37 pts damage...yikes), and the Warlord set him up so that the Hulk would get hit for a critical on a 18-20.  The Hulk went down that round but because of it's ability it got back up again the next round.  The Warlord then used one of his big powers (not sure if it was a daily or not), and rolled an 18.  That would have taken the Hulk down to 5 hp, but I decided just to kill it off. I can't think of when I heard a cheer resound around the table like that in a long time. But I'm loving the fact that I can throw everything I've got at the PC's without worrying about pulling punches.  By designing my own encounters I've also upped the threat level a bit...the first combat had two PC's drop, the second (so far) has had the Swordmage drop (although he's by himself with the Skull Lord...fortunately he rolled a 20 on his death save).  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /> But that, IMO, was one of the best sessions we've had in 4e, if not the best.</blockquote>

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