NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rhenny" data-source="post: 5645817" data-attributes="member: 18333">I was in the same boat you were in a few years ago.  Here are some tips.1) Do not compare 3.5 to 4 or 4 to 3.5.  Think of them as different games.  It is so much easier to develop encounters, dangers, challenges if you think all 4e and do not try to translate from 3.5.2) One of the best ways to plan encounters and to "wing it" is to set up waves of attack.  This way you can judge the strength of the PCs and challenge them appropriately.  For example, In one room/area, they may be attacked by 4 minions and 1 soldier and a leader/controller.   Then as the battle goes on...if you think it is too easy...have a 2nd wave of creatures join the fray.  Perhaps a mini-boss or two more soldiers, etc. hear the noise and respond.   3) Think more about terrain.  In every combat situation or challenge set up interesting terrain.   Since movement is much more important in 4e (shift, move, etc.) having pits, cliffs, ledges, lava pools, acid pools, bridges, scaffolds, columns, etc. really adds to combat choices especially for powers that cause movement.4) The element of 4e I like the most is The Skill Challenge.  Study that and use it to help your story.  Lots of roleplaying situations can be turned into skill challenges.  The best part of this is that the players will gain xp for roleplaying/doing the skill challenge.  In 3.5 I found that my players hated roleplaying or figuring out other ways to get through challenges because they didn't feel like they were being rewarded for it.  (This may have been my fault in part, but prior D&D rules never really encouraged xp for non-combat encounters).   Also, combine skill challenges with combat.  This builds tension and adds to the choices pcs must make.I hope this helps a bit.  Enjoy!</blockquote>

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