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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Agent Oracle" data-source="post: 3038883" data-attributes="member: 40076">Ouch, okay, here's the first thing: <a href="http://www.geocities.com/edymnionii/EPLvsEL.html" target="_blank">Use an Encounter Calculator</a> it'll help a great deal with divvying up exp, and this one even provides a little challenge box.  Your effective party level is 4.9 (about 5 is right) I don't know what the level adjustment is on the half giant though...  If you want to make them afraid in a purely mechanical sense, sure, you could throw out some CR 6 or 7 monsters (entirely within the realm of possibilty), But your party is lacking where it counts... versatility.  Since you've got a fighter-heavy group, throw out a collection of lesser undead, backed by a higher-CR undead. (like a shadow backing a dozen CR 1/3rd zombies)Now, putting fear into them...learn the "Dm's smirk".  It's a way to stare out over the screen and look down on the players. it should express "You are going to die by your own stupid actions tonight" to players.  Then, back it up.Create meaningless details which are threatening.  These are the equivalence of a foam rubber tombstone on Halloween, momentarily distracting, serving only to add to the atmosphere...  For example, one of my favorites is to have the players (in a dungeon environment) pass through a section where a trap had already been sprung, leaving a corpse (or several) in some state of decay.  Now, this has put the players at caution.  Back the sprung trap up with other dangeorus traps further into the dungeon, master the art of saying "no you don't find any traps"  in various states of suggestion ("No, nothing here" implies that it is genuinely safe.  "You don't find anything" implies minor caution. "You failed to find the tra- oh darn it!" makes the players laugh and try another room)anther favorite detail of mine is "ominous markings".  I never actually explain these to my players, but i have a bunch of nifty symbols drawn up that mean nothing.  They vary from "an animal skin, nailed to a tree" to "a lizard-shaped carving in the rocks"  Whenever my players run across one of these, they do one of two things. Stop and study it (I stay silent, allowing them to fill in their own details about it, only answering questions in them most general manner.) or panic and move on (in which case i re-use the same symbol again whenever i want them scared).</blockquote>

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