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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gort" data-source="post: 5294812" data-attributes="member: 11239">Not really, in my experience. Some monsters are obviously better than others, and you should ABSOLUTELY be using the errataed monster damage guidelines that arose from Monster Manual 3 - depending on which monster we look at, it can be an increase in damage output by 50%, sometimes even more.A lot of it will depend on your party, also. The parties I tend to run for are reasonably well-versed in optimisation - they'll boost the right stats, take feats that make sense at the time - but they don't do stuff like go on the Wizards optimisation boards, download an optimised build and use it. If yours do, I could see how it might be difficult to challenge a permanently flying, invisible ranger who consistently does 150 damage per round.Party composition is also important. A party consisting of leaders and defenders will tend to be extremely robust, if a bit dull to play with. In my groups I tend to encourage them to have a leader and a defender, and to fill the rest of the group with strikers. Keeps combats fast, deadly and interesting.If you want to do lots of damage in encounters, I recommend skirmishers. Good accurate damage, often with a "and do an extra 4d6 damage if you do this" kicker, will leave your characters screaming. Try to avoid using soldiers, they lead to dull combats.Another thing that might affect the "optimisation" of the parties in my games is that I have them use the standard array - 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10. Not being able to start with a 20 in your primary stat definitely lowers the power level of the party. It's listed as "method 1" in the PHB, so I think that effectively makes it the, "default that the game was balanced around". Another thing I don't do is follow the 4e "have your players make a wishlist of stuff they want" philosophy. I'll put treasure they can USE in the game, but I'd have thought that using wishlists would just lead to treasure becoming yet another avenue for tediously over-optimised characters.Last of all, keep in mind that for a hard encounter you can go up to four levels higher than your party. Five brutes who are all hitting for an average of 20 damage apiece will scare the crap out of your average level 1 fighter with his 30 hitpoints.Edit: Just for the sake of information, I've only had the one TPK in my time playing 4e. I've killed four or so other PCs besides that TPK, though.Edit 2: Oh yeah, and if you like, you could post the character sheets of these PCs you're having such a hard time killing and maybe we could help you out.</blockquote>

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