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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Riastlin" data-source="post: 5466608" data-attributes="member: 94022">Good point.  I think this is one of the reasons why I wanted to keep the monsters at a relatively low level.  This way there will be more of them, and they'll be easier to hit (as opposed to slugging it out against a level 14 Solo Soldier for instance).  I think I have the waves of baddies and the unusual scenery covered, but I must admit that I am a bit weak when it comes to terrain features/dynamic terrain.  Any ideas?  I was thinking perhaps of runes that give a bonus to hit or damage, but also immobilize for a round and grant vulnerability, thereby giving players the tough choice but in general I tend to be weak when it comes to terrain so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.The comment about hard does not necessarily equal cool or memorable is deserving of XP but alas, I must spread the love first.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />Agreed.  Unfortunately, time is a factor since we play at the FLGS and there is a board games group that comes in after us.  My thought was to have an extra encounter prepared in case it looks as though we won't have enough time to get through the climactic one.  Either a Skill Challenge or a relatively easy combat.  Nothing that will overly tax the PCs, just enough to more or less stall the final battle to the start of the next session.  Our encounters usually take around an hour so I figure this will take at least 2.  One thing I was thinking of doing is designating ahead of time which monsters will start by attacking other monsters and simply having them do average damage per round to the other monsters.  The theory here being that a) it helps keep the two sides relatively even barring PC intervention and b) it will speed things up by not having me roll endlessly.  When the monsters attack a PC of course, they will actually roll.  Most of heroic tier has been a race in search of the MacGuffins (there are 6) and a race to stop the BBEGs from awakening a powerful primordial so the PCs are definitely conscious of that.  I like your barrier example.  In my case, the "trap" I mentioned will get worse as the encounter progresses so hopefully that will draw some attention from the PCs (since they normally ignore traps until the end of the fight).  Additionally, piggybacking on PCat's terrain comment I'm wondering if perhaps I can incorporate altars into the fight.  (They would actually make sense since the fight will take place in a corrupted temple of Pelor)  Perhaps they help power up one of the Big Bads while also pumping out more monsters.  I already had planned for portals for one faction (which can be shut down by the PCs) and a regenerator for the undead faction so perhaps the altars can serve that function instead.  This again gives the PCs something to think about other than just beating on the biggest looking baddies.Hmmm, so many good ideas but only room for so many.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Any rate, keep the ideas coming guys!</blockquote>

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