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Message: <blockquote data-quote="n00bdragon" data-source="post: 6176045" data-attributes="member: 6689371">I feel I should emphasize this. 4e characters are not squishy and if you go in with the same encounter design mentality as you do in other editions your combats will be very short and mostly dull. One or two of those encounters are fine to get you into the swing of things but once you're ready to spill some blood I would aim to make every deadly and then adjust about 25-50% more difficult than that. On paper it should look like a TPK waiting to happen. In general here's some things that organized parties tend to kill very quickly when that's all you have:Loads and loads of minions: A blob of 16-20 minions is not a substitute for an encounter. Minions are dangerous but they shine the most when the party has something else (or preferably multiple other things) to go "oh crap" at. Minions also get less dangerous individually the more there is. 4 minions can substitute for a regular monster, but 8 can't substitute effectively for two, try 10 or 12.Just a solo: This has the added bonus of being terribly boring. Unless you have some terrain effects or super powers that keep things moving these will get boxed into a corner and murdered. They are designed as a challenge for 5 players, so with the difficulty advice that means add about 50% more. Perhaps a dozen minions or a few lieutenants.Lots of guys with melee attacks: There's nothing wrong with melee bad guys. Having all melee bad guys though severely restricts who the bad guys can threaten. Remember that defenders want bad guys to latch onto them. You don't want all your monsters latched onto them, so add something with ranged attacks to almost every encounter so the cleric can't rest easy and safe.Lots of the exact same monster: Monsters generally like to fight in a certain way and if the party can adjust to negate that one way of fighting you'll never get a KO. For example, if you have lots of guys who do well when they can be mobile a big mass effect immobilization power will make the encounter a wash. If only some guys care about being immobilized your enemy forces are a lot more resilient.And don't be shy about pounding on players when they are down. If you're not KOing a player every other fight at LEAST you're not really putting enough pressure on them. Even the wizard has enough surges to fully heal himself 1.5 times per day on surges alone before adding con mod to the equation, and the effects of players falling over isn't as severe as in previous editions. Go for the throat and you'll make some really satisfying and exciting battles your players will tell stories about.</blockquote>

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