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<blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6178818" data-attributes="member: 27160">The DCs by level (current/final version) will possibly be a bit easy. A trained/educated first level character is going to know powers for monsters up to ~9th level without taking a moment or three to wrack their brain. It depends on what sort of feel you want, I think; definitely use DCs for the monster's level, though, not the party's. The idea is that low level monsters get very well known as the PCs gain experience, and creatures once unheard-of become known from snippets gleaned in Paragon locales...That's a neat building idea. I generally give out the &quot;passive&quot; information at the start of the character's turn in initiative order; this makes all the players appreciate the one with the knowledges a bit more! Giving out one &quot;level&quot; of information at a time, though, might reward the player whose PC also has the appropriate knowledge as a &quot;backup&quot;. Hmmm.Thinking of levels of monster - something I find adds a bit of appropriateness to the scaling and is of huge utility in maintaining plot themes is what I call &quot;XP equivalence&quot;.Roughly speaking, 4E monsters double in XP value every 4 levels. This means that an Elite monster is worth the same XP as a Standard monster 4 levels higher. To get versions of monsters that &quot;play well&quot; with characters of different levels and remain of approximately the same overall power, I find this a very useful conversion yardstick. You can convert a Standard monster into a Minion 8 levels higher, an Elite 4 levels lower or a Solo 9 levels lower. Given that the 4E maths is non-linear (it approximates linear from around L-2 to L+4, with the asymmetry due to the skewed &quot;to hit&quot; at 8+ rather than 50%), this gives a way to make monsters &quot;level appropriate&quot; over about a 18 level range(!)To continue this digression (sorry if it's old hat), this provides a neat way to do &quot;sandbox&quot; in 4E. Give each &quot;adventure area&quot; a base level, and if the PCs vary by 4 or more levels from that (a) change up the monsters as above to fit, and (b) for each 4 levels they are above the area, combine encounters in twos. Encounters can't easily be &quot;split&quot; for lower level parties, but that's fine - scaling the Standards to lower level Elites will mean they have at least a chance to daze or immobilise a few critters and GTFO!This is actually an explanation for some of the threads about &quot;Super-Minions&quot; or &quot;Demi-Minions&quot;; the +8 levels for minionising a Standard can just miss the L-2 to L+4 spread. Some class of monster worth half a Standard would actually be quite handy from this perspective. A Minion that has two &quot;hits&quot; (bloodied on one hit, dead on two)and slightly elevated damage might work, but I haven't had time to experiment extensively, yet.Edit: On XPs here - I get the &quot;mail(XP)box full&quot; message for [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION], too - sorry!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Balesir, post: 6178818, member: 27160"] The DCs by level (current/final version) will possibly be a bit easy. A trained/educated first level character is going to know powers for monsters up to ~9th level without taking a moment or three to wrack their brain. It depends on what sort of feel you want, I think; definitely use DCs for the [B]monster's[/B] level, though, not the party's. The idea is that low level monsters get very well known as the PCs gain experience, and creatures once unheard-of become known from snippets gleaned in Paragon locales... That's a neat building idea. I generally give out the "passive" information at the start of the character's turn in initiative order; this makes all the players appreciate the one with the knowledges a bit more! Giving out one "level" of information at a time, though, might reward the player whose PC [I]also[/I] has the appropriate knowledge as a "backup". Hmmm. Thinking of levels of monster - something I find adds a bit of appropriateness to the scaling and is of huge utility in maintaining plot themes is what I call "XP equivalence". Roughly speaking, 4E monsters double in XP value every 4 levels. This means that an Elite monster is worth the same XP as a Standard monster 4 levels higher. To get versions of monsters that "play well" with characters of different levels and remain of approximately the same overall power, I find this a very useful conversion yardstick. You can convert a Standard monster into a Minion 8 levels higher, an Elite 4 levels lower or a Solo 9 levels lower. Given that the 4E maths is non-linear (it approximates linear from around L-2 to L+4, with the asymmetry due to the skewed "to hit" at 8+ rather than 50%), this gives a way to make monsters "level appropriate" over about a 18 level range(!) To continue this digression (sorry if it's old hat), this provides a neat way to do "sandbox" in 4E. Give each "adventure area" a base level, and if the PCs vary by 4 or more levels from that (a) change up the monsters as above to fit, and (b) for each 4 levels they are above the area, combine encounters in twos. Encounters can't easily be "split" for lower level parties, but that's fine - scaling the Standards to lower level Elites will mean they have at least a chance to daze or immobilise a few critters and GTFO! This is actually an explanation for some of the threads about "Super-Minions" or "Demi-Minions"; the +8 levels for minionising a Standard can just miss the L-2 to L+4 spread. Some class of monster worth half a Standard would actually be quite handy from this perspective. A Minion that has two "hits" (bloodied on one hit, dead on two)and slightly elevated damage might work, but I haven't had time to experiment extensively, yet. Edit: On XPs here - I get the "mail(XP)box full" message for [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION], too - sorry! [/QUOTE]

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