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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5412319" data-attributes="member: 82106">Hmmm, lets say each of the 2 possible SCs might cost an HS, but with those being a complexity 2 and a complexity 3 then yeah, probably at worst an HS gets burned. Now you have basically 3 level + 1 encounters to get through. Supposing you have a tough dwarf fighter with 11 surges you probably have to keep your surge use down to 3 per encounter, roughly.The question is how many surges are the OTHER PCs burning? Are they basically still well stocked at the point where the defender runs out? If so then the party should think about letting other characters "off-tank" some. There is such a thing as being TOO GOOD a defender. The real art of being the defender is to be able to regulate the amount of a beating the other PCs are taking, and giving them space to pull off moves when they need it. Part of that is regulating the damage the defender himself takes. If he's getting beat down bad then he should probably let an enemy go. Let the STR cleric or someone else that can mark pick that enemy up, or something. Basically it isn't efficient to have a defender at 0 surges and 3 other PCs still holding onto 6.I think the other thing is the players need to be willing to pull out the stops as needed. This can be tougher at really low levels, but they generally need to be smart about not hording resources. The party should be burning daily powers at a decent clip for instance. Naturally they will want to hold back a BIT, but all party members can burn an AP in 2 encounters, maybe even all 3 with a bit of luck, and at least one or two total daily at level 1, up to 3-4 at top of heroic. That SHOULD keep them in HS. Admittedly there will be days when things don't go so well. I've had parties get the tar beat out of them in the first encounter, it happens, but probably shouldn't happen too often.Remember too, ideally the last encounter of the day should be a bit of a nail biter. I always like to see the PCs reaching pretty deep every day, or at least on every day they're in the thick of things.</blockquote>

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