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<blockquote data-quote="Havrik Stoneskimmer" data-source="post: 5537041" data-attributes="member: 6670929">Can anyone give me some basic DM monster tactical tips? I feel like I'm not particularly challenging my party (although they don't seem to be too bored or otherwise unhappy). In tonight's game of three encounters I managed to bloody a PC maybe three times total.The 2nd level knight has an armor class of 24, and in one encounter my monster had to roll an minimum of 18 in order to hit him. But if he tries to disengage he gets whacked. Meanwhile, the thief has an attack bonus of +11 even without combat advantage, which he gets 80% of the time due to tactical trick, flanking, or the mage's spells.I guess I'm whittling their healing surges away as they heal after each encounter, but I don't feel like I'm ever really pushing them anywhere near the brink during the combats. These are Level+0 or +1 encounters. Maybe I need to bump up the encounter level? Use higher-level monsters which will have a better shot to hit?One tactic I guess I will start trying is to bog down the knight with minions and let the tougher monsters attack the thief and mage. But that only lasts a couple rounds until he cleaves his way through the minions.Suggestions on building or running more challenging/dangerous encounters? They haven't been complaining, but I just feel that they are steamrolling the encounters. In one, they killed the caster monster before he got more than one spell off, so they didn't even get to see the cool things he does. I know the destiny of my monsters is to die, but I'd just like to put a bit of fear into the PCs before they do!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Havrik Stoneskimmer, post: 5537041, member: 6670929"] Can anyone give me some basic DM monster tactical tips? I feel like I'm not particularly challenging my party (although they don't seem to be too bored or otherwise unhappy). In tonight's game of three encounters I managed to bloody a PC maybe three times total. The 2nd level knight has an armor class of 24, and in one encounter my monster had to roll an minimum of 18 in order to hit him. But if he tries to disengage he gets whacked. Meanwhile, the thief has an attack bonus of +11 even without combat advantage, which he gets 80% of the time due to tactical trick, flanking, or the mage's spells. I guess I'm whittling their healing surges away as they heal after each encounter, but I don't feel like I'm ever really pushing them anywhere near the brink during the combats. These are Level+0 or +1 encounters. Maybe I need to bump up the encounter level? Use higher-level monsters which will have a better shot to hit? One tactic I guess I will start trying is to bog down the knight with minions and let the tougher monsters attack the thief and mage. But that only lasts a couple rounds until he cleaves his way through the minions. Suggestions on building or running more challenging/dangerous encounters? They haven't been complaining, but I just feel that they are steamrolling the encounters. In one, they killed the caster monster before he got more than one spell off, so they didn't even get to see the cool things he does. I know the destiny of my monsters is to die, but I'd just like to put a bit of fear into the PCs before they do! [/QUOTE]

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