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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5311185" data-attributes="member: 16069">You're presuming quite a lot in the above statement, here let me furnish you with all of the facts-The scenario is WOTC Core Module P1 King of the Trollhaunt, and I know what I'm doing, I promise- the PCs have played through H1-3 and are ahead of the game Level-wise, so they're Level 13 and the module is supposed to be 11-13, I'm buffing up the encounters all the time.I had a chat with my players ahead of time and we agreed we need to stretch them a little more, as it was they were kicking ass and taking names, in the first confrontation with Skalmad (Troll King end-of-level-bad-guy) they killed him, three Warren Trolls and two Nothics in two turns of play.The encounters are not back-to-back, they were supposed to be all the same encounter-Encounter starts with just Briar Hag, who releases 5 Boneshard Skeletons.1 Turn later- second Briar Hag arrives2 Turns later Grell Philosopher, Grimlock Berserker and two Grimlock Minions show up.The PCs however managed to kill the first Briar Hag and 5 Boneshards before the Grell etc. even managed to get in the room.Besides it's only a Level 15-16 encounter all told.Thanks for the advice however...Oh and one last thing, why not put multiple encounters back-to-back? Maybe it doesn't work in your game but it does in mine, or at least has on multiple occasions, see my sig if you like, in Sellswords of Punjar the PCs are in the middle of several encounters back-to-back, in KOTS the PCs favourite fight was when Balgron the Fat ran to the next encounter and the PCs followed on.In the same scenario I combined two Hobgoblin encounters...My personal favourite encounter of all time was when I combined four PCs Level Encounters together- the guys fought the bad guys to a standstill, it took the entire sessions, every ounce of their abilities, and some of the most resourceful and smartest play I've ever been party too. In the end they were forced to cut a deal with bad guys- which is exactly what I wanted to happen- recurring villain, come patron- the smoking man (who is feared and respected), who the PCs want to kill but know they have to come up with some really smart plan to do so.My point is if my PCs want to kill the King, and I don't want the king to die then they're going to bump in twelve encounters all at the same time- some things are within their capabilities, some things are not- same with Guildmaster of Thieves, Assassins, or anyone else I need to keep around, or will just unbalance the game world.Here's the thing, given any opportunity, and providing the players know about it ahead of time (and my players know how I operate) why would I not combine encounters, or do something that they don't expect... again, and again, and again.Sorry if I was a bit sharp in the opening, but you seemed to think I was doing something wrong even though you'd not got the facts.My golden rule is... colour outside the lines.And I've been playing 4e since the day it came out and I've DM'ed three TPKs, and I've played a lot (no, really- a lot of it, ask my Mrs.- far too much of it). Two TPKs came in the first two months of playing the game and were mostly about me and the players not making the jump from 3/.5e, the third was earlier this year- and did involve multiple encounters combined into one. It was however not a true TPK- the 1st Level PCs were captured and held as prisoner by the bad guys (sacrificed to their dark god at one/day) while the players new characters (with the clock running) were sent to rescue them, made for the best motivation the players had ever had- and the characters that survived it have proved to be some of their favourites for having done so.Cheers</blockquote>

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