Players dissatisfied with level of danger in 4e

[Jack99]

I did look this up and it does say "rest" not short or extended. In our game, we assumed the RAI meant extended rest, so that's how we've been playing.

Somewhere I thought I read that they intended to say extended rest, but I can't find it anywhere....

You will have to take my word for it, since I do not have a link handy, but
1) its been clarified a few times that it means short or extended rest.
2) the designers themselves play with a short rest resetting the death save counter.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I find in 4e you can use lots of minions and same-level monsters to increase lethality without much increase in combat length. Conversely using higher level monsters increases combat length and the feeling of grind.

Yes. Remember, if you're using lots of Minions - to be nasty, they need to use ranged weapons.

As long as they are ignored, they deal frightening amounts of damage against an individual target. Once you focus on them, they die fast. This will always create an interesting decision to make.

 

[S'mon]

Yes. Remember, if you're using lots of Minions - to be nasty, they need to use ranged weapons.

As long as they are ignored, they deal frightening amounts of damage against an individual target. Once you focus on them, they die fast. This will always create an interesting decision to make.

Back in 1e AD&D I would routinely use dozens or even hundreds of archers vs high-level PCs, often with distributed +1 arrows to counter Protection from Missiles spells.

I actually find though that in 4e, archers are *so* lethal per the RAW that I have to use them sparingly and tone them down:

1) I don't let minion archers ignore cover from allies, otherwise you could have 30 minions in a corridor all plugging away at 1 PC.

2) And generally I don't use many archers amongst my minions. I actually take a leaf from Xena/Hercules TV shows - enemy archers are rare, and a major threat. Eg: I bought a set of 30 Orc Drudge minis - 25 melee, but only 5 archers. I stat the archers as pretty crappy (ATT +6/4 dmg) compared to the melee ones (ATT +9/6 dmg) but when I use the Drudges en masse vs the PCs I find they regularly prioritise killing the archers first.