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<blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 5113440" data-attributes="member: 40961">Random thoughts:1. Having one combat a day turns daily powers into encounter powers.&nbsp; This definitely affects the degree of risk your players will experience.2. There are a number of ways to damage downed characters, although you may want to use them sparingly since no matter what your players say now, they will probably be unhappy when their character gets killed while unconscious.&nbsp; I often have animalistic monsters continue to attack a downed PC- a wolf that's dragged down a character seems likely to continue biting and tearing for at least a few moments after the character is downed.&nbsp; Area effects hit characters who are unconscious, as do aura effects.&nbsp; You can also do plot related things, like having a monster drag an unconscious PC (or a conscious but unable to escape PC) away from the group.3. Count up the number of healing surge triggers your PCs can bring to bear in a single fight.&nbsp; Count second wind as 1/2, since using it gives up your attack and often results in you getting hit again for an amount of damage similar to what you gained.&nbsp; Count daily powers as 1/2, since they can't be used every fight, but will often be used in the most important fight (count them fully if you only use one fight per day).&nbsp; The result is your real &quot;target&quot; as a DM.&nbsp; Is your group's number of healing surges higher than typical?&nbsp; Do you have a lot of surge-less healing available?4. I have two groups.&nbsp; One tears throw monsters like a hot knife through butter.&nbsp; The other suffers semi regular pc deaths.&nbsp; If I had to guess at the reason for the difference, its probably that the first group has a very dedicated healer and three melee characters, two of which are defenders.&nbsp; The second group has a healer who's a bit more of a dilettante, and only two melee characters.&nbsp; So this makes a pretty significant difference.5. The best fight we had for nearly killing every single PC but not actually doing it was in the Dungeon Delve- the one with the monster in the well that grapples PCs and then drops them down the shaft of the well.&nbsp; It split the party, which created an awful lot of tension.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cadfan, post: 5113440, member: 40961"] Random thoughts: 1. Having one combat a day turns daily powers into encounter powers. This definitely affects the degree of risk your players will experience. 2. There are a number of ways to damage downed characters, although you may want to use them sparingly since no matter what your players say now, they will probably be unhappy when their character gets killed while unconscious. I often have animalistic monsters continue to attack a downed PC- a wolf that's dragged down a character seems likely to continue biting and tearing for at least a few moments after the character is downed. Area effects hit characters who are unconscious, as do aura effects. You can also do plot related things, like having a monster drag an unconscious PC (or a conscious but unable to escape PC) away from the group. 3. Count up the number of healing surge triggers your PCs can bring to bear in a single fight. Count second wind as 1/2, since using it gives up your attack and often results in you getting hit again for an amount of damage similar to what you gained. Count daily powers as 1/2, since they can't be used every fight, but will often be used in the most important fight (count them fully if you only use one fight per day). The result is your real "target" as a DM. Is your group's number of healing surges higher than typical? Do you have a lot of surge-less healing available? 4. I have two groups. One tears throw monsters like a hot knife through butter. The other suffers semi regular pc deaths. If I had to guess at the reason for the difference, its probably that the first group has a very dedicated healer and three melee characters, two of which are defenders. The second group has a healer who's a bit more of a dilettante, and only two melee characters. So this makes a pretty significant difference. 5. The best fight we had for nearly killing every single PC but not actually doing it was in the Dungeon Delve- the one with the monster in the well that grapples PCs and then drops them down the shaft of the well. It split the party, which created an awful lot of tension. [/QUOTE]

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