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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5975438" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm not sure what it means, in D&D, for a combat to be dangerous but not deadly. In the absence of a wound system, if it's not (potentially) deadly than it's not dangerous - you mark off the lost hit points and continue on your way.Not only is it not dangerous, but it may not even be troublesome. I mean, perhaps the PCs fight hard to win, and so it's troublesome in the fiction, but if at the table all the players are doing is rolling to hit and damage dice for a few rounds, that sounds straightforward rather than troublesome.4e has particular mechancial responses to these issues - the need to make decisions about power usage even in easy encounters makes them "troublesome" - ie requiring of engaged thought and effort from the players - even if the PCs aren't in much danger. And the short rest/healing surge mechanics mean that you can run every encounter as potentially deadly if you like without limiting the PCs to one encounter per rest - because with a short rest they get all their hp back, at least until they run out of surges.Obviously D&Dnext won't be using these techniques - some classes will not have a sophisticated decision-structure in combat, and the healer's kit/HD mechanic does not deliver the same per-encounter hp replenishment as in 4e.But what is it's technique for making encounters that are not significant challenges nevertheless interesting?</blockquote>