Returning to the game

[Jhaelen]

For the record, I think D&D is better without morale in the RAW. DMs are empowered to decide when monsters run or surrender or fight to the death.

I definitely agree.
I think as a DM it's important to keep in mind that many monsters may want to flee or surrender if things go badly. What exactly constitutes 'going badly' is better decided by gut feeling than an actual, fixed system, imho.

 

[mattcolville]

Seems a little strange to me. It would be like saying...I've decided to learn how to cook and for my first dish I'm going to cook 1,000 olives and nothing else. Then, tomorrow, an entire turkey.

Your examples are extremely edge-case and your players will learn the wrong lessons. Normal adventures don't feature the All Minion Encounter or the All Elites Encounter.

Instead, take it easy. Let WotC do the work for you. Check out the MM1 and look at some level-one encounters. They have pre-made encounters for you. Lots of them, and they're

A: Fun
B: Balanced
C: EXTREMELY representative of the game as a whole.

 

[JakeJekel37]

Seems a little strange to me. It would be like saying...I've decided to learn how to cook and for my first dish I'm going to cook 1,000 olives and nothing else. Then, tomorrow, an entire turkey.

Your examples are extremely edge-case and your players will learn the wrong lessons. Normal adventures don't feature the All Minion Encounter or the All Elites Encounter.

Instead, take it easy. Let WotC do the work for you. Check out the MM1 and look at some level-one encounters. They have pre-made encounters for you. Lots of them, and they're

A: Fun
B: Balanced
C: EXTREMELY representative of the game as a whole.

Well, if you had continued reading after the list, I mentioned I was going to cut out the all minion one. I also ended up changing some of the others. I had to because 2 of the players bailed at the last minute, so I had to restructure the combats for the 2 players remaining.

We ended up only running 2 combat encounters. One with a brute and skirmisher and 2 minions. And one with a level 2 skirmisher and a level 1 artillery.

Overall, it went well. The point was for them to learn basic mechanics of combat, and they did so. It was a little upsetting that half the players didn't show, but such is life. The important thing is that we all had fun.

Thanks again everyone for the tips and pointers.

 

[GameDoc]

For first time players (and veterans, when it's been a while), I find this invaluable:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...228749-d-d-4th-edition-combat-crib-sheet.html

That's pretty handy. Is the current version in-line with the latest errata/Rules Compendium?