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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 6151486" data-attributes="member: 93">Not at all...  First off, I always treat the encounter buildings rules as more... guidelines [/Barbosa] than rules per se...And you can still trick and surprise people by using good tactics and unexpected foes - the tough part is doing it and having it still seem fair - anyone can just up the encounter numbers and overwhelm the PC's; that's not Rat Bastardry, IMO.Three examples from one 3E session I ran several years ago - the 7th level (or so) PC's are traversing a ruined elven city built over a massive waterfall - lots of bridges and towers.  1. As they approach the main tower, they are on a long narrow bridge, and get attacked by a single solitary Quickling.  The Quickling has Spring Attack and sleep poison on his dagger.  And 3 HP.  But he's effectively invisible while moving, has a high AC, and begins and ends each round far enough away that the PC's can't counterattack.  Multiple PC's go down into a slumber before the party druid stops and thinks for a moment; she readies her action for when she hears the Quickling zoom up, and then punts him into the river with a single well-placed kick.2. Later that same session they are trying to make to the top of the main tower; the tower has a stair that runs around the outside (there used to be an outside wall, but it crumbled away).  A werebat with a spiked chain defends the stair, and he attacks by trying to whip his opponents legs and then fly off of the tower, pulling the PC with him...  He never quite pulled it off but it created a memorable encounter...3.  When the party fighter finally got to the very top of the tower, he got bull rushed off by an Ogre Mage, who didn't worry that he might go off the edge (because, hey, he can fly).  I think the fighter managed to survive by grabbing hold of the Ogre Mage so he couldn't fly away, and then when they both hit the water below, he just pummeled him... None of those foes were especially tough per EL rules, but created memorable and dangerous encounters anyway.</blockquote>

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