The Hive Is REALLY Alive!

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

So as far as making 4e faster per combat round they have extended rounds so it takes just as long to complete a battle.....

4e sounds so disappointing to me. Unless I have too when Eberron 4e comes out I no longer wish to purchase 4e core books.

I think they didn't want to reduce the actual length of encounters - but they were supposed to be faster paced, more engaging, more entertaining. If you don't like combat encounters, and want to get over with it quickly, that's still the wrong approach.

Maybe it might help to just have enemies give up or retreat once bloodied - I mean, who keeps fighting till he's dead, anyway*? (By RAW, you can use Intimidate to force enemies to surrender once they are bloodied. )

*Same approach can work for 3E - at half hit points, enemies retreat or surrender. I am not sure it works as well, since due to the lower number of rounds, there are less "decision" points for the NPCs to retreat...

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On a different note: is the visible "[/sblock]" tag an error in your signature? Might want to fix that...

 

[megamania]

Most of my players would have killed the foe surrendering anyway. Afterall- what are you susposed to do with them after being defeated? Carrying their goodies is enough...

 

[megamania]

Allo. Been quiet (as normal on weekends) Did more work on my Siberys Seven Glossary. More cleaning and sadly discovered my battery powered drill has died. That sets me back for sure. Such is life. So a new drill next weekend, no money until after the holiday.

All in all- a good weekend.


Cya'll later.

 

[Dog Moon]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to do something to scale back hit points. Not sure if an overall -1/5th is the way to go or to just play it by ear.

 

[Aurora]

Hi hive! I'm back from GenCon! I had a great time. (Thanks for asking Mega ) It was great to put some faces to some names. Unfortunately, Korbin did not cooperate and we got almost no sleep until last night when we got NONE! So I had to drop out of my games and skip the goodbye dinner today and we went home. We got home, unpacked the car, and I passed out for like 3 hours. Heh It was a ton of fun though. I met Maverick Weirdo. He is very nice. I played in a few different games including a Star Wars Saga game that Fickle GMed and a Dread game that Alenda GMed. I LOVED the Dread game. In fact, I am pretty sure I am gonna try my hand at GMing one at the next Ohio Gameday.
Korbin turned one on Saturday and we got a cake. It was fun. His party here at home is this coming Saturday.

Well that's about it outta me for an update.

 

[Dog Moon]

Just realized that the Saving Throw mechanic actually works well with my Raising Effects chart.

 

[Ginnel]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to do something to scale back hit points. Not sure if an overall -1/5th is the way to go or to just play it by ear.

How many games have you played yet?
If none I'd suggest keeping as is and see how it goes, players whittle down those hit points quite fast and the rounds do go quicker.

at level 3 the players will have 2 encounter powers doing around 2D8 + 4 (16 in a stat & +1 magic weapon) 6-20 at a conservative estimate, strikers will be doing that every round to one target with their at wills, and this isn't including feats for damage and the special effects of the powers and action points.

To speed the game up either use powers cards or if you don't want to use power cards at least have the players write out their powers (including racial, class features and second wind, pop in run, charge, bull rush and full defensive if you wish too) fully on a sheet of paper before the game.

also have markers for the different marks and curses and quarrys and what not, it will speed up play.

If however you just want some goblins to drop easily try minions or just as you suggest lowering hit points to around 5

 

[Dog Moon]

We've played a few games already, and I've seen this from both sides of the table, so it's not something that just myself has a problem with. The rounds/each person's turn go quickly, but the fact that the enemies have more hp means that the combats take additional rounds to be defeated, and this definitely includes using encounter powers.

And I do use minions, but what I want for many of the enemies is to have hit points that somewhere between the 1hp of the minion and the 40hp of the level 3 Goblin.

 

[Ginnel]

We've played a few games already, and I've seen this from both sides of the table, so it's not something that just myself has a problem with. The rounds/each person's turn go quickly, but the fact that the enemies have more hp means that the combats take additional rounds to be defeated, and this definitely includes using encounter powers.

And I do use minions, but what I want for many of the enemies is to have hit points that somewhere between the 1hp of the minion and the 40hp of the level 3 Goblin.

My bad I was making assumptions, 1/5 off the hit points should speed up the battles (and its been something my GM has been thinking about) try adding a point or two of damage on to the monsters/increase the damage die to keep it a threat.

The less hit points you give things the less powers/abilities which play off bloodied/unbloodied status like a tieflings attack bonus to bloodied foes are going to come into play, you could alter this buy adding +2 to hit for this power or have it add a +1 damage bonus maybe, but that throws out damage reduction abilities like the tieflings fire res and natch.

Just take down the hp a little and increase the damage done by 1 point per die by the monsters is the easiest suggestion I can come up with.

 

[Dog Moon]

Hrm, hadn't really occurred to me about Bloodied abilities of the monsters. Not sure if damage is needed for them or not though. I'll keep it in mind, but I think until I've tried shaving off some hps, I'm not going to mess with the monster's other stuff yet. Too new to the system to do more than little modifications at a time.