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<blockquote data-quote="Crosswind" data-source="post: 4367585" data-attributes="member: 36615">Trouble with TPKs seems to be coming from:1.) Players not playing well together in hard encounters (The Ettercap TPK above)2.) A lack of understanding of how high above the XP budget for a party you can go and still have it be &quot;hard&quot; without &quot;Impossible&quot;.So, 1 is expected.&nbsp; Some times, your wizard decides to magic missile the ettercaps all day instead of doing something useful.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />2, however, is a bit baffling to me.&nbsp; 4E makes it really easy to make hard fights that don't TPK a party.&nbsp; I've run a series of sessions where I had to improvise most of the encounters, and have had a great deal of success using the following guidelines:1.) Stay close to your XP budget!&nbsp; It's not rocket science - if you put, for instance, a 5th level solo monster (1,000 XP) against a party of 4 level 2 characters (500 XP), it's going to be @#$%ing hard.&nbsp; I try not to over/undershoot by more than 30%.2.) Higher level monsters will make it harder than lower level monsters.&nbsp; Despite the fact that 2 level 6 monsters are equivalent to 5 level 1 monsters in XP, they will make for a harder fight.&nbsp; Don't throw your PCs against something that's more than&nbsp; 3-5 levels higher than them, scaling starts to break.3.) Know when you're giving the PCs an advantage/disadvantage that isn't reflected in the monsters, and adjust accordingly.&nbsp; Are the PCs being ambushed?&nbsp; Probably best to make the XP value of the encounter a bit lower, then.&nbsp; Do they have advantageous terrain?&nbsp; Give them a bit harder encounter.-------------------I played a lot of 3E, and by the end of it, had had exactly 1 GM who could reliably challenge a party, make them fear death, but fail to kill them without fudging rolls/making monsters play dumb.&nbsp; It was damn hard, and even he killed 6-7 people over the course of the adventure.4E gives the players myriad ways to save themselves from a TPK.&nbsp; Action points and dailies come to mind.&nbsp; It gives them more ways to recover from dying, recover from bad situations, and less swinginess in dice-rolling.&nbsp; I'm pretty sure that if people stick to the above rules, the challenge of a combat is very, -very- predictable.-Cross</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crosswind, post: 4367585, member: 36615"] Trouble with TPKs seems to be coming from: 1.) Players not playing well together in hard encounters (The Ettercap TPK above) 2.) A lack of understanding of how high above the XP budget for a party you can go and still have it be "hard" without "Impossible". So, 1 is expected. Some times, your wizard decides to magic missile the ettercaps all day instead of doing something useful. ;) 2, however, is a bit baffling to me. 4E makes it really easy to make hard fights that don't TPK a party. I've run a series of sessions where I had to improvise most of the encounters, and have had a great deal of success using the following guidelines: 1.) Stay close to your XP budget! It's not rocket science - if you put, for instance, a 5th level solo monster (1,000 XP) against a party of 4 level 2 characters (500 XP), it's going to be @#$%ing hard. I try not to over/undershoot by more than 30%. 2.) Higher level monsters will make it harder than lower level monsters. Despite the fact that 2 level 6 monsters are equivalent to 5 level 1 monsters in XP, they will make for a harder fight. Don't throw your PCs against something that's more than 3-5 levels higher than them, scaling starts to break. 3.) Know when you're giving the PCs an advantage/disadvantage that isn't reflected in the monsters, and adjust accordingly. Are the PCs being ambushed? Probably best to make the XP value of the encounter a bit lower, then. Do they have advantageous terrain? Give them a bit harder encounter. ------------------- I played a lot of 3E, and by the end of it, had had exactly 1 GM who could reliably challenge a party, make them fear death, but fail to kill them without fudging rolls/making monsters play dumb. It was damn hard, and even he killed 6-7 people over the course of the adventure. 4E gives the players myriad ways to save themselves from a TPK. Action points and dailies come to mind. It gives them more ways to recover from dying, recover from bad situations, and less swinginess in dice-rolling. I'm pretty sure that if people stick to the above rules, the challenge of a combat is very, -very- predictable. -Cross [/QUOTE]

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