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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 7118281" data-attributes="member: 1210">First, let me just gush about how damn great the post I'm replying to is. MNblockhead really hits some very important things here that go beyond the surface of using hazards, but to encounter design as a whole. Yes!! Even a not-hazard, but just obstacle, can really grind the game down in a similar fashion. The classic example is the secret door the pcs must find to finish the adventure, but don't. (Contrast this with the secret door that the pcs could find and would get cool stuff/lore/whatever from, but don't have to find, to finish the adventure.) The best hazards and traps have multiple solutions that allow characters with different sets of abilities to engage them. If the only way through a thing is to cast a specfiic spell, nobody without that spell can possibly succeed. If the thing has like ten approaches to it, from picking the lock to bending the bars to trying to swim the caustic moat, most everyone can work on it. And if you use a hazard in conjunction with other threats, your options only expand- there's a great pic in (IIRC) the 4e PH of a rogue frantically picking a lock on a wall shooting jets of fire while the pcs hold off the monsters... it's awesome, and really shows how different ability sets can work together. Another really, really good resource for this is the 3e book Dungeonscape; it's got a whole chapter on trap design, including "encounter traps" (basically the template for traps and hazards in 4e) that you can easily adapt into hazard design (also, if you're an Order of the Stick fan, Rich Burlew is one of the authors).  Wow. I've never even thought about this, and I've totally worked on a high-altitude airborn ecology in my game. Next chance I get, I'm using some of this.</blockquote>

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