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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 4777946" data-attributes="member: 12731">The problem is this: Whether the party wins or flees, the nature of 4E combat and the capabilities of player characters are such that any high-level combat is destined to drag on for hours.This neatly summarizes the whole issue:True, but not a satisfying solution for me.It seems 4E only offers quick fights when it is the PCs that win quick. What we're discussing here is how PCs can't "lose quickly" - relatively speaking - (with all the healing available to PCs combined with the often low damage output of monsters). And how the PCs can win against even a high-level threat but only through a grind, because that high-level opponent will have so many hp and so high defenses there will be a lot of whiffing; while the foe's offensive won't be enough to really deter the PCs from stopping.The low damage of foes encourage PCs to stay in the fight, fighting til the bitter end.As I said, one completely viable solution is to throw more monsters as the PCs: this nicely ups the damage (which seems to be the main problem) while keeping hp's and defenses of any individual foe low. But how do you do this with, say, a Dragon? Fighting "the three amigo Dragons" is kind of not what we want out of a dragon fight...It seems 4E's solution is always to have more monsters. Either adding to the encounter, or simply by the threat of having one more encounter. The whole resource-management game is geared towards this: the threat of more encounters, or in other words, more monsters.What do you do if you want a party to stumble upon a solitary BBEG first they do on the day, and still run away?(Slogging through a whiffest of a three hour drag where the PCs win out in the end (and thus learn nothing) is what the rules offer, but I will have none of it)I really see no other solution than to add more damage to high-level foes.Suggestion:Perhaps a Solo (that is truly alone) gets +1d6 damage* for each level it is higher than the PCs?*) per round (much like Striker bonus damage) - not per attack, or "Hydra" would become the favorite career of most BBEGs... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />And yes, as I said in my very first post, this makes me feel like a WoW designer... because at the end of the day, what this is, is simply "discouraging players from taking on threats above their station". I'd wish the game could hide it in its internals (like 3E), but in 4E it seems unavoidable to have an external mechanism like this...Perhaps you can add in this rule for all monsters; though of course it can quickly become deadly (if you run into a half-dozen Orcs three levels higher than you), but primarily the rule should be intended for Solos (critters whose defense vastly outmatch their offense).Edit: see <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/255506-adding-oomph-high-level-encounters.html" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/255506-adding-oomph-high-level-encounters.html</a> for more on this idea.</blockquote>

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