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Message: <blockquote data-quote="braro" data-source="post: 5686905" data-attributes="member: 63089">Here are some general things to keep in mind, boiling down what I have experienced and what I have read from others.* Level appropriate encounters are supposed to be important to the general design- A more traditional dungeon crawl in 4e would actually have each floor as the encounter.- A traditional throw away encounter that the PCs breeze through should mainly be maybe 4 minions and one normal monster of appropriate level.  This will get dropped in 1-2 rounds.* PCs are more enduring.- They can take more damage and recover it, so don't worry too much about crushing them at first level.* Daily encounters can really swing the way a fight goes.-Action points, too.* Most high magic stuff is ritual casting now; I really like to use this to flavor my world and NPC casters.As for running a new adventure...* Make the conflict and goal very clear and straight forward; something that the PCs can immediately latch on to.  If your goal is to introduce people, don't make the plot hard to understand.  A thematically rich antagonist with a clear goal that the PCs can stop will work great.* Put them in a situation where time is of the essence, so you don't have to worry about them resting too much.* Have the first encounter be something on the easy side, and ramp up.  For example, 2 normal monsters and four minions for five PCs; its enough meat that everyone will get to take a turn and try out stuff.  Then add monsters until you are at appropriate level.* It is better to use level appropriate monsters where possible.  You can adjust a monsters level up or down by removing +1 to hit, damage, defenses, and then also removing some number of hit points based on the role.* Solos are a bit of a trap unless the PCs are being cautious.  However, you might want to use them for the final opponent.  If so,  either use them as part of a hard encounter with some minions, or use an elite monster with normal monster support.* Figure out what themes you want to bring out, lore and flavor wise, and build them in to the encounters.For example, I did a brief adventure set in a volcanic cauldron where the PCs had to stop a primordial from awakening in the volcano.  The volcano itself had a spirit that slumbered, and the PCs had to stop a mad mage from causing the whole mess to blow up.  They had to fight their way to the volcano through some tricked hobgoblins, and then they had to fight elementals and archons within the volcano, before a show down with him and his final elemental guardians.</blockquote>

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