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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cignus_pfaccari" data-source="post: 5518942" data-attributes="member: 14557">I'm a bit leery of doing this.  Lower surges often go hand-in hand with lower defenses, so that seems to be a good way of getting more total damage done on the party.This probably does work reasonably well at lower levels while the defenses aren't terribly different.  Once you start getting auto-hits on poor defenses, though, it's time for the tissue-paper-PCs to stay in the back.  That's also the point where the monster hits that hardly scratch the high-Con warden leave the wizard with a gaping wound where his hip used to be.Indeed.  I figure that once you're over halfway to the surge, it's a good idea to spend one, but you can go for a while with some hp damage.  It is a touch risky, though; I've gotten very wary of the new high-damage monsters getting lucky and sending someone to the mat fast. Now, though, a couple of hp down, no problem.  That's why you also make sure and have someone carry around a Battle Standard of Healing; even without cheesing it out (which is, well, cheesy), it's good for sopping up those extra HP and getting just a little bit more endurance out of the party.Oh, if only I could count the number of times our party has been tanked.  Not even all of us, usually one or two guys are easily distracted.I can't really throw stones, as I'm horribly guilty of not being terribly tactically-minded.  I've been tanked before.  I've also passed up the optimal target for my sorcerer in favor of the cluster of monsters that I can action point nova into mass wads of damage...but that cluster was going to move, and I do so love mushroom clouds...Anywho, moving right along.With today's modern monsters that can bloody a non-defender in a single hit, this is very risky.  When playing my cleric, I really preferred to keep my party above bloodied if at all possible, just to make sure that they didn't get splattered into Raise Dead ritual components.Mostly related yet somewhat tangential, but I mean, DAMN, what were they smoking?  I understand a lot of monsters had really pathetic damage, and that's fine to fix.  But, it seems to me that they heavily overcorrected.  In our new Dark Sun game, the thri-kreen monk goes up and down several times a session.  I'm seriously considering recommending that he and the dragonborn warlock turn into dwarf fighters.  (That's kind of my thinking for Dark Sun..."Can your concept work as a dwarf?  If so, do it.  If not, step on it a few more times.")Brad</blockquote>

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