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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pseudopsyche" data-source="post: 4820322" data-attributes="member: 54600">The Monster Manuals need companion books: Tomes of Terrain Elements.  Many of us are accustomed to designed encounters primarily around the antagonists, but 4E encounters demand interesting settings.  Traps are good, but I'd also like to see neutral objects or features that spice up the battlefield and encourage more dynamic combat.Imagine a book filled with terrain elements that borrow from the concept of object-oriented programming.  Each inanimate object includes a list of powers, like a monster, but those powers are activated using the combatants' actions.  Example: a tavern table.  Move action: hop onto the table and gain +2 to all attacks while on the table.  Standard action: Strength vs (hard DC), up-end the table, knocking anybody on top into an adjacent square and dealing 1d8 damage.  Immediate interrupt: Acrobatics vs (medium DC), land safely in an adjacent square if the table is up-ended beneath you.  Up-ended tables provide cover, etc.  Even if the players don't immediately catch on to the available powers, they will as soon as the enemies start doing so!  This example is relatively mundane and a good DM could probably improvise it (although you could say the same about many monsters), but a book of well-designed more fantastical elements would be awesome.Working bottom-up, then I want to see a book of battle maps with complementary terrain elements, along with a few suggestions of encounter groups of monsters to populate the room.  Finally, some adventures and APs that add world-class fluff, artwork, and production values.  (And excellent examples of more structured and dynamic skill challenges.)</blockquote>

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