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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5156747" data-attributes="member: 2067">It's sort of a "what do you expect?" kind of thing.Monsters do things to inconvenience players. Without statuses, we're basically down to raw damage, which doesn't add much tactical variety to combat.BUT, that said, since your players are genuinely annoyed and not having fun, there's ways around it. Some ideas:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Pay Attention to the Leaders: Your party's leaders do more than heal. They do things to counteract status problems. Things like free movement, teleports, bonus actions, saves, etc., etc. Other characters with a "leader minor" can do a lot of this stuff, too.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Who's Got the Heal Skill?: DC 15 grants a saving throw to another character (or gives a +2 to a saving throw that the other character would make anyway). It's a standard action, but it really helps ditch those effects early.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Feats!: Something to keep in mind while leveling up: whatever your annoying condition du jour is, there's probably a feat that lets you get out of it easily. For Slowed, for instance, there's the <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/feat.aspx?id=802" target="_blank">Martial Freedom</a> feat, and the <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/feat.aspx?id=2104" target="_blank">Thief Expert</a> feat. These can be a bit niche, but that's sort of what feats are for, and if it means getting out of a status effect early, it's probably worth it. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Spread It Around: More of a DM thing than a player thing: don't spam one character, or one kind of status. Keep it spread out. Not everything in a single combat should slow characters, ideally, and not with every attack. This can lead to "status accounting," but that's a little less frustrating than NEVER MOVING MORE THAN TWO SQUARES ARGH. Usually.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Keep the Terrain In Mind: Another DM thing: don't stack effects, if you can avoid it. If you've got an enemy that imposes slow, try to avoid having difficult terrain or looooooong corridors in the same combat. It can be effective, once or twice, but if your players are unduly frustrated by it, it's probably not worth it. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Other Stuff Grants Saves (House Rule): To keep giving characters saving throws, let Action Points give them a free save instead of an extra action, or let them make a save instead of recovering HP (or getting the defense bonus) while taking a Second Wind. </li> </ol>I wouldn't recommend getting rid of the statuses entirely, since 4e leans pretty hard on them to do the job of making combats interesting. But keep the above in mind, pay attention to the monsters you choose (go with Brutes, Lurkers, and Artillery rather than Soldiers and Controllers), maybe sprinkle in terrain effects that can grant saves (magic circles, healing pools, whatever), and try to maybe explain that there are ways around this/to stop this, and why the monsters still have to sort of be able to do that. Good gaming!</blockquote>

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