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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Badapple" data-source="post: 5094261" data-attributes="member: 71811">I was pondering that very question earlier tonight when I was desiging a major upcoming encounter.  Usually my group takes out the supporting monsters first, then all piles on the boss at the end, but I try to design encounters that occasionally shake things up. The encounter consists of an n+2 elite Bravura Warlord (controller) - the "boss", an n+1 elite elven archer (artillery/skirmisher), and some underlevel n-2 brute goons, giving an xp budget of n+2 overall.  There will be six players and they will be pitted against the two elites and the 4 goons. The archer does the most damage by far, but he'll be in the back, highly mobile, and hard to pin down, he's also elite so he'll have a lot of hp.  The Bravura will have the most hp, and will be doing bravura style attacks that invite attack.  He'll also be constantly giving the goons temp hp and doing some heals. The goons are basic brutes, but they get attack bonuses that trigger based on their bravura boss getting attacked.  They also have some pull/grab stuff that can shuffle the party around. So what will the party do?  They can beat down the goons, but that will be inneficient as the goons will be getting temp hp every round or every other round, plus heals.  And if they leave the archer alone he will cause some serious damage. They can beat on the boss, but doing so invigorates the goons, and the boss has the highest hp and defenses. They can beat on the archer, but they have to catch him, deal with goons pulling them away and springing the archer, and the boss healing the archer. I'm not sure what they'll do... very interested to find out!  Also, I'm going to have a brief narrative while they watch this npc group take down another npc group, so they'll be going in the fight with a rough idea of their capabilities.</blockquote>

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