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Dungeons & Dra.. What's a DM to Do? How to make a encounters fair but challenging
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2 years ago  ::  Oct 13, 2011 - 8:13PM #11
Neejix
Date Joined: Oct 23, 2007
Posts: 146
I like what iserith wrote and browsed that blog entry.  I definitely agree--as long as your players are having fun, it doesn't matter if they steam roll your encounter.  Fun is the number one rule.

With that said...if you are looking to up your tactical game a bit with regards to an experienced group of players I'd suggest a few things:

  • Monsters that come at the party from multiple locations on the map.
  • Know your party and their tactics.  Don't punish them of course, but after seeing them lock a big monster down every combat--don't create encounters (or at least not every encounter) that hinge on one monster that can get locked down.
  • As mentioned previously--monsters that come in waves, or show up a round or two late to a combat can be a nice surprise that forces the party to adjust to your monsters (instead of the other way around).
  • Don't let them know minions are minions until they hit them and learn it themselves.
  • Sometimes make things that look like minions not be minions in the fight (again the surprise and re-adjustment factor for the players).
  • Make sure you have terrain.  Not just a big open fight area each time.
  • Make some fights that are three dimensional fights (things above or below the party).
  • Be aware of the content (monsters) you are using--if they are early designs MM1, etc, they will be underpowered, and you probably need to increase damage or to-hits (or both).


Mis-direction, an occasional surprise, and good terrain are your friends.  All of these things can help make a fight more interesting and challenging without bringing it to the brink of TPK.
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2 years ago  ::  Oct 13, 2011 - 8:38PM #12
Karadinn
Date Joined: Sep 30, 2011
Posts: 65
Also, on the subject of minions, there are some interesting minions like the Human Slave that do not die until the end of their next turn once they've been dropped to 0.  If you do not declare minions to be minions, you can add a bunch of those into an encounter and I suspect it will give your players quite a scare when they hit it and it doesn't die.  They start at level 1, but you can always adjust monster stats up or down to make those types of minions match the level of your party.
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2 years ago  ::  Oct 14, 2011 - 12:21AM #13
sockmonkey66
Date Joined: May 5, 2009
Posts: 654
Two words: Tucker's Kobolds. :D
Also don't be afraid to have your monsters set the place on fire if they start losing the battle. Fighting in a burning room is always a hoot.
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2 years ago  ::  Oct 14, 2011 - 1:40PM #14
pogminky
Date Joined: Jul 28, 2007
Posts: 673
There might be useful stuff over in the Combat tactics forum too - worth a few-page browse.
Playing Scales of War

Rogue.jpg

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Dungeons & Dra.. What's a DM to Do? How to make a encounters fair but challenging
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