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View Full Version : Encounter Design 4E



kpenguin
2007-09-21, 06:45 PM
What does everybody think of the new article? I, for one, am pleased that there will be system to incorporate hazards into CR/EL.

iop
2007-09-21, 07:20 PM
Interestingly, the approach they describe (picking several monsters that play well together, having them come in at different places on the battlefield, making hazards part of an encounter) is how I already design my encounters.
I just don't worry about exactly matching CRs.

kpenguin
2007-09-22, 12:47 AM
Interestingly, the approach they describe (picking several monsters that play well together, having them come in at different places on the battlefield, making hazards part of an encounter) is how I already design my encounters.
I just don't worry about exactly matching CRs.

Well, I think trying to incorporate how hazards interact with encounters in the way challenge is judged is good. Things are significantly more challenging when you're fighting orcs while a forest fire is raging around you or something similar.

Matthew
2007-09-22, 01:34 AM
I think that it sounds as though they are trying to tighten up the CR system. I don't hold out any high hopes as to their potential success. On the whole, it sounded like a lot of double talk to me, but without any knowledge of the actual system it's impossible to say whether they are going to be able to come up with an iron clad method of calculating CR.

Kurald Galain
2007-09-22, 04:44 AM
I think the problem with these rules is that they are intended to make DM'ing easier (as you can just add the numbers and so forth), but they don't really work that way. A competent DM will not really need these numerical tricks to make things (semi)balanced and interesting; an incompetent DM will fail even with these tricks.

It's a bit like what some organizations have: psychologically-based rules for dispute resolution and talking things out with people who are angry at one another. The problem with these rules is that people who are good at such things will succeed even without them, and people who are bad at such will fail even with them.

Jarlax
2007-09-22, 07:26 AM
i like the idea of a slot system which can be filled with a monster or a environment. it makes the BBEG one-on-one fight work better, you fill one, maybe one and a half slots with a strong BBEG and the rest can be environmental effects that boost the BBEG.

Crow
2007-09-22, 12:47 PM
I'm a little worried about monster "groups". Some people might like these, but I hope they give some system to "break down" the CR so you can make different mixes of monsters rather than the same "groups" over and over again.

OneWinged4ngel
2007-09-22, 12:50 PM
I think that it sounds as though they are trying to tighten up the CR system. I don't hold out any high hopes as to their potential success. On the whole, it sounded like a lot of double talk to me, but without any knowledge of the actual system it's impossible to say whether they are going to be able to come up with an iron clad method of calculating CR.

Ditto. Pretty much my thoughts exactly.