[4e] Darksun not enough bite?

[Kaun]

Ok i have been reading through the new Darksun stuff for 4e and all said and done i like it a lot.

I was a big fan of the 2e stuff and was keen to see what they did with it this time around.

I have played a lot of 4e but i am yet to play with the new Darksun material and after going over the books for a few days i was left with the feeling that it just isnt deadly enough.

The new monsters all seem to have a bit more bite to them when compared to the standard fair from the mm's but over all it just....

..eh im not sure what im trying to say..

Basicly play grounders what i want to know is...

If you have played it what do you think..

Is it the harsh mistress that it was in 2e or has 4e sofend its edges a little to much?

[DeltaEmil]

It surely makes it a lot more playable and better than whatever was written before, while still having annoying environment rules that can be dangerous, making monster fights even tougher than it should be.

Of course, for the hardcore-people, you can also ignore rolling and just say that the monster's attack outright kills the player characters, and that the players have to give all their money to the gm.

[Lhurgyof]

Yeah, seems like they toned it down a bit.

[Reluctance]

If you want the monsters to be harsher, just assume that the party is a couple of levels higher than they are. The level/CR system should work across systems, rather than artificially tweaking numbers for different settings.

If the rules changes themselves don't feel as brutal as you remember, it probably won't be hard to houserule harder versions. But don't expect a level 5 monster to be harder than level 5 monsters should be when you can just use a level 7 monster instead.

[ghost_warlock]

If you want the monsters to be harsher, just assume that the party is a couple of levels higher than they are. The level/CR system should work across systems, rather than artificially tweaking numbers for different settings.

If the rules changes themselves don't feel as brutal as you remember, it probably won't be hard to houserule harder versions. But don't expect a level 5 monster to be harder than level 5 monsters should be when you can just use a level 7 monster instead.

Exactly. Monsters in the Dark Sun book should be cross-compatible with monsters from other 4e books and not inflated in power.

The difference in difficulty between Dark Sun and 'standard' D&D can be easily made up for by adding more/higher-level monsters and playing up environmental hazards and stuff like sun sickness.

Having played through almost all of the Dark Sun Encounters modules, I seem to recall environmental hazards playing a significant role in almost every encounter - not just standard difficult terrain. Some of the hazards caused immobilization, ongoing damage, and blindness, in addition to pit traps and the like. At least one encounter featured terrain that immobilized characters who entered the area and dealt ongoing damage while they remained there.

[Kurald Galain]

Is it the harsh mistress that it was in 2e or has 4e sofend its edges a little to much?

4E Dark Sun is markedly less lethal than 2E Dark Sun. Opinions differ on whether this is "too much".