How to Design and Make D&D Encounters That Matter GM 911
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How to Design and Make D&D Encounters That Matter GM 911
Original GM 911
Hi Nerdarchists,
My name is Austin and I've been a DM for my group for about a year and a half now. We played 3.5 for majority of that time and they just didn't really grasp it. So I decided to try the mainstreamed game of DND 4th and they seem to grasp these rules a lot better.
I hope you'll still help me, I have a party of 3. A Pixie Witch, a Dragonborn Cleric, and a Tiefling Elemental Swordsman. All of whom are level 1 almost level 2.
Here's the setup:
Their very first dungeon...Goblins! Goblins kidnapped the blacksmiths daughter to take her to a shrine of old forgotten Knights and use her as a sacrifice to their deity Bane as a manner to desecrate the shrine. The PC's managed to defeat the Death-Jump Spider (a random encounter), the Goblin Scouts, the Goblin warriors and slinger, they got past the trap and into the final chamber (Thank you Matt Coleville for the idea of this quest) where they had to fight a Goblin Warrior, a Fire Beetle, and the Goblin Shaman.
At Level one the PC's don't know anything about the stories I've built within the world so I didn't want to kill them off. However, the Goblin Shaman proved to be too much and I could have TPK'd the party. I know a lot of seasoned players/DM's say to just kill them, but at level 1?! So instead I started making up that there was some health potions hanging off of the dead Goblin Warriors belt that they took and used to stay alive plus I had to fudge the next 4-5 rolls just so the Goblin Shaman missed or did minimum damage.
I followed the XP budget near perfect, I spent 75 extra XP than recommended.
This was technically the 2nd session we had of 4E and it was very rough game for all of us, everyone was getting frustrated.
Here's the 911:
Where's the happy medium of making combat challenging, yet not so easy they just brush through it?
Do I spend less on my XP budget? Do I incorporate more traps instead of monsters? Please help me...
My Ranting:
When we played 3.5 I had to spoon feed them everything and combat got so boring for all of us after a year of doing it. But we slugged on for another 3-4 months give or take to finish the campaign at least.
We only play twice a month (Every other Friday morning, it works for our schedules). I made the decision to switch to 4th edition. I personally like 4E and they actually understand the rules! Hallelujah!
I don't feel like easy encounters should happen and only in some cases because I feel like it's a waste of time. You come across two wolves now lets take the time to clear the table for the map, roll initiative, and now the 3 players decide what they want to do, and the wolves do what they do. All of which eats up 15-20 minutes give or take, when I could have just said "You kill 2 wolves here's your XP and lets move on". I don't see a point in easy encounters anymore. If it's not challenging then why do it in the game?
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