Jestem's page

Another interesting idea that I have heard is the pool of HP, and basically throwing however many monsters into the pool of the encounter, setting it up in such a way that if you want 300HP in the pool for 10 monsters, then each time 30 damage is done to the pool, the monster drops. Means you can keep things flexible and so on if they are doing too well by throwing more HP into the pool, and the PC's will never know.

That would sound to be spot on the money to be honest, a pretty cool encounter. Just be careful to infect as much of the party as you can with the rat lycanthrope disease, and then later on make sure to have a werecat of some kind.....

*evil gm grin*

Dotting for interest, I like what you have done here so far

If the guy has actually specifically told you that he plans to break the game, then you have two options. Either kill the character during generation, or simply mention to him that if he tries, he will be without a game. Whilst it is good to have a full party to throw things against, its easier to work around 3 characters and still have a decent time, than to have to deal with an idiot who wants to make a Superman. It's not just the game he is wrecking, but the experience of it for everyone.

Multiple encounters over the course of the day. Even if they are resting, the world doesn't go into stasis.

In all fairness, I don't personally think that there needs be more metamagic feats brought in. Using the APG and UM etc, there is already a huge amount of variety for spells. It feels a broader and more balanced than it did in 3e.

I have just finished a 6 month almost hyper accelerated game that went up to 10th level, and found that in all honesty the game dragged a little as more attacks were thrown in and such like. Part of that might be that the players were badly organised, but I also think that low level play is almost charming in its simplicity. I certainly know that my 3rd level ranger to some degree feels more powerful than some of the 10th level characters I saw because success is much more appreciated due to less skill ranks and such like. Success or failure on tasks gives a much more human element to the game.

My above comment will probably be disagreed with, but I have a pretty visual way of seeing the world, and whilst I optimize characters to be the best at what they do, I like to maintain a mortal element to it as well. I want the game to be a challenge at all levels, be it in or out of combat. When a character can succeed on a task on a roll of 2 or above then I begin to lose interest.