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I upvoted the question since it's the sort of thing that new players often wonder about; but the only possible answer is Stop what you are doing right now!. D&D (and roleplaying games in general) are very specifically not about being the winner or 'bending other characters to your will'. It is conceivable that a particular campaign may allow the ...

First thing to remember is the definition of terrain in a combat/encounter framework: Terrain is anything that is not a character or monster combatant. Terrain is not just the ground the PCs are standing on. It is the furniture, atmosphere, weather, walls, ceiling, non-combatant plants and creatures, dead-bodies (real dead, not undead), fire, water, ...

This is not a complete answer at the moment, but should provide some food for thought. You should use all of your encounter powers every combat if you can. Leaving encounter powers on the table is wasting resources. Most combats are several rounds, so you should have a chance to get off most of your encounters if you've chosen them well. Figure out your ...

First: Talk to your DM. Ensure that this character is right for the game they are running. Does the DM force/allow social skills to be used against other PCs? Does the general plot have a point at which you could take control of the party? Is there a reason that the other players would go along with your character? Is there a reason some higher authority ...

I think two other comments (here and here) do a good job of answering your questions; I am grappling with the same challenge of late. I want dynamic encounters that test characters beyond just run up and hit the baddie. When tinkering with an encounter I always look at it from the perspective of . . . what other ways can the players use their characters to ...

First of all - think very carefully about whether you want to do this and why you want to do this. As a number of people have already mentioned in the comments to your original post, if you don't handle this well then it's a one-way trip out of the game probably and a lot of annoyed friends. On the flip side - this has been done a lot in fiction and is ...

First of all, remember that the purpose of the game is for players (and, secondarily, the GM) to have fun. As such, ask yourself if your battles need to be more difficult. Do you feel the ease in which the players beat all your monsters makes them bored, or are they excited that their tactics are so successful? Remember that the game is not you versus the ...

In addition to the answers already given, something to keep in mind is you are not the only one with dailies to spend. Thus, the question is not so much when should you expend resources in a fight, but rather when someone should spend them. For example, the party I play with leans heavily towards single or double target Strikers as primary or secondary ...

I remember coming across this very same things years ago when I started running games, I wanted my players to be inherently more creative than the run up & bash method of combat. What I discovered is that players will become creative when they are comfortable enough to be creative. What this means is that you need to show them it is ok to branch out and ...

I would suggest reading up on Sun Tzu, Alexander The Great, Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Napoleon, Wellington, Clausewitz, Guderian, Patton, and Petraeus... Just to name a few. And if you only have time for one, read The Art Of War by Sun Tzu. How to apply this to RPG situation? This is not tricky. As a GM you control ...

I have played in D&D groups that where not totally cooperative. I didn't like it but once I did "win". Let me share that experience with you and the outcome. This was an AD&D game, 1e, with some heavy house rules. The group was five strong. I will not use real names in order to protect the privacy of these folks. Saul, the DM. Lenny, ...

No speed limit is given except when it moves by direction of the caster (6" rate). It would seem unnecessary to secure it since it remains 6' from the caster... but you could certainly envelop it with a net or similar rope arrangement. Move the caster at high speed, and the magic will keep the disc nearby. It doesn't seem to be possible to cut holes in the ...

I'd say it depends on the intelligence of the monsters and their position in the field. Dumb monsters will tend to fall for it and attack the defender, intelligent critters will prefer to attack the characters that are actually behind the attack. EDIT You want the best strategy for attacking the party, but that's a bit self-defeating, I think. If you plan ...

With Artillery and mechs, there will be no streets. With a modern force and 2000 artillery pieces, if the objective is "flatten the city" the mechs serve a defensive role only. They set up on fortified terrain and... nuke the city from orbit. For 5-6 meter tall mechs, again, with no intention of preserving the city, the mechs are used as demolition crews ...

Note: Remember that 4e has a set of rather simplified, abstract rules to cover only situations that come up often. For such rare occurences the GM needs to improvise and make up something new based on the ruleset. With that in mind you can read below. As Colin said the creature falling would certainly take the regular amount of damage. As for the other one, ...

How to answer a question that has an rather large number variables, here goes. Don't approach potential combat encounters with the mind set of a fixed 'Marching Order' selected from a predefined set of MOs. Do what is done in the army, know your terrain and your target. First categorize the following: Terrain Maneuvering limits - low mobility, moderate ...

I've experimented with focus firing on the defender, but with 2 leaders healing her it's hard to take the defender down. I think you almost answer your own question there. If the defender is proving undroppable, especially with the support of the remainder of the party, then it's almost a tautology that the leaders, controllers and strikers make better ...

Things that immediately come to mind: Placing difficult terrain between your melee characters and opposing brutes. This will change tactics (example: in 4e shifting for most characters only moves them 1 square which would be impossible in difficult terrain, I don't know how other systems deal with difficult terrain and movement penalties, but mobile ...

It may be usable as a component of a chariot. Looking at @Seven's answer, a null-grav plate would be incredibly helpful if included as part of a chariot's construction. From a simple point of view, you could replace one or more wheels or axles with floating disks, providing a levitation effect for transit over rough terrain. If the disk is linked to the ...

A strong defender is a hard thing to combat on purpose, they defend the party it's there job. That said this is not as simple as focus fire vs the monsters getting squashed. You could put in some monsters that for lack of better wording don't play fair, Attacks with multiple targets, or a creature with a Reach that makes the fighter hard pressed to get his ...

In many cases the monsters don't have the time or data to conduct such an analysis. I have a big problem with DMs whose monsters instantly perceive or deduce every detail of a party -- all while a death is fast approaching. If monsters are busy looking for clues about the party so they can present an optimal defense, they are throwing away most of the ...

My main recommendation is that if you are going to use them, use them right away in the combat. This requires judging a combat and deciding if this will be the one you will need your daily, but after that is done, delaying to see how it plays out is not very useful. For instance. If you use a large area attack, very often the time you can hit the most ...

There's nothing wrong with metagaming unless your roleplaying and the group's enjoyment of the game are suffering because of it. As a player, you're making choices that the character isn't aware of all the time. For a tactical RPG like 4e D&D, learning how and when to use your character's powers are part of the fun of playing the game. Adjust your use ...

What I tend to due is in some how subdue the Defender (not him totally), (may not last long...yes) but give my encounters chances of becoming threatening. Role playing. ++for intelligence comment, of a leader monster which leads the monsters can set the stage for encounter then they could have many ways of separating the party. Avoid the defender, quickly ...

AcedRunner has a great set of points in his answer. Something I think might be valuable to add is that you may want to create a repeatable process for developing terrain, i.e. some sort of informal classification system. Some possible examples: Surface: flat or sloped (self-explanatory) Consistent or variable (is this a consistently flat or sloping ...

In the Warhammer 40k Universe, rather. What we see in Warhammer is a lot of high-power weaponry with a ton of output. Let's not kid ourselves either-the only way any building is standing is if it's built out of really durable materials, so we'd really need to know the city in question. Forge Worlds, for instance, might have the sorts of buildings that could ...

If you really want to help yourself (from a design perspective) and your players (from a tactics perspective) to use terrain to their advantage, force it upon them. No Weapons: Have the party's weapons temporarily lost/stolen, or pit them against monsters that cannot be harmed by weapons. Slience: Depending on your system, silence can be a good tool to ...

I think if the player comes up with a creative way to effectively do it...and since the caster I feel should be able to make slight changes to the spell as they are casting it, I feel the caster should be allowed to do it. Course I play more freeform styled games where slight bending of the rules is expected!

I don't think you can get a standard generic answer, since not only is each situation different (is this a confined space? Indoors or outdoors? Do we know/suspect where the attack will come from?), each party is different (are you heavily ranged or melee? how many of each class type do you have?). So, here's my usual rules of thumb for 4E at the weekly ...