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Use the skill challenge mechanic. Decide the level and difficulty of the encounter, and then consult the table in the Rules Compendium for the correct number of successes before 3 failures. That rea …

4e is a very tightly balanced game, and you generally shouldn't need to modify monsters to make them more difficult as they typically provide sufficient challenge when used properly. The following is …

Here is what our DM did one encounter. Our halfling ranger had chatted up a girl in a town we had just been in. Our quest goal was to conquer a castle that the Iron Circle had taken over. We ended up …

There are two considerations for building encounters. The first is CR the second is the XP budget. To build an encounter, the first thing you decide is how hard you want the encounter to be. You have …

PC's get XP based on the monsters they defeat. Not based on how challenging the encounter is. Basically, this functions as a throttle on leveling. You can fight more challenging encounters without le …

The easiest thing here is to count the hit dice and subtract 1 to determine the NPC's rough character level. Though that is far from perfect. The reason you subtract an HD is that for regular PCs, th …

This creature is INSANE for your level. Typically a party of your size and level should be facing at most a L16 solo (and that's supposed to be an insanely tough battle). To take an example, I'm go …

There's no reason to employ a mechanical solution here, go with the narrative one that makes sense. If you want to have a mechanical solution, employ a skill challenge to determine if the charges ar …

Lets start with some caveats, PvP interactions in D&D 4e are poorly defined and effectively mechanized. The second part is that your group's social contract should include the expectations for PvP con …

How much XP a monster or NPC is worth is determined by it's role and level. If you're designing a L1 Solo that's a 500 XP NPC. If you're designing a L5 elite then that's 400 XP. What the NPC is wort …

The mechanics: Yes, your goblins need to roll stealth, they need to beat the PCs' passive perception scores to actually be hidden, that said, don't tell the PCs what is in the barrel, just that ther …

The problem, basically, is that PC defenses and to-hit values increase every other level, and monster to-hit and defenses increase every level. So if you're L8 party (on average) hits 60% of the time …

There are two components to building an encounter, I'm going to reiterate them even though you seem to have them, just so we make sure we're on the same page. These rules are laid out in the DM guide …

I've run a couple of mental simulations of this combat (in addition to actually running it twice), and it has the potential to be deadly. If the goblins get a surprise round and gang up on 1 characte …

If you want them to experience combat as a individuals first I would say that running through the character creation scenario that is published in the new Red Box would be a good idea. If you would ra …