Is it just me, or does 4th ed. have much more difficult encounters?

[EntropicShadow]

3- and it was obvious the adventure was scaled for more.  This was the second kobold fight too I believe.  Though we did make it out with I think 4 hitpoints to share between all 3 of us. 

But then we moved on to the big cauldron area and my brother joined in.  It was with 4 we had our TPK.

Ouch.  After that second kobold fight my DM scaled back the encounters to our group size and we adjusted our tactics.  Our Paladin player actually tried to use his abilities and it turns out Flaming Sphere is great against minions.  We did fine from then on out.

[Taleran]

My group is looking at running a 1-shot at level 30. I'll be sure to post a writeup.

You can't according to WotC. The Player's Handbook states that as soon as you reach level 30 you compulsorily retire to your home, whereupon you scratch your balls until they bleed.

what are you talking about?

Destiny Quests and Immortality

[Kuroimaken]

what are you talking about?

I'm talking about the fact that WotC apparently wants to enforce the "maximum level" thing.

[MittenNinja]

what are you talking about?

I'm talking about the fact that WotC apparently wants to enforce the "maximum level" thing.

I think that they just wanted to give a reason as to why characters can't reach past lvl 30 until they release and epic handbook for 4e. Unlike for 3e where the 20th lvl cap had no in-game reasoning behind it.

[DaveTheMagicWeasel]

what are you talking about?

I'm talking about the fact that WotC apparently wants to enforce the "maximum level" thing.

They don't want to enforce it - it's made abundantly clear its optional.  It's just there in recognitin of the fact that the vast majority of campaigns come to an end, and they're trying to point the way towards suitably epic quests to finish with.

If you want to keep adventuring as a 30th level character indefinitely there's nothing to stop you doing so.

[awaken DM golem]

KotS is 5 on 5 bloody basketball. Only one ref, who's tricky with the whistle.

Hey,
there's lots of PrCs from 3.5 that would translate into 4e, as beyond Epic;
there's lots of CO-board material, that would translate as beyond Epic.
Planar Shepherd, they actually "designed" that. They don't want to ~waste their research time, do they?