Like shooting centipedes in a rock quarry

Something that becomes pretty obvious in 4E is the increased importance of the battlemap, to the point where the game is now virtually impossible to play without a tactical board. Nearly every class has one or two powers (if not over half) that deal with either positioning themselves where they need to be or positioning the enemies in the worse possible place. While this allows for more interesting interactions, it also means more work, because putting them in a big old room isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Of course, I know this already; I learned that lesson the hard way a few years ago. With my first true campaign slowing picking up steam, we drafted S, who’s now on his way to become a lawyer or some such and thus doesn’t have time to play anymore. The moment we drafted S to play with us, Complete Adventurer came out, with its three amazing standard classes. One I perma-banned, because there’s no way in hell I’m letting one of my players be a ninja. Just no. The other two were fair game, however, and they have been used to great effect in both 3E campaigns I’ve run. Especially the scout.

S rolled up a souped-up scout to join the party on its quest to kill the Minotaur King. Starting at a higher level, he was granted a couple of magic items to get him off the ground. Now, the scout has the skirmish ability (which some enemies now possess to deadly effect), which increases damage if he moved more than 4 squares that turn. An ability that is powerful but pretty well negated in tight quarters...unless you, as a DM, decide to let him cheat and gives him spiderclimb boots from the get-go.

Luckily, S’s ability to constantly boost damage was counterbalanced against his inability to actually hit anything, so he stayed in check most of the time. Still, there were a number of battles where his fleet feet were a liability. Most notably, when they came against a giant centipede in a rock quarry.

The fight ended without a single party member taking a point of damage or using a single expendable item. (I do not require archers to keep track of ammo, as that’s just extremely boring.) The scout and the ranger spent the entire combat running around the edge of the quarry, firing down into it, while the rest of the party sat back and watched. After all, it would take them too much time to get down to the monster, and since the monster couldn’t come up to the surface...

Since then, I’ve done my best to avoid such obvious layouts that can be easily broken, although I do tend to gravitate towards rectangles, mainly because they are so easy to draw. However, I make sure to avoid giant empty rooms unless I’m actually trying to make the fight ridiculously simple or dramatic. With 4E, it looks like more obstacles are going to be required, however, if only to provide more interesting cover/mobility circumstances. After all, there’ll be a lot of pushing and pulling going on from the look of things.