Putting Teeth into 4th Edition

I’ll be posting a little more about our D&D game this week. Kat did an awesome thing in yesterday’s game. She inserted an encounter in Keep on the Shadowfell and gave the thing TEETH.

Here’s the setup: We’ve done two encounters in a row, and the entire party has used its daily powers. But, we’ve learned that there’s a damsel in distress being sacrificed RIGHT NOW. What else can we do but charge in and save her? We know with all our dailies and about half our healing surges gone, it’s going to be a tough fight.

Kat tells us right off the bat that she’ll die in 4 rounds if we don’t get her out. So Michele, playing our Eladrin rogue with high initiative and all kinds of teleporting powers gets to the damsel in the very beginning of the very first round. She uses two move actions to get there, and is about to use her minor action to cut the cords binding her to the sacrificial altar. Rescue is lookin’ good, right?

Then Kat says “If you *don’t* cut her loose right now, you can use one of your daily powers again.” That’s teeth! Michele, feeling impish, opts for the daily power, and the damsel continues to bleed. Kat uses this trick several times in the encounter on several players, and although we defeat the undead guarding the damsel, we almost *don’t* get her out of the room in time because of all the delays

4th Edition is so full of player resources, playing with ways to deplete and refresh them is fertile ground for putting choice–of both the gamist and narrativist flavors–into the players’ hands.

How have you played with resources to good effect?