D&D 5E I think I am going to stop using solo monsters.

[jgsugden]

In general, monster design assumes a party of 3 to 6 adventurers. If your party is not that size, you really need to think about how you set up encounters. However, I'd suggest the better solution, if anyone is playing more than 1 PC per player, is to bring down the number of PCs.

Another thing you can do it to add a rule that a surprised creature that has their HPs reduced by half before they act gets a saving throw. The save would be DC 20 and their bonus to the roll would be their CR. If they succeed, their surprise end and moves to next in the initiative order. I would not put that in a typical game, but I would in a game with more than 6 PCs.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I think calling them solos was a mistake on wizards part.

I don't believe that term is used in 5e. It was officially introduced in 4e, and people have simply continued using the term. In truth, we used a similar term back in 2e/3e, which was "boss".

 

[iserith]

The PCs are about to accidentally walk into a hive of a dozen intellect devourers, and they have no idea.

By the numbers, that will be a Deadly encounter. "Deadly" meaning "could be lethal for one or more player characters." It will really come down to how the encounter goes down. Have you telegraphed their presence in some fashion (or do you plan to)? An example would be to have some corpses laying about with claw marks, eyes rolled up, and blood coming out the nose and ears. Tiny three-toed tracks in the blood, etc.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Large number of heroes with time to choose and prepare the field of battle defeated a 'hard'(by the book) encounter?

Stunned. 5e is broken.


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I know you're being sarcastic, so don't think I'm disagreeing with you. Actually, I think what the OP describes means that 5e is working exactly as designed and intended. With BA, it's a feature to have lower level opponents, if enough of them, to be able to take down a much tougher singular opponent. So with 8 PCs, and setting the environment up to heavily skew the battle in their favor, it's a good thing that they dominated. That's what I would expect.

On a side related note, whenever we have these types of encounter vs discussions, it's almost always in a white room of comparison of stats, and the environment is largely ignored. This illustrates exactly how important the environment is, in a combat encounter, and IME, almost always is one of the biggest factors in determining victory. The side that uses the environment to their advantage almost always wins, so I always take these types of white room comparisons with a grain of salt.

 

[Dausuul]

I think calling them solos was a mistake on wizards part.

A mistake which was confined to 4E. There's nothing in 5E called a "solo monster."

However, the idea that you can't have challenging solo encounters (in 4E or 5E) is entirely wrong. It's true that the legendary creatures in the 5E Monster Manual leave something to be desired if your players know their stuff. But if you're willing to make some very simple adjustments, it's fine. If your PCs can blitz through 200 hit points in one round, give the monster 800, or 1000, or 1200. If they can force it to burn 2 shots of legendary resistance in a round, give it 4, or 6... or more.

Party DPR, no matter how ludicrous, is finite. The number of hit points you can give to your monsters is not. To misquote Xykon, in any battle, there's always a level of hit points against which no amount of DPR optimization can succeed.

 

[cooperjer]

I'm going to recommend looking at the daily XP number for the characters. I've found that a big fight is about 25% to 30% of that total. This is a total that is not adjusted by the quantity of creatures multiplier. I'm away from books at the moment, but an internet search turned up an image that suggest the XP per day would be 3,500. So 8 x 3500 x 0.25 or 8 x 3500 x 0.30 gives a range of 7,000 to 8,400 XP creature. This should utilize about 25% to 30% of the character resources (HP, spell slots, rage, inspiration, maneuver dice, etc.). If you know the PCs are coming into this fight against a boss and they just had a long rest and are fully refreshed then 25% utilization will be impressive, but the players should not feel much risk of a character death. If they are fully rested then I would target between 70% and 80% of their daily XP (19,600 - 22,400). In this level range the players will be challenged to find that last few percent of resources they may have. It could leave a fighter at 20% health. It could leave a wizard at 20% health and 20% spell slots. Keep in mind that resource use is not evenly distributed to each character. Some characters will utilize their resources faster than others and thus are at a greater risk of dying in an encounter that is at 70% to 80% of their daily XP.

 

[Reynard]

By the numbers, that will be a Deadly encounter. "Deadly" meaning "could be lethal for one or more player characters." It will really come down to how the encounter goes down. Have you telegraphed their presence in some fashion (or do you plan to)? An example would be to have some corpses laying about with claw marks, eyes rolled up, and blood coming out the nose and ears. Tiny three-toed tracks in the blood, etc.

They know they are in a region where an interdimensional rift is open and allowing strange and alien creatures to enter into the world at whim (it's why they are in the region) but they have never encountered IDs before. They are unlikely to get ambushed since they are a cautious party but they won't know ahead of time what they are facing.

 

[iserith]

They know they are in a region where an interdimensional rift is open and allowing strange and alien creatures to enter into the world at whim (it's why they are in the region) but they have never encountered IDs before. They are unlikely to get ambushed since they are a cautious party but they won't know ahead of time what they are facing.

I recommend throwing some of what I suggested into the adventure - the aftermath of the activities of the intellect devourers. If they engage with the environment, poke and prod, and - if you think it necessary - succeed on some ability checks, perhaps they can get some useful information about what they will face later. If they don't investigate, well, that's on them. You gave them sufficient warning of what may follow.

What's the encounter area look like? Are there any aspects of the environment that favor either the ID's or the PCs?

 

[Reynard]

I recommend throwing some of what I suggested into the adventure - the aftermath of the activities of the intellect devourers. If they engage with the environment, poke and prod, and - if you think it necessary - succeed on some ability checks, perhaps they can get some useful information about what they will face later. If they don't investigate, well, that's on them. You gave them sufficient warning of what may follow.

What's the encounter area look like? Are there any aspects of the environment that favor either the ID's or the PCs?

It is a halfling farmstead. They met some of the farmers previously and helped them by getting the halflings herd of sheep back from some rustlers (long story; the PCs are "sheriff" types) and will be returning the sheep to them farmstead. In the intervening days, the pod of IDs came in and took over.

 

[Yunru]

It is a halfling farmstead. They met some of the farmers previously and helped them by getting the halflings herd of sheep back from some rustlers (long story; the PCs are "sheriff" types) and will be returning the sheep to them farmstead. In the intervening days, the pod of IDs came in and took over.

Definitely leave corpses on display then, at least, if there are any.