Its more the roles aren't as rigid as 4E.
Sorcerer was a striker in 4E, 5E you can build controller, striker, hybrid etc. Even a bit of leader. Cant do all 3 at once at least not well.
Fighter can do striker or tank or archer. Defender a little bit.
That was 4E big screw up. 2E onwards to...
Its harder than 5.0. But still not hard due to power creep.
If you know what you're doing its still kinda easy to clown on encounters.
That lvl 1-2 adventure in new Farrun book has a couple of stinkers but level 1-3 can be rough.
Yeah I usually have 5 or 6.
5.5 monsters hit harder though.
I'll probably do another RAW encounter experiment but make bigger encounters occasionally test things out.
Theory crafting various artificers out level 1-6 and I think they'll pass muster.
Might go tits up with AoE is the...
Some of my encounters have split encounters based on how many turn up. I'll write it up and have something like (6 pkayers add....).
Usually someone runs their character.