D&D 5E A simple solution to 'easy mode D&D' and the 6-8 combats problem

[Sunseeker]

Actually that does little to fix thing IME.

Agreed. That was the initial 4E solution: more HP.

Monsters arent a challenge for several reasons, in brief:
Their damage is fairly low, making them often little of a threat when outside of the starter levels (1-3).
Their AC is low, making them easy targets regardless of level and often allowing skilled players and well-build PCs to "punch up" well beyond their level range
PC AC is ddamatically higher than monster AC.
PC stats are often superior to anything they fight levels 1-10.
Playera have abilities that synergize, monsters do not.

IME to make fights more "difficult" on average monster AC and damage needs to be increased about 25%. Many monsters can also benefit from a couple class levels, similarly, building humanoid enemies by the PHB rules can make for some seriously dangerous foes. Monster numbers should always be kept close to the number of PCs in play +/-2 depending on the feel the fight is going for. (Ie: are you outnumbered or outgunned? Or both?)
This is how i typically run my fights. If one player doesnt get within a point or two of zero, its usually not a challenge.

 

[Rhenny]

Great ideas. They all work, but to me, the most important aspect to solve rests/novas, etc. is to make sure nothing is predictable.

Fear of the unknown is a great way to prevent unnecessary rests and keep players from unleashing all their resources.

 

[Blue]

One other thought: there's nothing wrong with giving the party an easy encounter now than then. Let them run into some orcs who quickly flee when they realize the party are not easy prey. The players feel good about their characters, maybe they pick up some useful info, and play continues. Parties don't have to be challenged every adventuring day, just often enough that the players have a sense of accomplishment when they succeed.

Strongly agree with your thoughts here. Not all encounters are fair, but some should be unfair the other way. Really lets the PCs feel like Big Dang Heroes. I love doing this with types of foes that were a hassle a few levels before. If they had real problems fighting two ogres, and now I can put in four ogres and let the PCs curbstomp them - it feels good to see how badarse you've become.

 

[Satyrn]

Strongly agree with your thoughts here. Not all encounters are fair, but some should be unfair the other way. Really lets the PCs feel like Big Dang Heroes. I love doing this with types of foes that were a hassle a few levels before. If they had real problems fighting two ogres, and now I can put in for ogres and let the PCs curbstomp them - it feels good to see how badarse you've become.

I like using 2 dozen kobolds for that.

 

[AriochQ]

I find the action economy also hurts monsters. Often, they have some really cool ability, but it is rarely worth wasting their action on it. I have begun to allow many monsters to use their non-damaging abilities as bonus actions and it makes the combats more interesting. Otherwise, I generally need to use swarm tactics so the smaller monsters keep the players busy while the main monster uses his cool abilities for a round or two.

 

[Salamandyr]

I already find 5e monsters to be big boring bags of hit points. Why would I want to make that problem even worse?

The 6 to 8 encounter "work day" is boring and you should scrap it. Quit trying to fit your adventures around it. Find a different solution. Only the fighter and the warlock really depend on it to shine, so figure out how you'd like to put them on the same economy as every other class and just let it rip. Either ban those classes or change their mechanics in such a way that they don't depend on short rests, and then let your adventures happen organically instead of trying to schedule everything around having the "right" number of encounters and winding up with a bunch of easy fights that don't mean anything until the players have burned off their abilities and then are bored because they can't do anything but mindlessly roll dice.

 

[redrick]

Is the problem with 6-8 encounters in a day one of not being able to keep the players from resting too much? Or is it that running medium difficulty encounters isn't fun?

 

[schnee]

We enforce it by a tweaked version of the 'gritty' rest rules.

Basically, if you're in a dangerous place, you only get a short rest and then recover half your hit dice overnight. No spells. No hit points. That happens until you get into a safe place to rest.

Spellcasters are a LOT more careful then, use a lot of cantrips, and the team's strategies get a lot more interesting and thought through. It brings back the scarcity of low-to-mid level AD&D again without the annoying re-memorization times, 'one hit point and you lost the spell' vulnerability, and super uselessness at low levels.

We've been using it for a little while and it's significantly changed the game.

 

[redrick]

We enforce it by a tweaked version of the 'gritty' rest rules.

Basically, if you're in a dangerous place, you only get a short rest and then recover half your hit dice overnight. No spells. No hit points. That happens until you get into a safe place to rest.

Spellcasters are a LOT more careful then, use a lot of cantrips, and the team's strategies get a lot more interesting and thought through. It brings back the scarcity of low-to-mid level AD&D again without the annoying re-memorization times, 'one hit point and you lost the spell' vulnerability, and super uselessness at low levels.

We've been using it for a little while and it's significantly changed the game.

Do you still get to take 1 hour short rests normally? Or just the one overnight short rest?

I like this, but I could see it breaking down with the Warlock. I also like there being a bonus for sleeping in a safe place vs sleeping out in the wild/dungeon.

 

[Monayuris]

We enforce it by a tweaked version of the 'gritty' rest rules.

Basically, if you're in a dangerous place, you only get a short rest and then recover half your hit dice overnight. No spells. No hit points. That happens until you get into a safe place to rest.

Spellcasters are a LOT more careful then, use a lot of cantrips, and the team's strategies get a lot more interesting and thought through. It brings back the scarcity of low-to-mid level AD&D again without the annoying re-memorization times, 'one hit point and you lost the spell' vulnerability, and super uselessness at low levels.

We've been using it for a little while and it's significantly changed the game.

I like this a lot and I'm planning on implementing something similar. I like the addition of adding the half hit dice, overnight. It seems like without that addition, melee characters would be too strongly punished.

This also seems to make ritual spells more prevalent... (I like the feel of this... at lower levels, a wizard relies more on ritual magic and spell casting is a more dramatic affair saved for when in dire need).

In my experience, the combination of very easy replenishment of resources and the removal/de-emphasis on any kind of long term consequence does make the game feel like it defaults to easy mode.