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

[Monayuris]

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.

I've considered something like a Long Rest benefit can only be obtained when resting in a place of safety and security. Their hometown/base is secure by default, but any other location is considered hostile or neutral at best. I hoped this would encourage the group to seek diplomatic options when dealing with certain factions and settlements; so that they may secure new safe rest locations.

For example, if the party needs a place to recover deep in the wilderness, they would need to seek out wild settlements (like a wild elf conclave) and befriend them. They may need to perform certain missions for the faction to win them over which would lead to more adventures.

 

[redrick]

I've considered something like a Long Rest benefit can only be obtained when resting in a place of safety and security. Their hometown/base is secure by default, but any other location is considered hostile or neutral at best. I hoped this would encourage the group to seek diplomatic options when dealing with certain factions and settlements; so that they may secure new safe rest locations.

For example, if the party needs a place to recover deep in the wilderness, they would need to seek out wild settlements (like a wild elf conclave) and befriend them. They may need to perform certain missions for the faction to win them over which would lead to more adventures.

It's also an opportunity for a Ranger to shine by constructing some sort of Swiss Family Robinson hideout. I am just waiting for the players to say, "actually, we're not going down into the dungeon. We're gonna build a treehouse." Though I'm wary about cooking up too many mini-games in advance to push the players into.

I run a lot of dungeon crawls, and the 5e encounter balance works perfectly for dungeon crawls. If I were to want to run a more overland/political/intrigue campaign, I think I would pitch a variant of this to the players, making it clear that it's not to make the game harder, but just to open up different options in the kind of adventures and storytelling we can do. Lord of the Rings, for instance, certainly uses a Long Long Rest style mechanic, with characters being ground down during lengthy overland journeys and then only truly recuperating when able to take long breaks in safe places, preferably with lots of elves.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

Rather than giving monsters the average HP listed in their stat block, give them the maximum.

IMO threat is more important to boost than just raw hit points. Hit points without threat just make for punching bag monsters.

I came up with the idea of a "High Threat" template to boost up lower CR monsters for medium to higher level play. Basically they had 2X hit points, +2 to hit or +2 to save DCs, +2 AC, +2 to saves, and an extra +D8 damage. This could be described in various ways: Elites, alchemically or magically altered, etc., whatever makes sense. I wish WotC had put in more templates as that's a way to very quickly alter monsters without being too fiddly.

Tactics also really matters. Have monsters attack in waves, for instance, or have reinforcements appear a few rounds into the fight. Make sure you always use some panzergrenadiers with any kind of "tank" monster and have missile or magic foes. Terrain also helps a ton. The monsters usually are fighting on their own terrain so make use of that.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

I've considered something like a Long Rest benefit can only be obtained when resting in a place of safety and security. Their hometown/base is secure by default, but any other location is considered hostile or neutral at best. I hoped this would encourage the group to seek diplomatic options when dealing with certain factions and settlements; so that they may secure new safe rest locations.

That's how resting works in Adventures in Middle Earth. It really changes the feel as well as making things like the bard (in AIME the Warden) short rest healing benefits count.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

The 6 to 8 encounter "work day" is boring and you should scrap it.

I can't say I like it all that much either. It feels super gamist and not at all organic, and induces interparty conflict about uninteresting things.

 

[Nevvur]

A couple things I didn't mention in my OP:

1) This is intended for DMs who run fewer than the DMG prescribed number of encounters. The effect is to turn those fewer combats into more combat rounds, increasing resource consumption assumed by the maths for the 'typical adventuring day.' I apologize if the title was misleading. I don't recommend giving more HPs to monsters for DMs running 6-8 encounters.
2) Being, at its core, a guideline to augment resource consumption, it is appropriate for the DM to provide an opportunity to take a short rest after 1-2 combats, rather than 2-3.

---

There's a few reasons why I like this solution and use it at my own table.

Every monster that dies fundamentally changes the difficulty of the remainder of the encounter. I've seen it happen where PCs nova the most dangerous foe, taking him down in 1-2 rounds and rendering the remainder of the encounter trivial. This change gives that foe more opportunity to bring its threat to bear, allowing for a truer expression of its CR.

It narrows the gap in value between pure DPR and other tactical options like crowd control and in-combat healing. If you can't drop an enemy in 1 or 2 rounds, it behooves you to find another way of managing
the threat they present. Note that I said 'narrows,' not 'closes.' Combat is still largely about HP attrition, but non-DPR options have increased value.

If you don't like longer combats, I totally understand that. However, more monster HP in fewer fights is arguably less time in combat than 6-8 encounters using normal HP guidelines. This suits the type of combat narrative I prefer. With most combats being over in 2-5 rounds (depending on encounter difficulty), your typical fight ends in under 30 seconds. This fails to capture the epic feeling I enjoy in fantasy action literature and cinema.

Foremost, it's a clean and elegant solution that doesn't even count as a house rule IMO, because the monsters still fall within their stated HP ranges. As the type of DM who avoids house rules and openly states this to my players, I still feel comfortable implementing this guideline.

 

[CapnZapp]

My ideal "simple solution" is to be able to go down to my local friendly gaming store and pick up a copy of "Advanced Monster Manual", where the stat blocks of the existing monsters (from MM and Volo's) have been revised, refined, and - in some instances - severely upgraded.

WotC just needs to publish it. Then it indeed is a simple solution, since all I have to do is buy it!

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[Sadras]

Foremost, it's a clean and elegant solution that doesn't even count as a house rule IMO, because the monsters still fall within their stated HP ranges. As the type of DM who avoids house rules and openly states this to my players, I still feel comfortable implementing this guideline.

Instead of bloating monsters with hp, I find it more elegant to give them interesting features which could have the same effect;

Instead of giving the evil knight more hit points, rather give him a rechargeable parry which may deflect 1d6 hit points;
Give the kobold a once-off 'sand in the eyes' reaction which adds a +2 to AC;
Give the wraith an 'area life-drain' out of turn action where black smokey tendrils explode out of the wraith to touch anyone within a 10 foot radius doing 1d4 points of damage (no save, no hit roll needed), and converting that damage to hit points for the undead horror;
...etc

 

[Nevvur]

Instead of bloating monsters with hp, I find it more elegant to give them interesting features which could have the same effect;

Instead of giving the evil knight more hit points, rather give him a rechargeable parry which may deflect 1d6 hit points;
Give the kobold a once-off 'sand in the eyes' reaction which adds a +2 to AC;
Give the wraith an 'area life-drain' out of turn action where black smokey tendrils explode out of the wraith to touch anyone within a 10 foot radius doing 1d4 points of damage (no save, no hit roll needed), and converting that damage to hit points for the undead horror;
...etc

As I use the word elegant in this context, I mean concise and simple, so I respectfully disagree that giving monsters new abilities is an elegant solution. To the contrary, it adds mental overhead to the DM and complexity to combat in a manner I'd rather not fiddle with. I prefer to leave the monsters alone in their functionality and focus on tactics and terrain as complicating factors.

 

[smbakeresq]

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.

I believe D&D is a contest of wits and attrition. The current version suggests far to many rests so attrition doesn’t really take place HP wise and abilities are reset so often you don’t have to manage them, it’s just nova, contribute, rest. I run 3-5 encounters before a short rest, sometimes more depending on enemy organization and intelligence.

The lawfully aligned, organized hobgoblin camp will have regular patrols, they will notice things out of order, they will send out hit squads to investigate trouble. The not so bright or organized hill giants wouldn’t do any of those things, they might not notice an overdue patrol for a while. Play your bad guys that way and encounters get harder but also there will be no short resting in many situations.

The monsters have every option in the PHB for combat also. Yes, the hobgoblin minion would use the help action to give his fire giant blacksmith boss advantage. The Fire giant assistant would try to knock a PC prone so The hobgoblins would swarm him with advantage, and there is no reason why the Fire Giant apprentice would not try to grab the rogue and throw him into the fire elemental that heats the forge. Of course the kobolds will have barrels of oil and acid ready to cover everyone with

As far as swarms of minions, just have half of them use the help action to give the other half advantage. It’s the same number of rolls but more of them get through. For small ones that actually swarm creatures have them use help action to grapple.

Class levels and feats are a great idea, been using them for a while. The Frost Giant with 4 levels of fighter with great weapon mastery feat rolling multiattacks at 3d12+17 is much better. Giving any monster with a ranged weapon SS and having them attack from range is as annoying for the players as the hordes of scatter-shotting archers in Dragon Age.

There is no reason that prepared enemy’s shouldn’t have terrain advantages. The Fire Giant fortress should have channels of lava through it, the kobold lair should be filled with traps, dead falls, small tunnels in the ceiling they can attack from. A small thing like ghouls and ghosts attacking from under the water (they don’t need to breathe)changes an encounter. The perception check to detect them under the water would be at disadvantage unless PC play smart, like tossing rocks with light cantrips on them into the water (which you should do as a player more often.)


A good example of something simple but tough is the Age of Worms path using Son’s of Kyuss. The DC check to avoid a worm getting on you is 11 vs DEX. That’s low, and it doesn’t scale. However In most encounters every PC will have to save every multiple times every round, eventually you fail one.


A simple thing that has added much excitement is critical hits. As a carry over from different days I use the old rule that critical are maximum damage + whatever you just rolled (we roll attack and damage at the same time.) The players like it since a critical hit is always big, I don think it’s fun to roll a crit %5 of the time then crap out with ones on the damage dice. However the monsters get the same rule, the Frost Giant above with great weapon master feat just hit you for 36+17+3d12 bonus critical dice and gets to attack again from the feat. That’s an eye opener for the players. This rule change works well at the table because players try to up crits to use them smartly, promoting good play for which players should be rewarded; but the PCs must withstand far more rolls against them as they are generally outnumbered.


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