D&D 5E Encounter Balance holds back 5E

[MuhVerisimilitude]

So what? It’s never bothered my players. In my experience player tactics matters far more than who has the most powerful combat character.

Too dismissive. It's definitely bothered me. It's definitely bothered other people. There are near endless threads about serious flaws in the design of the system. The 15 minute workday is a thing.

There are no tactics that can compete with near infinite castings of Shield or Silvery Barbs.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

It's still a poor design to make a tool no one wants to use. It's like having a knife that can only be sharpened with the tongue.

It's definitely bad design. I'd rather all abilities were unlimited or all abilities were limited (4E strikes again)

 

[Vaalingrade]

So what? It’s never bothered my players. In my experience player tactics matters far more than who has the most powerful combat character.

It's not about the most combat character, it's about who has the most things to do and options for tactics.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's not about the most combat character, it's about who has the most things to do and options for tactics.

Which is why my players tend to avoid casters. More things to do is the last thing they want. They can already mess up just fine with what they have.

 

[Parmandur]

There are no tactics that can compete with near infinite castings of Shield or Silvery Barbs.

Easily solved by pushing the casters harder.

 

[bloodtide]

So what? It’s never bothered my players. In my experience player tactics matters far more than who has the most powerful combat character.

A lot of the games in my area use no tactics at all in 5E. And not just no crunchy mechanical tactics as 5E has just about none of that. I'm talking more role playing tactics.

And more then a couple of my local games just do the odd '90's video game like' combat where both sides meet in an empty area and take turns attacking.

But then they play in my game. And in the woods some goblins shoot some arrows...and then run. The players are beyond confused....foes run? And they will make the mistake of running after the goblins...into the unknown woods. Hit: this is not a good idea.

Then you have how aggressive the DM is in the game. A lot of DMs, with say a lich npc.....will have it only cast low level attack spells at the party tank.

Of course, in my game the lich is not only using high level spells....but custom unique spells that are not in the WotC books. And deadly spells that hit the whole group too...

Both of the above really effect encounter balance.

 

[jayoungr]

D&D 5E wants to have a lot of combat in the way a Ferrari wants to be driven with some pace through twisting roads, not used on a suburban school run.

I disagree with that, actually. I think what you're saying is that having lots of combat makes the resource management game function more smoothly, but the resource management game is only important to the level that the players actually care about it.

 

[Parmandur]

I disagree with that, actually. I think what you're saying is that having lots of combat makes the resource management game function more smoothly, but the resource management game is only important to the level that the players actually care about it.

If a Wizard player doesn't care about the resource management game, then they aren't being offered a sufficient challenge. Because resources are life or death.

 

[jayoungr]

If a Wizard player doesn't care about the resource management game, then they aren't being offered a sufficient challenge. Because resources are life or death.

Some players simply don't find resource management especially interesting. It doesn't mean they or the GM are doing anything wrong if they prefer to focus on other things.

 

[Parmandur]

Some players simply don't find resource management especially interesting. It doesn't mean they or the GM are doing anything wrong if they prefer to focus on other things.

Nope, of course it isn't "wrong" anymore Tham playing a game without saying combat or exploration is. But D&D is a game of resource attrition management, rather fundamentally. Not engaging in that is fine, but that will remove a lot of the challenge from the game.