Anyway, I didn't get a response to this but would still like to discuss it. To repeat: Have you found play reports of more recent WOTC adventures (Strahd and Giants, for example) support your opinion on this that a majority of people playing with those adventures are also finding this problem with encounter design?
Since I haven't run those myself I really can't say.
I did hear some complaints about Strahd being taken down too quick, but I wouldn't place that in the same category. After all, the designers did give him an extra hp buffer (the heart thing).
Even if it turns out to be too little too late it tells me the designer seems aware of what a party of that level can do. Which is encouraging. (In fact, everything about CoS is encouraging)
But more importantly, it's "only" at level 10. Things hadn't really fallen apart already at level 10 in OotA. Sure, there was warning signs, such as how the designers evidently were worried the Drow ambush party would be too much for the heroes at the indicated level (8). They spend a lot of effort on advice on how to dial down the difficulty: things like one Drow suddenly attacking the others, the Drow chasing the party into full sunlight, that sort.
My players mowed them down at level 6. It only became interesting because I blatantly disregarded the module's advice on the Drow Priestess' pet Yochlol demon. The module instructs me to wait summoning the demon until the priestess has lost half her hit points. And the rules tell me the demon disappears when its summoner dies.
In this case, this would have meant that the demon never appeared, since they took Ilvara from nearly unharmed to dead in a single round. Instead, I had her summon the demon as soon as the magnitude of the battle became clear. And had it stay and fight by itself.
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Still, that's within the bounds of believable softness. My complaint isn't that the drow hunting party was appropriate for level 6 instead of level 8.
What I am talking about is where the opposition is magnitudes less capable than the party.
When the writers talk about a single Nalfeshnee like this:
"Rather than immediately destroying any intruders, it toys with them for as long as possible. Slaughtertusk is happy to let a fight drag on, feasting on its enemies' pain before finally slaying them."
This is completely losing touch with reality. The party should be around level 12-14 at this time. (It's really hard to pin down any exact number, since the module doesn't work like that).
Even at level 11, my party would evaporate a single Nalfeshnee. The talk about "toying with them" and "dragging out the fight" might make sense if the module had thrown the demon at them at level 5 or something.
It's as if the OotA designers were using some kind of playtest ruleset where the heroes have half hit points or something...
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And no, I don't expect either of the two new modules to be that egregious.
If only because neither module is what I'd call high level. But hopefully because the writers are better.
I hope and trust
