D&D 5E [DM problem] Is the group I am leading too strong? Is the 5E system unbalanced?

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Add that most monsters have relatively low AC/low attack bonuses/low damage and almost none of the tricks and moves of player characters.


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True, and my group had no magic armor and two weapons better than +1. I was giving monsters max HP and it made little difference. Though I didn't with the Yeenoghu fight since I figured he didn't need it. It was close.

 

[guachi]

I had to resort to a modified version of Gritty Realism to challenge my players now that they are level 5.

If played strictly by the rules, 5e is really easy for the most part.

 

[MechaPilot]

I was running PotA for a 7th level group. I do not give out +X magic items, and my PCs are quite strong. If I don't give the monsters max HPs, the fights will be rather trivial to the party. Even at max HPs, the foes have a little more staying power, but they don't pack much of a punch for the time they're staying up and active.

The biggest threat my party has recently faced is one I created and added to the adventure: the party previously attempted the fire temple and fled after taking a lot of fire damage in the room with the four onyx pillars that radiate fire damage. Since then, the party took a month of downtime. In that downtime, the fire cultists rigged the stone tower concealing the entrance to the temple with a deadly trap that would cause the entire tower to collapse on an intruder. The party was hit by that trap, and everyone but the barbarian was brought to zero HPs (though that was the first time he's hit single digit HPs since he was about 4th level). The barbarian administered a healing potion to the cleric, who then healed the party enough that they could get away and rest before coming back.

 

[Oofta]

I hit the same type of problems, so what I did to challenge my characters

• I switched to the alternate rule where a short rest is overnight, a long rest is several days (a week or more). This makes it easier for me to get in the 5-8 fights with 1-2 short rests.
• The bad guys regularly do other types of damage. Poison/fire/acid and so forth. Really helps cut the barbarian down to size; their resistance is still cool but not as overpowered.
• Opponents regularly get advantage on their attacks. Whether it's evil pixies spreading dust, dire worg mounts that knock them prone, pack tactics or just plain blessing of a dark god. I don't necessarily advertise they are getting advantage.
• Opponents play smart. Ranged hit and run tactics, traps to slow down pursuit, ranged ambushes in the dark, splitting the party and so on.
• Beef up monsters. This is something I've done in most editions, but I just add monster levels to my bad guys. If I bump up by 4 levels or more, I sometimes add special abilities borrowed from other monsters (e.g. enemies giving bonus attacks to their allies, etc) or give them the equivalent of feats.
• Target the squishies. Not having much luck taking out the barbarian? Ignore him. Have all the opponents rush the wizard trying to hide in the back.

You do have to be careful of course. I want my PCs to feel like the bad-asses that they are, so I throw in a mix of combats. In a recent combat, I kept the healers on their toes and they healed several hundred HP worth. Other fights? They blow away the opponents with barely a scratch. Which is fine.

I don't do published mods, so I can't give you much advice on how tough they are. From what I have seen they do seem to be designed for a non-optimized 4 party team with minimal magic and a 27 point buy. Throw any of those factors off and the DM has to compensate.

 

[Istbor]

I moved away from published adventures, continued to hand out interesting magic items instead of +x ones, and have not run into an issue. The players are feeling challenged by the fights that are intended to feel as such.

They don't always play particularly smart, but when the do, it is more about avoiding combat entirely, and less about making combat too easy.

 

[Jester David]

1.) Magic Items:
I might have handed some items to my players that are too strong. E.g. Dwarven Plate (+2), Shield +1, Armor +1, Wings of Flying ... I heard that +armor items would be game breaking, because the 5E system is not able to compensate them. Is that true?

Yes.
5e does not assume magic items. So they are a bonus that outright makes characters stronger. As you can see with the cleric.
Numerical bonuses to AC are the big one, because it means all monsters cannot hit and you need to rely on other methods of damage (i.e. spells).

2.) Spells:
To be honest, I have never spend much time to spells. It's not that I am never casting, but most of the damage I deal with my monsters is through melee/ranged damage. I always felt a bit overtaxed by the richness of spells. Another problem is that most of the casters I use are almost one hit by the rogue/barbarian or sorcerer.

This is another hurdle. The big equaliser to AC is relying on spell saves.
Really, not knowing how spells work is always going to be problematic. Because you can't anticipate the spells your players will use and don't know how to counter them. And you thus don't know the best play to play and run a spellcaster character. Knowing what the best spell to use against certain characters, such as dominating the barbarian or hitting the sorcerer or cleric with feeblemind.

NPC spellcasters really need to hang back. Preferably behind tougher monsters. Having spells like counterspell handy are also useful. They should also use the terrain, having barriers between them and the player characters, or traps.

But this is going to be a big hurdle. If you're mentally a rogue/fighter player, then as a DM it's going to be hard for you to challenge and counter the entire party. Not every DM has a tactical brain, which makes composing fights just that much harder.

3.) Wrong encounters:
Because the whole adventure is very "sandbox" I often need to adjust encounters. Therefore, I often use encouter builders like Kobold Fight Club to fit the characters current level. I always use "hard encounters", but it still seems not enought. Might that also be a problem?

More enemies can work, but more enemies at once isn't always the best plan.

Waves of enemies can be more effective. As can reinforcements, possibly ones coming from a different direction.
Terrain is also a big equaliser. Cover and difficult terrain that slows down the PCs can be used to great effect. As can ambushes or traps.

 

[Jester David]

5e is by far the least dangerous version IME, though many like that.

The game gets easier and easier at high levels with every edition, especially when using material released close to the launch. High level play in D&D has never worked perfectly...

 

[Uchawi]

Make some of the monsters player classes and return the favor. Otherwise, mix up the pacing and tactics. Don't be predictable.

 

[Oofta]

The game gets easier and easier at high levels with every edition, especially when using material released close to the launch. High level play in D&D has never worked perfectly...

Huh. I must be doing something wrong then because I just about TPKed a high level party a while back. Admittedly some of that was pure luck - bad rolls on their side combined with good rolls on mine.

I do regularly craft custom monsters though, and it was supposed to be a hard/deadly fight.

High level play is challenging to set up especially if you hand out too many goodies, are over-generous with stat blocks and so on.

One other tactic I forgot to mention above is to introduce monsters in waves. Yes, it's great that the spell casters just nuked half the battle field, but what happens when the reinforcements show up in round 2 or 3?

As always, remember to let players feel like heroes on a regular basis. But sometimes great rewards require great risks.

 

[Caliban]

The baseline game gets easier and easier as you level up - IF the PC's are given advantages (generous magic items, feats, multi-classing, better than normal stats) that are not compensated for by the DM.

There are many ways to compensate and make the game as challenging as the DM wants it to be.

Just use whatever works best for your DM'ing style - extra monsters, waves of monsters, monsters beefed up with special abilities or feats, whatever strikes your fancy. There is no one specific answer.