D&D 5E 5th ed D&D general impressions from a new player and DM.

[DND_Reborn]

The encounter building assumes that no one is really in danger of death unless you're in a Deadly encounter, so that's working as designed. 5E is "easy mode" by default, but it's not that hard to ramp it up a bit to make it lethal. IME the lethality is limited after level 5 because of resurrection magic like Revivify. In my first campaign from level 1-18 had about a dozen deaths above level 5, but the only permanent one was against the cleric.

(Emphasis mine)

True, that is a very valid point. But, my issue was even with 6-8 encounters, and a balance of encounters, death is not an issue IME.

Yes, Revivify is the greatest offender. Even when a PC manages to fail enough death saves (less than 40%), isn't stabilized, etc. Revivify can save them. I know, I know 300 gp... blah blah blah... So unless your DM fiat restricts access to a material component, PCs should pretty much never stay dead.

Anyway, back to the thread.

 

[fearsomepirate]

(Emphasis mine)

True, that is a very valid point. But, my issue was even with 6-8 encounters, and a balance of encounters, death is not an issue IME.

Yes, Revivify is the greatest offender. Even when a PC manages to fail enough death saves (less than 40%), isn't stabilized, etc. Revivify can save them. I know, I know 300 gp... blah blah blah... So unless your DM fiat restricts access to a material component, PCs should pretty much never stay dead.

Anyway, back to the thread.

I don't think it's really "DM fiat" to say there aren't any vendors with piles of diamonds in a little farming hamlet. If you want to stock up on diamonds, do it in a big city.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Another helpful tip if you are struggling to make monster encounters "difficult" or just looking for some interesting variations from how you've been running certain monsters:

The Monsters Know What They’re Doing

Monster combat tactics for Dungeons & Dragons 5E

www.themonstersknow.com

[double checking link this time.... yep... ok this one works ]

 

[DND_Reborn]

I don't think it's really "DM fiat" to say there aren't any vendors with piles of diamonds in a little farming hamlet. If you want to stock up on diamonds, do it in a big city.

No, the DM fiat is in saying there are no diamonds available anywhere. After all, once you find them in the city, you have them. And it would also be DM fiat to limit the PC to farming hamlets, otherwise.

 

[Oofta]

(Emphasis mine)

True, that is a very valid point. But, my issue was even with 6-8 encounters, and a balance of encounters, death is not an issue IME.

Yes, Revivify is the greatest offender. Even when a PC manages to fail enough death saves (less than 40%), isn't stabilized, etc. Revivify can save them. I know, I know 300 gp... blah blah blah... So unless your DM fiat restricts access to a material component, PCs should pretty much never stay dead.

Anyway, back to the thread.

Unless, of course, the monsters are smart enough to target the cleric, double tap downed PCs*, drag unconscious or dead PCs off to be eaten elsewhere. restrain the cleric or use other methods to ensure they can't find or get to the PC, so on and so forth.

I don't run a particularly lethal game because of player preference (I always ask during session 0), but as a DM I also have infinite dragons.

*Attacks against an unconscious creature have advantage and are always critical hits. Critical hits cause 2 failed death saves

 

[robus]

6-8 encounters before the PCs will be wanting to take a long rest, not before they will die. 6-8 encounters means they will likely have run through their resources (of the one’s that are limited) and will need to rest to recoup.

An adventure is not going to run perfectly out of the book. You need to adapt to what your players do/want. Your players want every adventure to be a life-or-death challenge? Turns the knobs up. Your players want a light romp? Turn the knobs down.

I’ll admit it took me a while to understand this (and part of that is because WotC just ignores any explanation of challenge in their adventures, just focusing on levels and XP).

 

[TwoSix]

Unless, of course, the monsters are smart enough to target the cleric, double tap downed PCs*, drag unconscious or dead PCs off to be eaten elsewhere. restrain the cleric or use other methods to ensure they can't find or get to the PC, so on and so forth.

IME, the NPCs being willing to take actions that will kill downed PCs is by far the biggest determiner of lethality. Once the PCs have the revivify option available, it's something I do way more often as it puts a time pressure on the rest of the combat.

 

[fearsomepirate]

I have a house rule that if you get knocked to 0 hp, you come back with a level of exhaustion. This definitely helped.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I have a house rule that if you get knocked to 0 hp, you come back with a level of exhaustion. This definitely helped.

I have a stacked of sealed envelopes containing embarrassing and damaging information on the players. Whenever one of their characters reaches 0 hp I send off one of the envelopes. It has really increased the tension of my games!

 

[BookTenTiger]

For the OP, I found that the easiest analogue to Advantage from 3rd Edition was the floating +2 bonus a DM could provide for, say, being on higher ground, or flanking, etc. Advantage replaces that bonus.

There will be abilities and actions that create Advantage (attacking while hidden, melee attacking a prone opponent, etc), and others that create Disadvantage (taking the Dodge action, attacking a hidden opponent, etc), but it's an effect that can be used by the DM however they want, too. For example, if a character is climbing a rope and it's really windy, I might give them Disadvantage on their Strength (Athletics) check. Or if they are trying to Intimidate a prince, and they have blackmail on the prince, I'll give them Advantage on their Charisma (Intimidate) check.

Remember though that Advantage and Disadvantage always cancel each other out, no matter how many factors are providing each. So for example, if my character has two things granting Advantage, and one granting Disadvantage, it all just cancels out into a normal roll.