D&D 5E More swingy combat

[Guest 6948803]

Hello,

Due to preferences of my gaming group, I would like to make D&D combat more swingy - my players are used to game systems with death spiral and quick death. After our first 5e campaign, they complained, that combat slogs and don't feel threatening compared to Modiphius Conan or WFRP.
But I don't want to change too much (otherwise I could as well just switch from D&D to other game).
So, my first idea would be to slash HP gain by 2/level (we use fixed hp, don't roll for them). That would have added bonus of making healing more relevant, but big downside would be purely psychological - no one likes to be nerfed! Also, I am not sure if lowering hp pool by just 2/level will change much.
Second idea is upping monster damage, effectively doubling dice with every hit (or in case of some monster, doubling damage from main attack). That would certainly add to swingy combat, but would be totally brutal. Slightly less brutal option would be just upping damage by one rank (e.g. from d6 to d8) but again, not sure if that would change much, and I would probably need to change weapon damage as well. Less inclined to buff spells, as spell caster are pretty good anyway.
Anyone have thoughts or tried something similar before?

 

[J-H]

I agree with cutting player HP in half.

Also, any time someone goes to 0, they gain 1 level of exhaustion. Pop-up healing becomes really risky really quickly.

 

[commandercrud]

Gritty realism variant.

 

[DND_Reborn]

We found combat was a slog as well, but from the sounds of it for different reasons. I got tired of the constant hitting, slow draining of HP, etc. The following changes result in combat taking about the same number of rounds, but the rounds go by much faster with more missing (and hitting is more impactful, pun intended).

Changes we made:

• Monster HP is half.
• PCs get CON mod at level one, HD to level 10, and static +1 to 4 from levels 11-20.
• ACs are increased by 4 (for everything).
• Everything is proficient in all saves.
• Prior proficiency is now advantage.
• DM uses average damage for (just about) everything.

Removing repeated saves to get rid of effects helps them have more of a ouch factor.

Otherwise, I would reduce PC HD by one stage so they range from d4-d10, stop adding CON mod to HP per level (especially if most PCs have great CONs), and you can also increase monster damage if you need to.

Another option we use (and @J-H just suggested LOL) is a level of exhaustion at 0 hp.

 

[Undrave]

Use D12s instead of D20 those 'crits' would come quickly.

 

[Guest 6948803]

Yes, we use level of exhaustion at 0 hp to prevent whack-a-mole healing (considering negative hp as well).
We can't use anything but d20, that would be horrible blasphemy!
But hmm, maybe expanding critical range (19-20 and 17-20 for Champions) would do the trick? Need to analyse and math it all I guess.
Oh, and gritty realism is no-no because it makes players bunker up. We had serious issues in 2nd ed of WFRP, at some point we were all so badly wounded, and had to wait so long for our HP to go up, that we just avoided anything MG tried to throw at us. Most anticlimactic campaign finale ever with "heroes" getting to the ritual site before cultists, drawing the bridge and just waiting out Time of the Great Ritual

 

[Stoutstien]

Your best bet is to just diversify how your players feel threatened by challenges. HP races are never really exciting regardless if you have 2 or 20 rounds in an encounter.

Start by adding conditions everywhere. My favorite ones focus on attacking players where it really hurts. The action economy. Never really want to take a player out completely often but removal of one portion of their total action pool is instant tension. It also has the side benefit of making combat quicker.


How many rounds does your typical encounter take and what's your best estimate on how long each round takes?

 

[Guest 6948803]

I don't exactly know how long my combats take, because I don't keep stats. But they don't seem to drag for too many rounds - that's not a central issue here. Players complain, that in essence, they don't feel threatened by combat. As I said, they are used to far more deadly systems (we also played a lot of 1st edition L5R, where lost initiative and good attack roll by enemy = insta death no rez, and Deadlands, where few lucky rerolls from random bandit shooting at you could send you straight to St Peter). So, I need to house rule things in a way, that will make their blood pumping faster, while at the same time not make everything TOO deadly, and prevent them from niovaing important enemies (which could become a thing if I go too far with upping damage/lowering hp).
Conditions are good thing, as an extra. Core problem is combat swingability (as I see it).

 

[Stoutstien]

This might be a case of spending resources making a flying car when you could just buy an airplane.
5e is hard wired against swingy results. It's doesn't feel deadly because it's not deadly. You could change a bunch of factors that will speed it up but I doubt you can change the fact it's not swingy without a complete core system rework which at that point it's not 5e anymore.

Mork borg is a good fast n dirty option.

 

[Guest 6948803]

But in this case, I am trying to make car fly just by attaching rockets to the chassis.
I played and GMed many games. And I am ok with 5e in general, just want to cut it more for this particular group (other people I play D&D with have no issues with running it practically as written). Also, I am not adverse to fiddle with system, being old enough to remember times, when every table had its own house rules. So, I don't need an airplane, just advice how to not blow up my rocket car!