D&D 5E New Spellcasting Blocks for Monsters --- Why?!

[Hussar]

Because we think about newer and inexperienced DMs.

There are a load of monsters is in the MM that are secret cakewalks and TPK machines which can ruin confidence in the game or themselves.

Given that 5e combat is very forgiving, I’m not really sure what “tpk machines” you are referring to. Given that a pretty constant and consistent refrain is that 5e is too easy, I’d guess that “TPK machines” might be overstating things just a bit.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Given that a pretty constant and consistent refrain is that 5e is too easy, I’d guess that “TPK machines”

Mostly by TPK machine operator union reps.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Given that 5e combat is very forgiving, I’m not really sure what “tpk machines” you are referring to. Given that a pretty constant and consistent refrain is that 5e is too easy, I’d guess that “TPK machines” might be overstating things just a bit.

Some creatures that cause debilitating status effects may be randomly super effective and become disproportionally more powerful in larger numbers.

 

[pemerton]

Or it works as intendet. It makes enough sense in the fiction. If you fall into a pit, even the best swordsman can't get out.

In classic D&D I get a saving throw to avoid a fireball or lightning bolt, but typically don't get one to avoid a pit. I get a saving throw to suck the poison out of a wound, but don't get a saving throw to avoid being stuck in waist-deep mud. That's a mechanical accident, not a deep bit of modelling of fiction. (In LotR, Boromir and Aragorn can plough through snow drifts to save the Hobbits. In classic D&D this would be Bend Bars/Lift Gates, which is not level dependent, rather than a saving throw that is level dependent. Which again is pure mechanical accident.)

The analogue in 3E D&D is that some things require Reflex saves, which scale with level, but some require Balance checks, which for most PCs don't scale with level. That's a purely mechanical artefact, and Tucker's Kobolds exploit it.

 

[Faolyn]

Tucker's kobolds are a mechanical exploit: they exploit the fact that in the classic D&D mechanics the ability to deal with giant's clubs, poison, siren calls, etc scales with level; but the ability to avoid pits, snares and muddy terrain doesn't. Which makes no sense in the fiction, but is purely an artefact of how the mechanical system is put together.

Not really. You have a monster that is intelligent enough to use traps and terrain to their advantage, which means that they will invariably be deadlier than a monster who just engages in a slugfest--which, I would hazard to guess, is the way that a sizable percentage of DMs run their encounters. It doesn't matter if this is a pack of kobolds who uses traps and guerrilla warfare, or a dragon who stays in the air instead of sitting on the ground using a claw/claw/bite routine. With 5e's bounded accuracy, this is even more the case, since those kobolds could probably cause a lot of harm to even very high-leveled PCs. Could they kill them? Maybe, maybe not, but they can certainly cause a bigger resource drain than their CR would suggest.

Which makes calculating them according to the "6-8 medium encounters per adventuring day" rather pointless.

 

[Minigiant]

Given that 5e combat is very forgiving, I’m not really sure what “tpk machines” you are referring to. Given that a pretty constant and consistent refrain is that 5e is too easy, I’d guess that “TPK machines” might be overstating things just a bit.

I mean like @Crimson Longinus stated, there are a lot of monster with debugs and damage that gets brutal in large numbers or if played smart.

 

[Faolyn]

Some creatures that cause debilitating status effects may be randomly super effective and become disproportionally more powerful in larger numbers.

As an example, a PC in one of my games got bitten by a death dog, failed his save (despite being a tough barbarian) and was poisoned/diseased for a very long time, which made him extremely vulnerable to later encounters. Death dogs are a CR 1 encounter, there were like five PCs at the time who IIRC were level 2, so it was (by Kobold Fight Club standards, at least) a Trivial encounter. But if he hadn't been lucky enough to shake the poison off the next day, he very likely would have died.

 

[dave2008]

A lot from my experience.


I know of 5 new DMs with 5e. All of them have run their own adventures. 3 to disastrous results. All 5 of them TPKed the party by level 7.

I thought 5e was easy mode! Well that is what everyone has been saying at least.

Honestly, it is hard for me to imagine what it is like to be a new DM now that I am 30 years in, but it seems really hard to TPK a 5e group unless your trying to. * Exceptions being having to few PCs (playing 3 PCs for an adventure that expects 5 for example).

*EDIT: I wanted to clarify that I am talking about published adventures mainly and secondarily if you are using the DMG encounter guidelines. The DMG encounter guidelines are not very deadly. However, as noted by other's in this thread, there are some monsters that are sneaky tough.

 

[James Gasik]

Shadows. Resistant to non-magical damage, CR 1/2, deal 1d4 Strength drain when they hit, and if you hit 0 Strength you die. Too many of those can kill off a party rather easily.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I thought 5e was easy mode! Well that is what everyone has been saying at least.

Honestly, it is hard for me to imagine what it is like to be a new DM now that I am 30 years in, but it seems really hard to TPK a 5e group unless your trying to. Exceptions being having to few PCs (playing 3 PCs for an adventure that expects 5 for example).

It is often by mistake. New DMs underestimate the amount of damage that can happen in a fight, and suddenly it is a TPK...

In my new Monday group, two weeks ago at level 1 we had a TPK. The DM had an "acid-zombie" (two were attacking us) explode when we defeated it, dealing 4d6 acid damage to everyone who failed a DC 12 DEX save (for half). He rolled 23 damage, and it ended up killing us all, even those who made their saves (but were previously injured).