D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

[Not a Decepticon]

Well that was my thought, when a random encounter with incorporeal enemies came up. But Jeremy Crawford says otherwise, apparently, and I was at the time forced to accept his "ruling".

I by general rule ignore his twitter posts because it has been very much a meme he's been often blatantly wrong, like ruling Paladin cannot divine smite with unarmed strike because unarmed strike is not a weapon attack, even when it is classified as a melee weapon attack.

As for the ambush, well, consider that while the sphere grants you and your party total cover, you can see outside of it just fine. The spell only ends when the caster steps out of it, and nothing stops them from casting a new one if they see a mass of enemies forming.

So the ambush would require the whole party to not notice the enemies massing until the ritual ends, because otherwise, they have a perfect defensive position to work with. Further, any wise Wizard will also stock alarm. My Wizard PC does, and used both just in case (I might have issues with LTH, but as a player, I'd be an idiot not to use it).

The enemies can just set up the ambush behind the next door the party has to go through, they have 8 hours to see the hut and organize it, they don't need to wait directly in front of exit from the hut.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The rules don't support it well now and in a no attrition model they would support it even less. Because once the party has access to revivify or similar, in attritionless model casting it cannot have cost. So one character dying has no cost as they can be brought back without a cost.

I am not sure the no-attrition model would also say that money is no object and casting resourrection spells is also free.
It mostly about: At the start of combat, every participating character has the same resources available as any other combat (absent of level changes and retraining or whatever). But that doesn't include resources that are not directly part of combat (like the number of gold pieces and NPC spellcasters owing you a favor) and your life. Otherwise, even TPKs wouldn't be possible either, would they?

Not that I think you even need a no-attrition model. You just need an attrition-recovery method that is similar to each class, so that no classes are favored by the availability or inavailability of these methods.

 

[Staffan]

So I am not actually sure it is necessary for high level casters to still have the lowest levels of slots. It results of having a lot of slots, and is also annoying to manage. I think at some point the lowest level slots should just start converting to higher level slots instead of being retained.

That's what 13th Age does. I do think there's some use of having low-level slots – they become used for utility spells rather than combat spells.

The highest-level character I can recall playing is a 13th level sorcerer in a PF2 game that is currently unfortunately on hiatus for the foreseeable future. In combat, he would mostly use his 6th and 7th and occasionally even 5th level slots (sometimes with upcast spells of lower levels). He does have some lower-level spells that are still useful in combat, like fear and slow, and some that are situationally combat-useful like faerie fire, earthbind, fly, freedom of movement, and wall of stone. But he also has spells like longstrider, speak with animals, and endure elements, that don't do much useful in a fight but can solve a lot of non-combat problems.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because the boss fights aren't fun.

Fun for who? The players are having fun casting all the spells they want and using all their cool abilities. The GM may or may not be having fun, but there seem to be plenty here (even GMs) who don't have any issues with player fun being more important than their own, or who are selfless enough to get all their enjoyment from facilitating the enjoyment of others.

 

[Scribe]

@mearls We've identified the problem- is there a recommended fix for this?

Different games lol

 

[Scott Christian]

No, a third level spell should just not let you ignore significant portion of the game's encounters and charge up all your powers. And of course even if the enemies would take some action to strengthen their position outside the bubble, that strengthening is unlikely to be more than what the characters have strengthened themselves by resting!

I understand the frustration with the spell. It plagues many DMs. But if you believe, for example, a gnoll horde or slither of yuan-ti are no match for four PCs at 5th, 6th, 7th, or even 8th level, I would encourage you to rethink that claim. The party would be at great risk with either of those enemies having time to prepare for the group's antics.

 

[mearls]

@mearls We've identified the problem- is there a recommended fix for this?

I’m working on an alternate Monster Manual as part of my Patreon that breaks monsters into roles. Some roles are meant to outnumber or equal the party in size. Their hit points and defenses are based on at-will damage.

Monsters that the party outnumbers base their hit points on the characters’s most powerful abilities.

I also adjusted damage assuming that fights last two rounds. That increased threat is working out well so far.

Monsters also have a level instead of CR, so encounter design is easier.

 

[Minigiant]

Fun for who? The players are having fun casting all the spells they want and using all their cool abilities. The GM may or may not be having fun, but there seem to be plenty here (even GMs) who don't have any issues with player fun being more important than their own, or who are selfless enough to get all their enjoyment from facilitating the enjoyment of others.

This thread wouldn't exist if a plurality were satisfied by the current paradigm of boss fights.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Switching from spell slots to spell points achieves the same effect: "the lowest level slots start converting to the higher level slots".

Unless the lower level spells suddenly start costing more to cast for no reason, I don't see how that does anything.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What does this represent in the fiction? What is the caster actually doing to charge up these spells? Can they do it out of combat too, and if not, why not?

Always a good question conspicuously left out if these discussions often. Of course, perhaps many people simply don't care about it.