Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e - Just Missing the Mark
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 7559334" data-attributes="member: 42040"><p>I disagree. I have had to create house rules and my own content to get around these various issues. Here is a quick list of what I've done, and I'll be happy to go into more detail if anyone is interested:</p><p></p><p>1. Broken CR system. I fixed this by completely re-writing every monster that I used in the campaign encounters. I took my characters and averaged their vital statistics: HP, Save Bonuses, Attack Bonuses, AC, Saving Throws, etc. I then balanced the monsters they faced based on the abilities of the characters. So if I wanted a monster to last for 4 rounds, I based its HP off of 6 or so average hits from the party. Its damage potential, I balanced it against the average AC and HP of the party. I have a feeling that the designers of 5E didn't even take this basic level of care in planning out the monsters.</p><p></p><p>2. Poor selection of official adventures. I ran into this issue after the travesty that was Storm King's Thunder. When we had nothing left to play, I began writing my own adventure with the goal of publishing on the DM's Guild. We started playtesting. That's when I discovered that the CR system was broken (after 2 TPKs in three levels) and necessitated in all the changes I'm listing here.</p><p></p><p>3. Monsters need purpose. So I added some cool abilities to the monsters. Like the ability to push the characters away or grapple them and actually have a mechanical impact on the game (which isn't present in 5E). Others I gave dangerous ranged attacks (if the goal was to have an artillery "glass canon" creature) or the ability to soak damage and regenerate (if it was a bruiser). Monsters weren't designed in 5E to serve a tactical purpose. I changed that in my system. How do I know they weren't designed this way? I created a spreadsheet that attempted to classify creatures by level and role: is it a tough creature with a rock-solid AC, is it a high-damaging threat with an Achilles' Heel? The project had to be abandoned because there was no rhyme or reason to the design.</p><p></p><p>4. Undercooked tactical combat. By adding in cool, flavorful abilities on the monsters, this really brought life to the combats. The party was facing down a warren of goblin slaves (minions), while duergar soldiers pushed and prodded them into the path of a rolling war wagon. The war wagon shot mortars of crowd controlling poison gas, obscuring the sight of the party as the duergar overlord fired a hand canon into their last known position. Dangerous zones, shoving enemies under the treads of a war machine, the heroic feeling of cutting down multitudes of opponents - these are all things that don't happen in 5e, which made numerous set piece battles that will be long remembered by my group.</p><p></p><p>5. Move and swing sword. By giving the monsters more flavor and more abilities, the DM can raise the stakes. Climbing the war machine to get out of the poison gas and kicking away the goblins who are trying to pull you off, just so you have a better shot at the leader with the hand canon, this is so much more exciting than just chopping away hit points. But when the design paradigm of 5e is "higher level creatures just do more HP damage and can take more HP damage," you get a sameness in the game. </p><p></p><p>6. Inspiration. I made an alternate system for inspiration, which allowed it to be used to pull off battle maneuvers (similar to Encounter powers in 4E).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Retreater, post: 7559334, member: 42040"] I disagree. I have had to create house rules and my own content to get around these various issues. Here is a quick list of what I've done, and I'll be happy to go into more detail if anyone is interested: 1. Broken CR system. I fixed this by completely re-writing every monster that I used in the campaign encounters. I took my characters and averaged their vital statistics: HP, Save Bonuses, Attack Bonuses, AC, Saving Throws, etc. I then balanced the monsters they faced based on the abilities of the characters. So if I wanted a monster to last for 4 rounds, I based its HP off of 6 or so average hits from the party. Its damage potential, I balanced it against the average AC and HP of the party. I have a feeling that the designers of 5E didn't even take this basic level of care in planning out the monsters. 2. Poor selection of official adventures. I ran into this issue after the travesty that was Storm King's Thunder. When we had nothing left to play, I began writing my own adventure with the goal of publishing on the DM's Guild. We started playtesting. That's when I discovered that the CR system was broken (after 2 TPKs in three levels) and necessitated in all the changes I'm listing here. 3. Monsters need purpose. So I added some cool abilities to the monsters. Like the ability to push the characters away or grapple them and actually have a mechanical impact on the game (which isn't present in 5E). Others I gave dangerous ranged attacks (if the goal was to have an artillery "glass canon" creature) or the ability to soak damage and regenerate (if it was a bruiser). Monsters weren't designed in 5E to serve a tactical purpose. I changed that in my system. How do I know they weren't designed this way? I created a spreadsheet that attempted to classify creatures by level and role: is it a tough creature with a rock-solid AC, is it a high-damaging threat with an Achilles' Heel? The project had to be abandoned because there was no rhyme or reason to the design. 4. Undercooked tactical combat. By adding in cool, flavorful abilities on the monsters, this really brought life to the combats. The party was facing down a warren of goblin slaves (minions), while duergar soldiers pushed and prodded them into the path of a rolling war wagon. The war wagon shot mortars of crowd controlling poison gas, obscuring the sight of the party as the duergar overlord fired a hand canon into their last known position. Dangerous zones, shoving enemies under the treads of a war machine, the heroic feeling of cutting down multitudes of opponents - these are all things that don't happen in 5e, which made numerous set piece battles that will be long remembered by my group. 5. Move and swing sword. By giving the monsters more flavor and more abilities, the DM can raise the stakes. Climbing the war machine to get out of the poison gas and kicking away the goblins who are trying to pull you off, just so you have a better shot at the leader with the hand canon, this is so much more exciting than just chopping away hit points. But when the design paradigm of 5e is "higher level creatures just do more HP damage and can take more HP damage," you get a sameness in the game. 6. Inspiration. I made an alternate system for inspiration, which allowed it to be used to pull off battle maneuvers (similar to Encounter powers in 4E). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e - Just Missing the Mark
Top