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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 6538975" data-attributes="member: 2629">Steps to address the perception that PCs are overpowered and that there is no challenge for them in the game:#1: Make sure you're not handing out too much treasure or that the PCs themselves didn't beat the law of averages when they were rolled.  If you follow the guidelines, a party of PCs should find a total of about 30 permanent magical items over 20 levels.  Further, the stuff should not really start rolling in until ~5th level - a level where the PCs are intended to get a huge bump in power with more frequent real magic items, fireballs, second attacks, etc...  If the party has too much good gear at any given point, it makes a big difference.  It also makes a difference if PC stats are better than the point buy system would allow.  Rolling stats is fine if you get fairly average stats, but when you have a few PCs strolling around with an 18 or 20 attribute at first level, it defies the expectations of the game.  There are a number of parties out there with a few PCs with too much stuff and stats that are just higher than the designers intended.  In many ways, having a 20 strength at first level is like starting the game with a +2 weapon. #2: Easy and medium encounters should pose no real harm to a PC group.  If you throw these at the group, there should be objectives other than killing the monsters to keep the PCs challenged.  For example, can they kill the bandit orcs before the orcs slaughter the peasants?  Can they cut through the bandits before their leader escapes with the loot?  Can they fight their way past the pirates and get off the ship before it sinks?  Kobolds die with one hit, but if the goal is to stop them from escaping and they have no wish to battle the PCs, it becomes an entirely different challenge.#3: Hard and deadly encounters (just over the deadly threshold) tend to be reasonable challenges that the PCs should be expected to win unless they get unlucky.  However, they are not all created equal.  A 6th or 7th level party that encounters a giant with a tendency to roll critical on those thrown rocks can find themselves in surprisingly deep water before they get close.  Sneaky monsters might be easy kills if the party gets the drop on them, but may fell a PC before they can react if the monster gets the drop on the PCs.  Consider how you use these monsters to make sure they are an appropriate challenge.  Remember that easy, medium and hard encounters are extremely unlikely to kill a PC.  Only deadly encounters should have a chance of killing a PC.  #4: Don't be afraid to venture higher into the deadly range when building encounters.  Just change the goal from beating the enemy to surviving the enemy attack and escaping.  Make it clear to the PCs that they can't win and give them a route to escape.  As an example, I recently tossed 5 6th level PCs against 40 zombies, 10 ghouls, 3 mummies, 2 vampire spawn, a vampire and 2 Immoliths (converted to be CR 9 each).  This would have been a deadly encounter for a 20th level party.  However, the goal was not for them to kill the enemies - it was for them to realize they could not win and flee in such a way that they only had to fight a small number of the enemies and survive long enough for the cavalry to arrive.  The PCs definitely did not feel overpowered in this battle - but it set the stage for later battles against some of these foes in which the PCs will really feel their power growth.</blockquote>

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