Zardnaar
Legend
Yeah I try and edit them if they're bad.
D&D 5E Challenging a tanky one-trick pony PC
Yeah I try and edit them if they're bad.
Jahydin
Hero
I've learned over the years this is exactly the point of 5e and to just to roll with it. If you want more challenging combat, really think about a different system like Pathfinder 2e (what I eventually migrated to). 5e is all about living that power fantasy when it comes to combat, so if you want to challenge PCs, it has to be done via story.
I know that might come off as unhelpful, and I'm sorry, but it's coming from someone who spent countless hours trying to challenge a party of 12th level. It really did feel like I was back in college again with all the prep I was doing. After that campaign wrapped up, I was so burned out I took a year off DMing.
Since running PF, combats have been so much more engaging. Between the emphasis on team work, damage resistances, and rewarding tactical play, I've been happy as a clam.
I still run 5e (curse its popularity!), but when I do, its with the understanding it will mostly be me cheering on PCs as they roll all over my encounters.
Zardnaar
Legend
Yup problems start around level 7/8 and I gave up as DM from level 13/14.
You have to metagamecaga8nst the PCs heavily, roll with it and let them steamroller everything or play something else.
By metagame I mean lots of magic, flyers, immunities etc.
In the 5e campaign my group just finished, the DM adjusted some encounters to account for our tanky Paladin by throwing in more things with abilities that could do damage without needing to roll to hit (fireball, breath weapons, etc).It's OK. This thread has given me plenty of ideas. The player was absent for a few sessions, so I had Halaster teleport him away "to give the monsters a fighting chance". When the player returned, I said that his PC felt like he'd just been dreaming but that he'd been having a nightmare filled with floating diamond lozenge thingies and spider-like creatures. Now, anytime he uses his annoying tanky spirit guardians + Dodge combo, Halaster is going to have a Strixhaven mage hunter with the Mage Slayer feat show up to try and shake him out of his one trick poniness.
Currently, they're on a level that's a big, trap-filled obstacle course without many monsters to fight, but the main boss of the level is a death tyrant with a horde of zombies (seriously, there are like 40 of them, it's going to be a nightmare to manage at the table! I'll probably have to send them in in waves). He'll probably use his spirit guardians trick then, and so things will get more complicated when a mage hunter shows up too.
Elsewhere in the dungeon, Halaster has trapped a dwarf vampire in a coffin with a magic rune keeping him in there. The coffin's at the bottom of a pit. The first person to cross over the pit gets zapped with the rune (no save), which is a "death mark". The coffin then disintegrates and the vampire is free to hunt down the person with the death mark on them. Since the obstacle course is full of teleport traps designed to split the party, I'm hoping Mr One Trick Pony will end up triggering the vampire all by himself.
Zardnaar
Legend
Harder in prepublished adventures. Or defeats the point of using them.
Swarmkeeper
Hero
Does it? I see published adventures as a template to jump start the creation of an adventure to save me prep time and not as something that needs to be followed 100%, or even 90% for that matter.
How so? I don't think I've ever played a prepublished adventure without tweaks being made to it based on the group running it. I think most people would agree the CR system isn't very good, but it's at least a starting point for swapping out a monster for a similar challenging monster with a more suitable combat style.
Zardnaar
Legend
Because if you're having to redo all the encounters for an adventure msy as well right your own.
pukunui
Legend
There’s a vast difference between tweaking pre-written encounters and redoing them entirely.
