Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Good discussion. It seems to me like the Cleric of Life is probably working as intended and no "multiplier" is necessary, but I'm definitely going to keep watching the class with interest.
That sounds like a fantastic battle!
As for deadly, maybe it would help to put it in perspective of a "normal" workday of 3,500xp for each level 5 PC. So a PC "should" (again, the guidelines speaking not me) go through that much difficulty 2 more times (or some other arrangement of encounters) to fill out the rest of the work day. Do you think they would be able to do it, or would they start dying through attrition?
No, I don't. Last night I put the same group up against an adult green and /that/ was the closest thing to a TPK I've ever seen that wasn't actually a TPK. XP per player: ~1,800. I had to deny the poor beast legendary actions and any more than a single breath weapon attack, and even then it killed two PCs and the Greataxe Champion Fighter was the last man standing
with a single hit point when he brought the dragon down.
This campaign has been pretty good for memorable moments.
So 1,100 might not be "deadly" deadly, but a full 1,800 would be deadly deadly deadly and spam with a side of deadly. If I had to guess I'd say 1,500 is probably the practical upward limit of total survivability without a short rest, and even then I think the remaining 2,000 before a long rest would have to be sliced pretty thinly.
your party is getting off easy (even if its a "deadly" encounter).
I understand what you're saying, KM, but the official terminology makes that sentence pretty freaking stupid.
I have always disliked the whackamole aspect to Dnd with PCs hitting zero then bouncing back up next round. Which is probably exacerbated by a life cleric.
This is particularly bad in D&D5.
This is why we use the injury rules! Nearly any combat can have a lasting/meaningful effect. I should not I have changed the injury rules a little - any effect cured by "magical healing" requires restoriation, greater restoration or 6th level + magic. And I give death saves for lost limb etc - if they make the save, just fractured/broken limb, not lost.
I'm leaning in a similar direction, now that the DMG is out.
What I take from the quote in the OP is that Jester is replying to someone that thinks not having a Cleric of Life in a party dooms it to failure. Which obviously is not true.
Not quite. My assertion was that if a party is built around a Cleric of Life, and the Cleric of Life is removed mid-battle, that the party is doomed. I admit to some hyperbole, but for the sake of clarity I don't think you /need/ a Cleric of Life to play D&D5.
I think it was in 3e and later systems that the up-down, up-down in combat healing really changed encounter dynamics.
I distinctly remember clerics performing dynamic feats of movement in AD&D2 to get into touch range of failing allies during combat.
4E didn't really move away, it emphasised it as all healing was combat healing.
Between healing surges and second winds and total regeneration after a long rest, I have to disagree.
Any one who read the rules & did not want to deny one of the players one of his abilities?
It is pretty dumb though I agree.
It being pretty dumb is all the excuse any dungeon master needs. It fails the sniff test from a mile off. Gone are the days when "the book says" was justification for any crap the player wanted to pull.
Few of us are, but I'll go with the 5E guru on this one.
You should go with what you want to go with.