D&D 5E Difficulty Settings for Advanced Players

[OB1]

I got to thinking about how most modern video games have several difficulty settings that players can choose to up the challenge for skilled players. For myself, I feel pretty good when I beat a game on normal, but have dropped down to easy/story mode when I just don't want to put the time in to master the mechanics of a particular game (because I spend most of my free time playing D&D these days ) So, I began to wonder if a few easy to implement tweaks to the 5e ruleset could provide the Hard and Legendary experiences of video games to give a new challenge to those who feel they have mastered 5e.

The below is my first draft of this. These rules would need to be applied globally to a group, and are meant to be used with WotC pre-gens as written (since a DM in a home brew can always adjust difficulty for a particular group). The purpose is to increase the need for CharOp, Party Synergy and individual and group tactics in encounters.

Interested to hear from the community if these rules would result in the desired effect and whether you would consider using them. Suggestions for changes are appreciated, just keep in mind that any additions or changes should be very easy to implement in play. I'm not looking to bog down the flow of play with these, just make every decision more consequential.

Hard Mode
Ability Scores - Players must take the following standard Array. Additionally, 18 becomes the top score for an ability via ASI.
6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13

Monster HP - All monsters gain an additional 20% to their HP

Death Saves - In addition to the regular rules for death saves, you make a death save when you drop to 0 HP at DC 10 or the Damage Taken in the attack (whichever is higher). A Failed Death Save requires 1 hour of rest (with nothing more than light activity) followed by a successful DC 15 heal check to be removed. Lesser Restoration can also remove a failed death save. You cannot benefit from a short or long rest while you have a failed death save. You add your con mod to the number of failed death saves you can have before dying.

Legendary Mode
Ability Scores - Players must take the following standard Array. Additionally, 16 becomes the top score for an ability via ASI.
6, 8, 10, 10, 10, 11

Monster HP - All monsters are set to their maximum HP.

Death Saves - In addition to the regular rules for death saves, you makeake a death save when you drop to 0 HP at DC 10 or the Damage Taken in the attack (whichever is higher). A Failed Death Save requires 8 hours of rest (with nothing more than light activity) followed by a successful DC 15 heal check to be removed. Greater Restoration can also remove a failed death save. You cannot benefit from a short or long rest while you have a failed death save. You add your con mod to the number of failed death saves you can have before dying.

 

[Larrin]

Needing to rest to clear the failed death saves has the side effect of not only perhaps making the game harder, but also making it more boring. "Because this game is hard you need to spend more time doing literally nothing" is not a line of text many players want to see. I see what you're trying to do, death fails not going away but stacking up more will definitely make combat more deadly, but I think "All failed death saves are only cleared after a short rest" and "all death saves are only cleared after a long rest" would be less annoying to play with, though even then you're motivating you players to take more rests. Is that what you want hard mode to be? One fight, 1 death save failed, everyone stops for 8 hours. Not the intent in design, but a potential reaction the players will have.

 

[Umbran]

Is that what you want hard mode to be? One fight, 1 death save failed, everyone stops for 8 hours. Not the intent in design, but a potential reaction the players will have.

That's a major thing to consider with role playing games - for any rules change that includes restriction of resources, management of those resources will become a priority. And the basic way D&D manages resources is with time spent inactive, which is't a whole lot of fun.

You might find pressing on resources from the other side to have fewer inducements to inactivity - make the fights harder, rather than change how the PCs regain resources.

 

[dave2008]

I like the idea, but I would go about it differently.

1) Cap ability scores: 18 max (I do this + racial bonus in my games).
2) Reduce hit points: Keep level 1 the same, but every level after only gets rolled HP or average HP (no con bonus).
3) Death saves: take a page from PF2e and each time you need to make a death save it gives you the wounded condition. The effect being it reduces the number of death saves you get moving forward (tied into whatever rest or healing mechanic you prefer). So first time to 0 you get 3 saves. 2nd time to 0 you get 2 saves. 3rd time to 0 you get one save. 4th time to 0 = death.

Options #2 + #3 really makes for a more difficult game. The beauty is you just need to adjust player HP, not every monster.

EDIT: Personally I would still probably bump monster damage, but i'm wicked that way.

 

[Charlaquin]

What if instead of tracking number of failed death saves, failing a death save just gives you a level of exhaustion on hard mode, or two levels on legendary. You could also have an easy mode or story mode where a character that falls to 0 is stable and only accumulates death save failures if they take damage while at 0.

 

[dave2008]

What if instead of tracking number of failed death saves, failing a death save just gives you a level of exhaustion on hard mode,...

I like that idea, but I would couple that with a reduced number of saves as done in PF2e for "legendary" mode. Alternately, legendary mode could make the death save be a DC 15 check with failure adding a level of exhaustion.

 

[DND_Reborn]

What if instead of tracking number of failed death saves, failing a death save just gives you a level of exhaustion on hard mode, or two levels on legendary. You could also have an easy mode or story mode where a character that falls to 0 is stable and only accumulates death save failures if they take damage while at 0.

I kind of like this idea even in "normal" mode. A failed death save could result in a level of exhaustion, a natural 1 would be 2 levels of exhaustion, and a natural 20 would remove a level of exhaustion as well as stabilizing the character.

Maybe characters don't die at three failures, but instead continue until 6 levels (normal death through exhaustion) or stabilize.

 

[Charlaquin]

Maybe characters don't die at three failures, but instead continue until 6 levels (normal death through exhaustion) or stabilize.

Yeah, I figured this would be the case to help balance out the fact that this rule would give death saves a lingering effect.

I kind of like this idea even in "normal" mode. A failed death save could result in a level of exhaustion, a natural 1 would be 2 levels of exhaustion, and a natural 20 would remove a level of exhaustion as well as stabilizing the character.

I would hesitate to use it in “normal mode” because it creates a pretty hardcore death spiral effect. Because exhaustion levels are so difficult to remove, this would make dropping to 0 in a dungeon or other place where taking a long rest is a big risk a slow death sentence. Of course, you could combat this by making potions of vitality much more plentiful.

 

[Charlaquin]

I like that idea, but I would couple that with a reduced number of saves as done in PF2e for "legendary" mode. Alternately, legendary mode could make the death save be a DC 15 check with failure adding a level of exhaustion.

Oh, I like the idea of adjusting the death save DC much better than adjusting the number of exhaustion levels gained upon failure! Good suggestion!

 

[iserith]

The Meat Grinder mode in ToA had it where PCs would earn +10% XP/GP, but death saving throws were a success on a 15 or higher instead of 10.