D&D 5E Difficulty Settings for Advanced Players

[OB1]

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.

The problem with this is it tends to lead to a death spiral, but ultimately it does do the same thing as the non cleared death saves. That is, it makes dropping to 0 HP a major issue. The idea is that your party should work hard to make sure no one ever drops to 0 HP, meaning spending healing resources earlier or fleeing from fights once you are below 50% hp. This completely changes approach to combat and also can change the way the party approaches exploration and social pillars.

 

[Krachek]

No sure it will produce fun play.
It will produce single ability glass canon that die frequently.
Simply remove ASI from standard game may have a better impact. Or force feat choice at level 4 and 6.

 

[DND_Reborn]

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 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.

In normal mode it would make a big difference at lower levels, but at the point we're at (roughly 10th), characters rarely ever drop to 0 hp--maybe once or twice (maybe!) a session, if that. In fact, I know yesterday it never happened at all.

 

[5ekyu]

I think the better way to produce "hard mode" is simply through putting in tougher challenges.

Changing the gameplay itself chsnges a lot more about how you play than its difficulty?

As for penalties on reaching zero hp, reaching zero hp in my experience is more commonly due to lucky crits at key times or other characters not doing stuff, making poor choices. Punishing the one who hut zero seems rather arbitrary.

 

[snickersnax]

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 do +1 point of exhaustion every time you roll a death save regardless of success.

 

[snickersnax]

Make Monsters Tougher:
Use HD instead of CR to determine proficiency bonus.
Let monsters be proficient in all saves. (that way you don't have too look them up and wonder why isn't this monster proficient in ____ save???)

 

[DND_Reborn]

Make Monsters Tougher:
Use HD instead of CR to determine proficiency bonus.
Let monsters be proficient in all saves. (that way you don't have too look them up and wonder why isn't this monster proficient in ____ save???)

So true! Monsters aren't proficient in half the saves they should be.

 

[aco175]

It seems that 5e already has easy mode with basic rules in the box sets. Then you get the PHB and can choose more options for a more normal mode. Prior editions had an advanced PHB or more difficult mode where you had more options and I could see something like this for 5e to give those that played for many years some options, but I would like to leave the other books alone. Monsters are easy to scale and I mostly add 25% HP already and this is an easy change to make things harder.

I'm not sure on making the PCs weaker makes the game funner. I think most people would rather go the other way and just make the monsters harder. If you wish to play meatgrinder mode then you get the same PC, but the goblins now have 2 attacks and orcs do 2d10 damage.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'm not looking to bog down the flow of play with these, just make every decision more consequential.

I think you're missing some factors...

Hard Mode
Spell save DCs are 6+CasterSTATmod+Slot Level.
Casting a spell requires Concentration and provokes an opportunity attack.
Wizards Clerics & Druids prep spells directly into slots.
Rituals still consume a slot, but it can be a slot with a different spell prepped into it, and performing a ritual does not require concentration.

Legendary Mode
In addition to the above.
Using a cantrip costs a slot, but you can use the cantrip at-will until you recover the slot. Cantrips that scale work at the level at which you first gained the slot used.
While Concentrating, all attacks have advantage on you, you have disadvantage on all rolls not related to the spell being cast or maintained.
Spells have a casting time equal to their level. They are completed on your initiative count less casting time. This means a readied attack can interrupt a non-cantrip spell, and enemies close to you in initiative might move or attack you while you're casting.
Slots at each spell level are halved for all casters.

 

[Shiroiken]

There are a lot of tweaks that can be done to set the game to hard or legendary mode, and obviously you'd want player buy-in before doing so. There are two ways you can do this: adjusting the encounters or adjusting the player rules. Adjusting the encounters is a lot easier, since the players may not even be aware of it, while changing player rules will have an obvious and immediate impact. My normal game runs on Hard mode, because I design adventures in the AD&D style of "how the world would be," rather then the modern "encounters" setup, pretty much ignoring the encounter guidelines.

My Hard Mode suggestions:

• Monsters have 75% HP instead of 50% HP
• Resting has timeline consequences, making future encounters harder as enemies adjust
• Use more monsters, rather than a few powerful ones (ignore the xp multiplier from the DMG)
• Average Encounter is Hard difficulty, with up to x2 Deadly as an option
• Monsters use tactics and optimize terrain when possible

My Legendary Mode Suggestions:

• Monsters have 100% HP
• Resting has timeline consequences, making future encounters harder as enemies adjust
• Use lots more monsters, rather than a few powerful ones (ignore the xp multiplier from the DMG)
• Average Encounter is Deadly difficulty, with up to x3 Deadly as an option
• Monsters use tactics, optimize terrain when possible, and focus fire on 1 PC at a time