D&D 5E DM in trouble needs advice/help to balance encounters in his campaign.

[Charlaquin]

I think it’s important to note, you don’t have to stick to the 6-8 encounter per day guidelines to give the players a good and challenging experience. If you only expect your players to get through 1-2 encounters per day, you can tailor those encounters to be more taxing and deadlier. D&D 5e is largely designed around the 6-8 encounter day and slowly draining the PCs’ resources, and it runs very well that way, but don’t feel forced to stick to that guideline if it’s not working for you.

 

[tom1017]

Ahahah, I hear you Oofta, but it was our very first fireball indoor and the player cunningly placed it so it would only hit bad guys. Since nothing in the rules states the fireball has to fit entirely in the room, he cunningly placed its center in a corner and there was nothing I could do once the map was laid on the table.

Now don't misunderstand my position, I don't wish to trample the characters, I want them to find satisfaction in surviving an epic fight.
Since we don't fight often, I really think the solution may come in modifying the rest rules. I need to explore that path...

 

[Oofta]

Ahahah, I hear you Oofta, but it was our very first fireball indoor and the player cunningly placed it so it would only hit bad guys. Since nothing in the rules states the fireball has to fit entirely in the room, he cunningly placed its center in a corner and there was nothing I could do once the map was laid on the table.

Now don't misunderstand my position, I don't wish to trample the characters, I want them to find satisfaction in surviving an epic fight.
Since we don't fight often, I really think the solution may come in modifying the rest rules. I need to explore that path...

I tend to run a heavy RP/exploration game so another thing I've found useful is to not have a long rest at the end of a session. I just have everyone note current status and we pick up next session where we left off Have a long rest when it makes sense for the game.

Good luck!

 

[tom1017]

Yeah I'm confident things will be more fun once we adjust a couple of things.
Since our group likes to explore, travel, interact and investigate, I'll probably give a try at changing the recovery rules.
Believe it or not, but in a 6-8 hours session during which several days are usually played, we rarely fight more than 2-3 times. I suppose that sum it up ^.^

 

[ad_hoc]

HotDQ is designed for most chapters to be 1 long rest each. There usually aren't any safe places to rest.

Even if they do find a place to rest, they still need to catch the flying castle before it leaves. Remind the players of their mission. Don't let the cult get away. Having a fail condition is very important.

The adventure is designed to have many encounters resolved through exploration and social interaction as well. If the players try to fight everything they will be wiped out.

 

[Quickleaf]

@tom1017 There's a few things...

First, varying the challenge of combats is a great way to control pacing and reward them for smart play. Sometimes an easy combat is just what the party needs or comes about naturally from careful planning. And sometimes they need a challenge or make a bad choice and walk into one.

Second, the combat encounter guidelines in the DMG and some of the hardcover adventures are given difficulties (e.g. easy, medium, hard, deadly) based on the assumption that the players are having many (~6) combats in the course of a day. If you're having fewer than that (as many DMs often do), a better guideline is using the Adventuring Day XP Budget (also in the DMG) when building encounters. This will help you develop a feel for what your party can handle, and eventually graduate from published guidelines altogether.

Third, there are multiple "dials" you can control to make combats more challenging. Remember, diversity is the spice of life and D&D. Sometimes it's OK to have easy combat – it breaks tension, lets the players flex new powers/spells they've gained, and lets them feel like heroes. Don't consistently use all these "dials" at once, rather mix-and-match them to keep it fresh and interesting.

1. Don't let the players always be in control over when they rest, particularly when they get a long rest. For example, if they're on a time sensitive mission, taking even a single short rest before the mission is over could spell disaster.

2. If the party does take a long rest after beginning an incursion on a monster lair/dungeon, have the inhabitants spend those 8 hours bolstering defenses and making appropriate preparations.

3. Define party goals in combat besides "kill all monsters" which offer a different way to use resources/actions. For example, defend an emissary from assassins. The great things about this approach is that it immerses the players in the game and makes victory independent from hit points.

4. Use tactics suiting the monster types, their Intelligence, and any recon they have on the party. For example, goblins are well known for retreating out of line-of-sight into an area where a lot more goblins lurk with readied attacks...potentially killing a foolhardy PC in pursuit. Whereas cunning NPC mercenaries might use the player's own tactics against them.

5. Attack unconscious PCs when it makes sense for the monster in question. For example, an intelligent gladiator who realizes the party has access to healing magic...when he KO's a PC with one attack, he'll use another of his Extra Attacks to stab the PC while they're down, causing 2 failed death saves, and upping the pressure on the PCs to heal that PC immediately.

6. Create scenarios where the PCs may end up out of reach of buffing/healing spells. For example, a chasm with enemy guards watching a wall on the far side who can be easily assassinated by the rogue, but doing so puts him out of range of the cleric.

7. Make the environment favor the monsters. For example, salamanders (immune to fire & able to "swim" in lava) near streams of lava emanating intense heat. Alternately, you can come up with Lair Actions shared by an entire tribe of monsters.

8. Make the environment dangerous. Opportunities to fall seem to be the #1 killer in my games. Kobolds don't stick around to fight unless they have traps. When fighting in a mine, spells like thunderwave or shatter or booming blade might run the risk of triggering a collapse.

9. Increase the number of lower CR enemies, but introduce them in waves. However, be prepared with a way to quickly & clearly track their hit points/conditions. If there are truly a lot, consider using the Handling Mobs rules in the DMG.

10. Don't be afraid to use monsters of significantly higher CR if it makes sense for your story (and you're foreshadowing the monsters). I had four 6th-level PCs (all were fresh) just barely take down a CR 12 titanoboa (from Kobold Press' Tome of Beasts) without any casualties, but they came very close.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I think it’s important to note, you don’t have to stick to the 6-8 encounter per day guidelines to give the players a good and challenging experience.

True, you can just keep dialing it up. But, 6-8 encounters (and 2-3 short rests), will also, as a bonus, help balance the party, amongst themselves, so that you're less likely to have some feeling useless or overshadowed.

If you only expect your players to get through 1-2 encounters per day, you can tailor those encounters to be more taxing and deadlier. D&D 5e is largely designed around the 6-8 encounter day and slowly draining the PCs’ resources, and it runs very well that way, but don’t feel forced to stick to that guideline if it’s not working for you.

When running a different pacing (or a varied pacing) it helps if the party are all on a similar resource schedule, usually a daily-heavy one, because, well, that's most of the classes (and sub-classes). Roughly it breaks down like this:

Mainly at-will: Champion, Thief, Assassin.
Short-rest moderate: BM, Monk
Short-rest heavy: Warlock
Long-rest moderate: Paladin, Ranger, EK, AT, arguably Barbarian
Long-rest heavy: Everyone Else (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard, also arguably Barbarian, just in a very different way)

If classes are all from one list, or at least, all daily or all short-rest oriented, varying pacing will still make encounter difficulty vary, but at least it won't be screwing up class balance.

One obvious alternative, BTW, is 3-4 really tough encounters per day, with a short rest after each...it means short & long rest classes have about the same balance among them. Mainly at-will characters or those with only moderate rest-recharged abilities might find themselves overshadowed.

So, yeah, there's a lot to consider, just in how you want to pace your campaign.

 

[aco175]

I like to add more low level targets. It makes the PCs feel good that they are easy to kill, but the extra attacks they have means that the PCs will be hit more than if there was less monsters of higher level.

I also like to add reinforcements if I feel that the encounter went too easy. I mostly use the same monster so I do not need to look up more monsters.

 

[EpicureanDM]

As a new DM, it's hard to understand the most important function of the rest system: control of the game's pacing. It's an artificial restraint on the recovery of the characters' limited resources. It makes the game challenging and rewarding. Control of the game's pacing is the DM's job, not the player's job. But D&D's approach to rest puts primary control of rest (i.e. pacing) in the players' hands. Whomever controls the pacing controls the difficulty and challenge of the game. You've figured that out and that's why you're here.

A game based on 4e D&D called 13th Age offers a solution for this problem with its rule that the PCs gain the benefits of a long rest after every fourth encounter. The rule hedges its language a bit to say that the GM can decide to award a long rest after a series of three tough encounters or after the fifth encounter if the party has had an easy time of it. But, for the most part, it's four encounters.

We can adapt this rule for 5e by suggesting the following: After every two encounters, the party gets the benefit of a short rest. After their sixth encounter, they get the benefits of a long rest. So over the course of six encounters, the players will get two short rests and one long one. If they faced a really hard fight, you decide that long rest happens after the fifth encounter. If the players feel that they're too beat up then, at any point, they can just declare that they're taking a long rest. That's fine, but then you, as the DM, get to describe a significant setback they suffer. The monsters get tougher or find dangerous reinforcements. Maybe an enemy of theirs take a major step forward in their plans, putting the party further behind in their plan to stop the villain. But for the most part, this schedule is strict. Unless the players accept the big setback or the DM decides that the players have had bad dice luck (this should be a rare determination), the schedule doesn't change.

We sever the idea of in-game time and duration from a rest, which is where all of this trouble mostly springs from. A party that travels for three weeks across the wilderness and has two encounters will need to face two encounters in the dungeon before they get another short rest, and four encounters before the long rest. We no longer need to think about rests in terms of hours and days, so we're free to focus on how the adventurers are being tested by their enemies and the world.

On a side note, this idea is typically very unpopular with 5e players and you'll likely see that reflected in responses. But I've used this approach in my 5e game for years and it works well.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I find it funny because I TPK'd my group twice in HotDQ. But I was starting at the beginning and they were 1st lvl the first time and third or fourth level the second time.

What did it to them is they never retreated to rest. I'd have enemies run away during the fight and come back with reinforcements from other rooms. Assuming the enemy is smart enough for such tactics.