FormerlyHemlock
Hero
I recommend you read this article for perspective. It's about an different edition of D&D but that's not important.
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2055/roleplaying-games/fetishizing-balance
Snippet:
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D&D 5E [DM problem] Is the group I am leading too strong? Is the 5E system unbalanced?
- Thread starter bbrown12
- Start date
I recommend you read this article for perspective. It's about an different edition of D&D but that's not important.
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2055/roleplaying-games/fetishizing-balance
Snippet:
MichaelSomething
Legend
Combat is only a third of the game. How well can your party plan a wedding, bake a cake or travel through a desert?
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Sent from my VS990 using EN World mobile app
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Rhenny
Adventurer
I find that any time I run a pre-written adventure, my players will play up between 2-3 levels especially if there are 4 or 5 in the party. So far, we are 26 sessions into Princes of the Apocalypse and the party is 6th level. They can basically hold their own in areas meant for 8th or 9th level PCs.
It's really important in PotA to make sure you keep them on the move. They really should not be able to rest inside the temples, the eye, etc unless you really want them to rest.
Over the last few games, I've been making some encounters where foes have maximum hit points. It makes a big difference. I don't do it every encounter, but every so often it adds a new level of tension.
Lots of others have mentioned some great ideas too.
Overall, I find that PotA is a great outline for a campaign, but there are a lot of details that are left out. Basically, to me, the adventure begs to have the DM fill in more tricks, traps, details in rooms, red-herrings, clues, interesting personalities and interactions, etc.
Don't be afraid to add/modify.
It's really important in PotA to make sure you keep them on the move. They really should not be able to rest inside the temples, the eye, etc unless you really want them to rest.
Over the last few games, I've been making some encounters where foes have maximum hit points. It makes a big difference. I don't do it every encounter, but every so often it adds a new level of tension.
Lots of others have mentioned some great ideas too.
Overall, I find that PotA is a great outline for a campaign, but there are a lot of details that are left out. Basically, to me, the adventure begs to have the DM fill in more tricks, traps, details in rooms, red-herrings, clues, interesting personalities and interactions, etc.
Don't be afraid to add/modify.
Harzel
Adventurer
Because of the first part of the sentence, I read that as "How well can your party plan a wedding, bake a cake or travel through a dessert?"
mflayermonk
First Post
There is already some excellent advice up-thread here.
I can offer a quick hack since it seems like your PCs are fully-magic item equipped.
Remove Damage Resistance bludgeoning, piercing, slashing from nonmagic weapons on all monster that have it. Increase the monster's hit point total by 1.5x. So a monster with 80 hp would now have 120 hp and no damage resistance to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing.
I can offer a quick hack since it seems like your PCs are fully-magic item equipped.
Remove Damage Resistance bludgeoning, piercing, slashing from nonmagic weapons on all monster that have it. Increase the monster's hit point total by 1.5x. So a monster with 80 hp would now have 120 hp and no damage resistance to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing.
The_Gunslinger658
First Post
Hi-
Having the monsters go toe to toe in a slug fest with the PC's will not work in 5E. You will need to change it up depending on what you are running. PotA is a horrible module to run, I ran part of it and the players just bulldozed right through the encounters as written in chapter 6. The module also really seemed kind of confusing to decipher IE it pretty much is left up to the DM on how he will take the players by the nose and have to lead them to the next clue. I also thought the module meandered way too much for my liking. So with that said, I decided to change things up and run the players through temple of elemental evil, yes the original module.
What a difference, the players managed to clear out the ground level of the moat house with two characters almost dying twice due to the Moat House being a very intensive encounter area. Basically do not let the players get short rests and if they do try to do a short rest, throw an encounter at them. The fun part I had was having three giant toads leap out of the moat and attack the players, three players go swallowed by the toads, but unfortunately for the toads they were at 3 or 4 HP left and the Druid did I think an acid attack to knock them down to death. But the players had to retreat back to hommlet to recover. They went back and managed to clear out the ground level of the Moat House, but once more they came across two scorpions that messed their day up, two players went into negatives but made their death saving throws and once more they had to retreat back to Hommlet to recover.
Basically poisons, CR 4 or 5 creatures that you will need to modify to hit the party hard and traps as well as keeping the players from getting a short rest will really challenge them as they progress through ones campaign. Even with more challenging encounters its just about impossible to kill players off due to the death saving throws and getting a player down to his - HP total. You have to basically kill the whole party.
Having the monsters go toe to toe in a slug fest with the PC's will not work in 5E. You will need to change it up depending on what you are running. PotA is a horrible module to run, I ran part of it and the players just bulldozed right through the encounters as written in chapter 6. The module also really seemed kind of confusing to decipher IE it pretty much is left up to the DM on how he will take the players by the nose and have to lead them to the next clue. I also thought the module meandered way too much for my liking. So with that said, I decided to change things up and run the players through temple of elemental evil, yes the original module.
What a difference, the players managed to clear out the ground level of the moat house with two characters almost dying twice due to the Moat House being a very intensive encounter area. Basically do not let the players get short rests and if they do try to do a short rest, throw an encounter at them. The fun part I had was having three giant toads leap out of the moat and attack the players, three players go swallowed by the toads, but unfortunately for the toads they were at 3 or 4 HP left and the Druid did I think an acid attack to knock them down to death. But the players had to retreat back to hommlet to recover. They went back and managed to clear out the ground level of the Moat House, but once more they came across two scorpions that messed their day up, two players went into negatives but made their death saving throws and once more they had to retreat back to Hommlet to recover.
Basically poisons, CR 4 or 5 creatures that you will need to modify to hit the party hard and traps as well as keeping the players from getting a short rest will really challenge them as they progress through ones campaign. Even with more challenging encounters its just about impossible to kill players off due to the death saving throws and getting a player down to his - HP total. You have to basically kill the whole party.
I'd be very wary of adding more resilience to monsters (increase AC, hp etc), as you found when adding larger numbers, that will just add to the grind i.e. prolong the agony. Personally, I find that the 'monster maths' is off in 5e, as monsters get proficiency bonus based on their CR not their HD, which means your typical fight has monsters that are hitting WAY LESS than the PC's are hitting. Add to that, typical monsters don't have enough damage output (mostly due to higher-level PC's ability to 'nova' through extra abilities). As the PC's get higher level, these problems get worse, especially as you dole out the magic items, so if you don't up your game...
So your best solution it simply to even the playing field a bit - increase your monsters attack bonuses, maybe their saves for good measure, and maybe even their damage output (extra attacks, base damage, or whatever). Also try and incorporate some environmental effects that damage PC's, from time to time, if the PC's are infiltrating the bad-guys lair. This way, your damage per round should increase, hence the fights will be more threatening to the PC's without taking any more time. Only experience will tell you how much to buff your monsters, but off the top of my head (it's been a long time since I DM'd over level 10), I'd say at level 12 you'll want an average of at least +3 to hit, and quite possibly an average of 1.5-2x damage.
p.s. crikey, yes, do read the spells and think hard about them prior - make some brief notes in your book / on a copy / on a sticky note, highlighting the best spells and the basic uses you might want. I used to do this all the time in 3.5 days, and towards level 20 in 5e, where stat blocks were huge / complicated, I'd actually number the most likely actions, by round, to help me out, e.g. round 1 = forcecage, round 2 = maxed fireball, etc. and I'd also note any pre-buffs that were already cast (freedom of movement, heroes feast, false life, etc).
So your best solution it simply to even the playing field a bit - increase your monsters attack bonuses, maybe their saves for good measure, and maybe even their damage output (extra attacks, base damage, or whatever). Also try and incorporate some environmental effects that damage PC's, from time to time, if the PC's are infiltrating the bad-guys lair. This way, your damage per round should increase, hence the fights will be more threatening to the PC's without taking any more time. Only experience will tell you how much to buff your monsters, but off the top of my head (it's been a long time since I DM'd over level 10), I'd say at level 12 you'll want an average of at least +3 to hit, and quite possibly an average of 1.5-2x damage.
p.s. crikey, yes, do read the spells and think hard about them prior - make some brief notes in your book / on a copy / on a sticky note, highlighting the best spells and the basic uses you might want. I used to do this all the time in 3.5 days, and towards level 20 in 5e, where stat blocks were huge / complicated, I'd actually number the most likely actions, by round, to help me out, e.g. round 1 = forcecage, round 2 = maxed fireball, etc. and I'd also note any pre-buffs that were already cast (freedom of movement, heroes feast, false life, etc).
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Horwath
Legend
Well, it is as deadly as DM makes it.
But, I agree that dificulties should be step down a step or two in description. I.E. deadly is realy hard encounter and hard is realy easy one.
Just throw more stuff at them.
Also no solo boss encounters, solo monsters suffer from crowd control spells very hard. The more mooks, the less you can keep in check.
Hussar
Legend
Ok, so, the cleric has an insane AC. Actually, to be fair, 24 is not that insane. It's not that hard to achieve.
However, I'm going to assume that your cleric isn't running around with a +10 Athletics or Acrobatics score. So, knock him down more often. We're talking higher level monsters, so, switch one attack out with a push attack and then let everyone else get some Advantage attacks on him.
Or, better yet, ignore them and start doing a bit of focus fire on the sorcerer. He's nice and squishy.
Considering you're already upping the number of critters in encounters, it's not necessary for every critter to flat out attack. Let them help each other.
However, I'm going to assume that your cleric isn't running around with a +10 Athletics or Acrobatics score. So, knock him down more often. We're talking higher level monsters, so, switch one attack out with a push attack and then let everyone else get some Advantage attacks on him.
Or, better yet, ignore them and start doing a bit of focus fire on the sorcerer. He's nice and squishy.
Considering you're already upping the number of critters in encounters, it's not necessary for every critter to flat out attack. Let them help each other.
