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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 6704150" data-attributes="member: 12731">You're far from alone. There are plenty of us whose players can regularly win fights that are not only DMG-deadly, but double-deadly and triple-deadly too.Note: this doesn't make one player better than another. It just means things are working as they should, meaning that if you focus on something, you become good at that something. And just as some players focus on role-playing, some players focus on combat optimization. If all players consistently only make choices calculated to yield more combat power (more damage output, more HP/AC/Save defenses and so on) this has a real effect on that party, compared to a party merely taking the default or "average" choices.There's nothing weird or strange about one party doing TWICE the damage of another party or even more... EACH combat round, EVERY combat round. This is not a bug in the system, it just shows how wonderfully diverse characters you can roll up! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />---Then it's a matter of play style too. Whether the DM likes attrition based combats (having 8 encounters a day) or focuses on the fights that are really challenging has a huge effect on how much the PCs dare to hold back.Some groups play sandboxes or hexcrawls. Here the PCs have a huge say in when to stop for the day. This equals a HUGE boost in combat potential, compared to games where the DM (or her adventure) sets limits on where and when resting is possible. So again, whether your group find Deadly encounters deadly or merely like a warm-up pass at the gym, isn't about "playing it right". It's just... different.Not to speak about the players themselves. Some players just phone it in, treating their game as just a relaxing night hanging out with your friends. Other players spend all their waking hours obsessing over every single +1 bonus there is. Other players are simply young. Or inexperienced. Or both.---That said, I must confess I believe WotC has consistently made a decision to cater to the lowest denominator. (Which is probably a smart business decision; making us feel smart of we can plow through Deadly encounters like nothing... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )</blockquote>

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