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DMG's definition of "Deadly" is much less deadly than mine: Data Aggregation?
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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6706838" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>My experience is that medium encounters make absolutely zero difference. I mentioned once before on this thread how my players went up against 130% of the daily XP budget for their level in a single fight (20 zombies and 3 vampire spawns with extra Hobgoblin abilities like Martial Advantage and AC 16/18; although I left still counted them as CR 5 when computing difficulty afterwards and awarding XP) at the end of a relatively long day where they'd already depleted most of the theoretical XP budget in Hard/Medium(?) encounters with groups of 2, 1, and 3 vampire spawns respectively. They hadn't even taken a short rest, but it didn't noticeably impact their ability to deal with the Triple/Quadruple(?)-Deadly threat at the end of the day[1].</p><p></p><p>I expect that there are groups out there who can handle a Deadly encounter <em>only</em> when they are at maximum health/spells/rages/ki/Action Surges/etc. because they do it by going nova, but all the anecdotes I've related in this thread do not involve such tactics and do not suffer any such impairment.</p><p></p><p></p><p>[1] And the (N)PCs weren't even playing optimally! Three of the six friendlies present were NPCs (Sorcerer 2, Ranger 8, and Fighter 3) and the players told the Fighter 3 to stay back and guard the Sorcerer, so he was a nonfactor, and all she did was chuck cantrips. The Ranger had some impact sniping with his bow for half damage (because nonmagical) but if he'd laid down Spike Growth or Ensnaring Strike/Entangle, the PCs could have isolated and destroyed the individual vampires with even fewer losses to themselves. The Ranger did not do so, either because I just didn't think of it (I hate playing two sides of the same conflict, and I was probably focused mainly on the vampires' point of view) or because I don't like stealing the spotlight from the PCs and he was already doing lots of damage. But that is one of the reasons why I believe a full PC group can, without even being particularly optimal in their tactics, perform confidently and well against a double-Deadly encounter even at the end of a long day of Medium encounters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6706838, member: 6787650"] My experience is that medium encounters make absolutely zero difference. I mentioned once before on this thread how my players went up against 130% of the daily XP budget for their level in a single fight (20 zombies and 3 vampire spawns with extra Hobgoblin abilities like Martial Advantage and AC 16/18; although I left still counted them as CR 5 when computing difficulty afterwards and awarding XP) at the end of a relatively long day where they'd already depleted most of the theoretical XP budget in Hard/Medium(?) encounters with groups of 2, 1, and 3 vampire spawns respectively. They hadn't even taken a short rest, but it didn't noticeably impact their ability to deal with the Triple/Quadruple(?)-Deadly threat at the end of the day[1]. I expect that there are groups out there who can handle a Deadly encounter [I]only[/I] when they are at maximum health/spells/rages/ki/Action Surges/etc. because they do it by going nova, but all the anecdotes I've related in this thread do not involve such tactics and do not suffer any such impairment. [1] And the (N)PCs weren't even playing optimally! Three of the six friendlies present were NPCs (Sorcerer 2, Ranger 8, and Fighter 3) and the players told the Fighter 3 to stay back and guard the Sorcerer, so he was a nonfactor, and all she did was chuck cantrips. The Ranger had some impact sniping with his bow for half damage (because nonmagical) but if he'd laid down Spike Growth or Ensnaring Strike/Entangle, the PCs could have isolated and destroyed the individual vampires with even fewer losses to themselves. The Ranger did not do so, either because I just didn't think of it (I hate playing two sides of the same conflict, and I was probably focused mainly on the vampires' point of view) or because I don't like stealing the spotlight from the PCs and he was already doing lots of damage. But that is one of the reasons why I believe a full PC group can, without even being particularly optimal in their tactics, perform confidently and well against a double-Deadly encounter even at the end of a long day of Medium encounters. [/QUOTE]
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DMG's definition of "Deadly" is much less deadly than mine: Data Aggregation?
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