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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6555807" data-attributes="member: 2067">I don't think so. ESPECIALLY if you let the party determine the pacing (giving players control over what challenges they face and when they rest, generally speaking). Under that design scheme, the party generally knows something about what it's getting into, isn't locked into fight-to-the-death scenarios, and can bypass entire encounters if they're sneaky or talky or smart about it. Exceptions to those rules happen, but they're exceptional and notable, not the norm. Different parties and different terrain will give much different results. A party with a druid or ranger who meets a polar bear is one animal friendship spell away from not having to fight the thing, for instance, and despite its damage, the low INT makes it very vulnerable to even the most rudimentary illusions. Most brutes have at least one really low ability score that is easy to exploit, and their reliance on damage means that party buffs and enemy debuffs are VERY effective at swinging those oddsCreatures that rely on save effects have the problem of hitting characters who are good at that save, and the general bounded accuracy issue of hot dice or simple advantage being really significant. They also typically have significant weaknesses - radiant damage in the case of most undead, low ability scores in the case of oozes and similar creatures. Also, save-or-suck abilities are less key in a fast-paced combat. Those elk can set up a powerful blow with time and planning, but if each one is only lasting a round or two, a well-placed area effect will preserve the downed mage. And all of these creatures have low HP totals in comparison to the damage that PC's can do ("dead" is the most useful debuff). Looking at raw numbers is theorycraft - play results are much more holistic, usually, an while an unlucky and unprepared and stubborn party will have a bad day with these monsters, that's part of D&D, too -- next time, bring a druid to tame your polar bears. <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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