D&D 5E Double Monster Damage - Half Monster HP

[MarkB]

It's worth noting that this mechanic will disproportionately strengthen weak 'minion' type monsters. If a creature is already weak enough that one good hit is enough to kill it, then halving its hitpoints does not significantly disadvantage it, whilst doubling its damage output is still a significant boost.

 

[Jester David]

It was a great rules in 4e.
It's less necessary in 5e, where most monsters are lucky to live a round or two.

 

[Nevvur]

I would want a change to death save mechanics if I were playing at this table, because as others have noted, PC death is probably going to come up a lot more often and I feel the incidence rate would become disruptive to play. Maybe something like auto-stabilize when reduced to 0 HP. Only start death saves if the damage beyond 0 exceeds X. My initial thought is to set X to your Constitution score + Level, but this would have the weird effect of making high level PCs more fragile than low level PCs (assuming the combats are balanced to their levels).

Also, double damage from saving throw based abilities becomes especially dangerous since most of them still do half damage on a save. Unless you have a class feature to reduce 1/2 damage saves to 0 damage, you're going to get $#!^ on a lot.

 

[MarkB]

I would want a change to death save mechanics if I were playing at this table, because as others have noted, PC death is probably going to come up a lot more often and I feel the incidence rate would become disruptive to play. Maybe something like auto-stabilize when reduced to 0 HP. Only start death saves if the damage beyond 0 exceeds X. My initial thought is to set X to your Constitution score + Level, but this would have the weird effect of making high level PCs more fragile than low level PCs (assuming the combats are balanced to their levels).

You'll also want to amend or remove the Instant Death Due To Massive Damage rule, as monsters' critical hits will now be capable of clearing that threshold a lot more easily.

 

[Oofta]

I do this occasionally, especially when I want to throw small hordes of relatively low level creatures at mid-to-high level parties. While it's not something I would do much with lower level parties (or only choose monsters that are lower CR than the party level) it does let me make monsters that fill in what I thought the minion role was intended to be in 4E; easy to kill but deadly monsters. I also usually give them advantage to hit. In game I justified it as one faction having the ability to "juice up" before a fight and become berserker-like crazed attackers.

It did make the combats slightly more swingy but not as bad as some people are implying, at least not at levels above 3 or so when I started to introduce this faction. The party did probably burn through more healing potions between fights which I made sure were always available and it kept the cleric on his toes busy healing during combat (something they enjoyed). I also try to throw monsters in waves or have goals other than "kill all the bad guys" now and then,

The PCs in my party were pretty resilient and enjoyed it but it depends on so many factors that what works for one group may not work for another. I'd say try it out for an encounter or ten, no one can tell you if it's going to work for you or your group. It worked for me and mine on occasion, but I didn't use it all that often and in general only used it for larger number of monsters that were lower CR than the group's average level.

 

[Krachek]

Double damage for dragon breath weapon?
Young blue dragon cr 9, 20 d10 for 110 damage?
That will make them really scary!

 

[Krachek]

What are your thoughts about "Double Monster Damage - Half Monster HP"?

How will it impact the game? Would you enjoy playing in such a game?

Fireball would become a mass destruction weapon.
Surprised pc == dead pc. Alertness feat would become very popular.
Play first will be mandatory. Dexterity would become a more god stat.
Combat result will be very unpredictable. Overall game atmosphere will shift to comedy.

 

[FrogReaver]

So the general consensus seems to be:

1. It makes combat swingier and deadlier and because of this players will avoid it unless it's really in their favor. (Possibly an end to murder hobos?)
2. Monsters with very low hp to begin with have almost no drawback from this houserule and thus become "stronger". (I think hp low enough to be 1 shot virtually no matter what is a big drawback compared to hp just high enough that you may live through some hits).
3. Dexterity becomes a stronger stat. (True. This is unfortunate but can be handled with other house rules if needed.)
4. AOE spells and effects become more potent. (I like this as blasty casters currently get a kinda bad name).

Another unmentioned effect is that players will focus more on defensive abilities and landing hits than offensive abilities. GWM and SS -5+10 ability doesn't look nearly as good in this style of a game. Toughness and defensive duelist and Heavy Armor Master and Shield Master all are looking a lot better.

Honestly I wish there was an easy rule to increase monster damage and lower monster hp that wasn't quite double and halving. Maybe something that would give close to 2/3 hp and 50% more damage. I'm not sure if there's a simple formula that can accomplish that.

 

[Rod Staffwand]

We've had good success with 1/2 monster hp, but doubling the number of monsters in an encounter. It gives greater offensive potential to the monsters, but they drop quicker (so the pace of combat seems faster) and they still need to deal with positioning issues and are vulnerable to area attacks.

It tends to make evokers very cool with their ability to drop spells on enemies and the party without nuking friendlies. It's also pretty cool with cleaving rules. On the other hand, the PCs really need to watch out to avoid being surrounded and getting hit with 4+ attacks in a round so it gives some weight to tactical considerations.

I especially recommend it with undead hordes (ghouls are good, and absolutely terrifying like this) and for anything in the CR 1-6 range or so (or anything with mid 20s hp and up). I haven't tried higher CR creatures (like giants or demons) and I wouldn't unless the party was mid-high level.

 

[FrogReaver]

I've read multiple people now post that swingier combats favor the monsters as if that's a bad thing. 5e is very forgiving to PC's. The monsters need a few more favors than they currently get. And guess what, even if we change a few things to favor the monsters less and the players more, ultimately the players will still be very favored in combats.