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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rhenny" data-source="post: 6970990" data-attributes="member: 18333">The question of what challenges each player or a party is really the tricky part.   Some groups are content to develop character and story and they will not care at all if the day includes 6-8 relatively easy encounters so that the ones toward the end of the day become a little more challenging, or they will also enjoy sessions that have little or no combat because they enjoy exploring and interacting as much or more than just fighting.  Other groups really want to be tested in every encounter, so they don't feel challenged unless they have to blow many of their resources in 1 or 2 combats.  It gets even more complicated when the group of players is a mix of types, some wanting more casual, less harried experiences, some wanting more life/death struggle more of the time.This is an issue that can only be solved by DM tinkering and adjusting session by session, group by group.   Personally, I try to strike a balance in all my sessions so that all types of players will at least get some of the "feel" they want.  When I know that the entire group really wants to be held to the grindstone, then I change encounters to become more challenging so that they feel the sting more often.  Interestingly, sometimes, just the knowledge that a lethal hit, or spell or breath weapon can happen at any time, even when it doesn't happen, is enough to keep the tension level of the encounter high without making the encounter run longer.  As an example, in the last game I played in, (playing as a bladesinger in a Phandelver campaign) our 3rd level party of 4 fought 6 Orcs (including one of them a leader type with more hit points and an extra attack or something like that), and an Ogre.   I expended my bladesong, a blur spell, a burning hands spell and a shield spell.  A few of the other players, the Paladin and the Cleric each used at least 1 spell each.  We took down the leader and the Orcs first, and the Ogre kept attacking the Paladin but missing until it crunched him for 16 points of damage at about round 4.  That one attack was enough to make us fear.  I think we finished the encounter in 6 or 7 rounds, but at the end, only the Paladin and one other PC suffered any damage.  By the numbers, this was between a hard and deadly encounter.  We got a chance to rest after this, but we were not sure we would.  We were still tense because we felt that other Orcs/Ogres could return to find us in their cave so we were on edge, even though we really didn't suffer so badly in the end.  (This was the 2nd encounter of the day, having fought a lone Ogre earlier - and that encounter was a 2 or 3 round easy one with no use of resources or loss of hit points - but it was a warning of things to come)Of course, at lower levels, it is probably much easier to adjust.   I can see where it might get "too easy" later in the game when one or more of the PCs has lots of ways to mitigate damage or negate spell effects, but still, eventually someone's luck will run cold and a disaster will happen.  As long as the players feel that at any time something unlucky could happen, or reinforcements can join the battle, or the foes can spring a trick/trap that does something unexpected, you can keep the tension level up even without PCs going unconscious or suffering too many wounds.</blockquote>

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