D&D 5E Every Fight a Nova: Consequences and Considerations

[Reynard]

I don't intend for this thread to discuss whether having every fight be a nova (i.e. PCs expend all of their most powerful abilities) is necessarily good or bad. Rather, I want to talk about what consequences and consideration should be taken into account ASSUMING that every fight is going to be a nova.

Should every challenge be set to deadly? Can we make adjustments to how numbers of enemies impact that difficulty? What does a nova set piece look like that is different than a "standard" set piece?

Other thoughts and considerations?

 

[payn]

Encounter design would be much different. I think you would have massive bags of HP enemies or wave of enemies type encounters. The opposition basically needs to be able to soak a nuke to remain a threat.

 

[Dausuul]

IMO, the most important element would be to introduce new threats midway through combat on a frequent basis. The simplest way to do this is to have monsters react to the sounds of battle nearby, so if a fight starts in the dining room, enemies in the kitchen hear it and come running after a couple of rounds (and vice versa if the fight starts in the kitchen). More contrived options include custom summoning rituals that take multiple rounds, "break glass" setups where the enemy has limited-use reinforcements they call up when the fight starts going badly, monsters with mythic traits, etc.

This serves a couple of purposes. First, it tilts the scale a little bit back toward PCs with staying power, giving the fighter and the rogue a moment to shine after the casters have fired off the big guns. Second, it avoids the situation where the DM hits the PCs with a single massive encounter designed to soak up all their resources, and then the PCs either make some tactical mistakes or just roll badly, and suddenly they're facing TPK. Finally, it keeps the players engaged and on their toes--a long fight can easily degenerate into a slugfest if nothing happens to change it up.

Beyond this, I would make sure to be extra generous with magic items to the classes without a lot of daily resources. That mostly means magic weapons and armor.

 

[James Gasik]

Yeah, imagine what you'd need to do if every fight opens with a fireball. Either tons of disposable mooks, or one big monster who shrugs off the 28 damage (save for half) like you smacked him with a pillow.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Should every challenge be set to deadly? Can we make adjustments to how numbers of enemies impact that difficulty? What does a nova set piece look like that is different than a "standard" set piece?

Other thoughts and considerations?

Upping the power of the opposition will help keep the fight from feeling like a pushover. However, raising the numbers and resources on both sides of the equation can increase the swingyness of the situation. It increases the likelihood that a miscalculation, bad luck, or other fail state will be catastrophic failure instead of merely a bad time. PCs dropping becomes PCs dying, PCs dying becomes party wipes, etc.

If there's a way to do it, instead of just lining up a standard deadly fight, thing about a situation where the parameters of the fight change, so resources are expended by having to change tact, rather than just more booms against more monster heads. First the party fights the dragon and its' wyvern minions in the air, and the casters are working on boxing them in/holding them off/protecting against breath weapon strafing runs; then the dragon retreats into a cave where the have kobold followers, and AOEs and battlefield control are the order of the day; next the dragon's wizard ally and a few frontliner brutes face the party in a large cavern (where the dragon can fly, but not as wide-open as the opening sequence); and counterspelling/negating the wizard is concern #1.

Beyond that, the primary well-known balance concerns are there. If you want Rogues or Fighters (or Warlocks) in the party, consider giving them some kind of additional benefits or the like.

 

[billd91]

One tactic is to try to reduce swingyness on the part of the NPCs/monsters on the receiving end of the PC nova. You can increase hit points reasonably safely to lengthen their durability but boosts to saves is virtually a must. Give them a couple of save proficiencies if they don't have them. Use monsters with spell resistance so they get advantage on some saves. Give important bosses and solos a legendary save or two even if they are relatively low CR.

You generally don't have to worry too much about swingyness on the PC side unless you're really boosting the monster offense. Let them take care of that with their own abilities.

 

[Oofta]

While I don't do nova fights often, I do sometimes let the players know a nova fight is coming (with in-world justifications). The trick for me is to have staged encounters, frequently with multiple "bosses". Throw in the usual advice of switching up the goals of the fight and so on.

When it comes to boss monsters, there's the idea of transformation at different stages to make the fight interesting. It can be anything from going to a frenzied rage at bloodied to completely transforming. In one case for the latter, I had a fight with a mad mage and their minions. Pretty typical stuff, including some legendary actions and lair actions for the mage. When they killed the mage there was a roar of victory as the mage basically exploded and a demon emerged in it's place. Turns out the mage had been containing the demon, which is why they were insane.

So personally I just crank the dial up to 11, throw multiple waves, have boss monsters transform or change so that they use different tactics mid fight. Not something I do on a regular basis, but fun now and then.

 

[Krachek]

The Best trick is to break the big fight into smaller fights, using multiple wave, monsters that reborn once first slayed, summoning.

 

[Reynard]

The Best trick is to break the big fight into smaller fights, using multiple wave, monsters that reborn once first slayed, summoning.

One of my favorites was a horde of skeletons that once all killed formed into a giant bone golem over the course of a couple rounds (so the PCs could re-buff, position, etc.).

 

[Stormonu]

I don’t like the arms race this induces in a campaign, but I’ve made ”Nova every encounter” work in one-shots.

It consists of a variety of tactics - usually max hit point enemies (instead of using average hit points), waves of enemies, healers among the enemies (and keeping downed enemies past 0 hit points) and encounter quirks (anti-magic zones, environmental hazards, mid-combat traps/tricks and the like). As well as “this isn’t my final form yet” enemies from time to time.