D&D 5E FeeFiFoFum *splat* goes the giants

[Mort]

That was aimed at the OP.

I suspected, but just wanted to stake a position.

Edit : plus "That's how people play now days." would seem to open the comment up to general rebuttal.

 

[Lyxen]

Yeah legendary monsters get trashed just like all the others, but doing a few more "and now its baaaaaaacck" might help.

I was referencing Mythic, not legendary, although both can be combined.

 

[ad_hoc]

I bet your table only does one encounter/day. That's how people play now days.

That seems to be the way many people on forums play.

I doubt that is the norm in typical games.

Published adventures (except the overland travel bits) are designed around having many encounters per long rest.

 

[Lyxen]

That seems to be the way many people on forums play.
I doubt that is the norm in typical games.

I don't know, we've played that way for decades, and lots of people that I've seen play around the world play that way too. Still no statistics but for me a good indication nonetheless.

Published adventures (except the overland travel bits) are designed around having many encounters per long rest.

True, but then how many people play the published adventures exactly as written ? For example, our DMs make a lot of adaptation about this, because they know we're going to try and find shortcuts through the "dungeons" of the adventures, if not skip them completely.

 

[Ancalagon]

Yep, same as so many other factors. Once you embrace this it become very liberating. I never worry about encounter difficulty when I design for my group. I just do what makes sense for the world around them and the chips fall where they may. Very freeing and leads to much more interesting encounter IMO.

OK, is there a reason you brought this up?

Yes.

If you read this thread in its entirety, you will note that there is a lot of "well, the encounter guidelines only work with these base assumptions, so of course if condition 1, 2, 3, 4, etc weren't met they won't work!" . A lot of people assumed what happened, instead of asking or reading the OP. What I'm doing is pointing out that most of these conditions were met.

You were talking about a basic but effective giant ambush that would make the encounter deadly. I was pointing out that this did not happen, and should not be "expected" to make the encounter work "as it should".

Incidentally, I do agree with your design paradigm as a GM, but it is one you must clearly communicate with your PCs, otherwise players who expect balanced encounters all the time will get into fights they should have avoided.

That was aimed at the OP.

The next encounter was 7 stone giants

 

[Mort]

The next encounter was 7 stone giants

Did it turn into a fight? Because against 3 PCs that's a roughly 10x Deadly encounter.

 

[Ancalagon]

Did it turn into a fight? Because against 3 PCs that's a roughly 10x Deadly encounter.

Thankfully, we were able to talk our way out of that one - but it could have been a battle. With giants, it's a lot about numbers.

 

[jgsugden]

Let's just remember a few things here. Three 7th level PCs - if not overpowered, you're likely looking at 40 to 50 hp each, and the capability to deal about 30 damage a round. The hill giants have over double your hps, and the capability to deal more damage per round than you, and fairly reliably.

One critical hit from a giant is real bad news if the giant is an appropriate foe. Giants can be a TPK if they get in some good blows to start a combat. I've seen my share of encounters where the PCs were down a PC before any PC went.

 

[Lyxen]

In the end, it's all down to the fireballs, I think. if the Hill Giants are already down 2/3 of their hit points because the configuration of the fight allowed it without collateral damage to the PCs, it's a different story altogether.

But once more, it's one of those parameters that I defy anyone to take into account into an encounter difficulty calculator, because if the parties start only 30 feet away, it's just having the initiative that makes all the difference. If the PCs have it, it's one fireball and the giants are already down quite a bit. If it's the other way around, it's probably one PC down hit by three giants simultaneously. I don't exactly understand the second fireball, though, we would need more details.

That being said, it would be really interesting to be able to have a look at the PCs...

 

[Oofta]

I think all this story goes to show, other than questioning how the PCs got off two fireballs and the giants only got in a couple of attacks, is that D&D is by nature and design unpredictable to a degree. Sometimes fights that on paper look difficult are not really a threat, other times encounters that look easy are a challenge.

I think that's part of the fun and I don't think any calculation is going to fix that. In addition you can't please everyone.