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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7214328" data-attributes="member: 996">Nod.  High-level 3e devolved into 'rocket tag' (or very complex caster-on-casters contests of pre-buffing & dispelling), sure, and they did come right out and say that their surveys indicated folks didn't much play campaigns past 10th level (consistent with high level not working so great back in the day), and therefor didn't playtest at those levels.  4e was notoriously playtested on lunch hours and it's production rushed so there wouldn't be a gap in product like the two years between Essentials & 5e.  After a year or so of 'playtesting in the field,' though, MM3 solos were actually pretty workable, and the tight numeric 'treadmill' scaling remained broadly workable at very high levels - which, obviously, felt different from classic D&D or 3e (or 5e, now).   Only in the same sense there  was no 'concept' of a defender until 4e - that is, the concept was there the whole time, 4e just provided some explicit mechanical support and slapped a jargon label on it.  In 1e, there were no encounter design guideline per se, so no formal/numeric guidance about what monster(s) would provide what challenge to a given-size party of a given level.  But there was a 'Number appearing' entry in the MM, and it was, for some monsters, '1.'  They were, perforce, solo monsters.  More explicitly, in 3e, a lone CR = party level monster was nominally a challenge (a speedbump) for a party of 4.  Any monster.  So they were all at-level solos.  (Actually, in retrospect, the high level of detail and customization you could go into with a 3e monster was quite fitting for a 'solo!')Similarly, in 5e, a lone Dire Wolf or Ghoul, at CR 1 (200 exp) is neatly a Medium challenge for a party of 4 1st-level PCs.  All CR 1+ monsters are thus de-facto solos.  In fact, once they start ganging up, you need to apply a multiplier to calculate their true challenge.   With a number appearing of 1-3, you could expect to a third of the time, right?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  But, like all Demons, it could Gate in other demons (even if it didn't like doing so)......and had real Magic Resistance. 5e /is/ trying to evoke the feel of the classic game.  Gotta consider it successful, on that level.Mechanically viable for the same kind of 6-8 combat encounter pacing you had in the sweet spot would be 'viable,' sure, 5e, like most editions doesn't deliver that.  But you can still run it at high level, you just run it differently.  Which shouldn't be a shock.  You need to run the game differently for a party of a Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock, & Bard than you would for a party of Battlemaster, Berserker, Thief, and Bannerette.  Any two parties, really. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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