I solved making 5E challenging

[LordEntrails]

Practice (as others have said), think, and read, such as many of these links.

 

[Sir Brennen]

My players recently ran with their tails between their legs from the Earth Cult in our Princes of the Apocalypse game as a result of the NPCs behaving intelligently.

Several guards who had a view through windows into the room where the PCs started combat ran to get help rather than join in the fight immediately. The players noticed what was happening and put all their effort into taking down the current threat and getting the heck out of there.

They were fighting gargoyles, and have only one magic weapon at this time (third level). Shatter was a logical option (gargoyles have disad on save), but the loud sound alerted yet another room to the party's presence.

Rather than chase the party, a priest of the cult went up to a window and waited. The party had to pass through the room he was looking into and he blasted them when they came by, having a relatively safe position to do so.

Most of us grognards (or just newer players/DMs) started with dungeon clearing, one-room-at-a-time fights. It does take a while to think in terms of running an encounter like I described above, sometimes needing an "aha!" moment to begin thinking of dungeons more holistically, and not just each encounter in a vacuum. What are an NPCs options based on what's nearby? That includes terrain or other features of the encounter space as well as other rooms close at hand. What are the options for PCs based on the same? Are there potential consequences for PC actions that might not be immediately apparent?

 

[Sacrosanct]

To reiterate much of what's been said, invest yourself as the DM into your foes. Don't look at them like stat blocks or game board pieces. It's your job to breath life into them (literally the text in the DMG). that means treat them like living creatures. Will they plan tactically? Run way when chips are down? Set traps? Believe me, when player see that monsters are reacting intelligently to their actions, and not just sitting there in stasis until an aggro radius has been breached and even then just trading stat block rolls, they gain a healthy new respect and caution for the game. Besides, battles become more memorable when their opponent has character and personality.

As for how to do that, again I repeat what others have said. Practice, and read up on inspiring literature and/or movies. Tucker's kobolds, the spiders of Murkwood, The Art of War, etc.

 

[Caliban]

One other thing I've done - for monsters with innate spellcasting, I allow them to cast a spell as a bonus action in addition to their normal attacks. Just don't over do it.

 

[cmad1977]

Use the options in the PHB for the monsters too.
Zombies don't flail away at people. They grab a target, bring it to the ground and dogpile. Nom nom nom.


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[Krachek]

Sometimes make monster flee, surrender, offer a deal, flee the find backup.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Tell that to the people in threads like this or this or this.

 

[GMMichael]

So people are talking about how 5E rules generally stack things in favor of the PCs and against monsters, more so in higher levels.

The rules are stacked against the monsters? What, is there no rule zero?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

In my OotA with its setup I make all the random encounters "deadly" in terms of the XP calculation since for the most part its the only encounter they have that day. If the roll calls for 1-3 Vrocks I'll just add in a bunch more, then I max HP and bump up AC. Often I knock the damage dice up one, and add in attack bonuses. Then for stuff like a problem teleporting due to magical effects making it possible to mess up and be hit with like 1-10 damage and the teleport fails. That was pretty weak so I made it 6d10 damage and be miss teleported 1-10 miles in a random direction. So when the entire party went though a teleport circle one at a time one PC failed his check was teleported 8 miles off course and immediately rolled a random encounter of a Behir. Which won initiative and fried him with a lightning bolt then ate what was left. The rest of the party only knows they all went into a teleport circle and for some reason he never showed up. They wonder if hes out there like the dude from Quantum leap, trying to leap home. For the most part they still just breeze though it and unless the cleric is dead the odds of dying are minimal due to spells that revive someone who has been dead for up to a minute.

 

[doodlidoo]

One of the reasons the game was unchallenging for my players is I let them roll 4d6k3 for their stats, hence most of them having 1 or 2 stats at 20 as soon as they hit the 4th level.

What I feel was unbalanced is the disparity between the PC's attack bonuses, spell DC's and saving throws versus those of the creatures they were fighting, leading to combats where foes were more often than not unable to succeed at using their signature abilities.

After a few experimentations, I found a simple and easy walkaround. As soon as the PC's hit the second tier (5th level), I gave a flat bonus to all creatures' Attack rolls, Saving throws and Spell DC's and Ability checks, based on their CR. As for now (PC's just reached lvl 9), I set the bonus at +2 for CR 0-2 and at +3 for CR 3 and up.

So far, that's what worked best for me. Instead of adding more creatures, boosting their HP's or even multiplying the number of encounters to make sure attrition kicks in (solutions which all contributed to make combats longer or more proeminent in an adventure day), I'm having more efficient and more feared foes (my players still talk about that adult dragon with a DC22 breath to save against!).

Goal achieved. Better balance. Faster and more challenging combats.