D&D 5E It's Official! Most of my encounters are "Deadly" (now updated with info through the end of 2022!)

[el-remmen]

They should have been allowed only roughly 2 long rests (max) instead of 3.

I don't allow or not allow rests. They took rests when they wanted/needed at points/times where they could. And I judge based on the location/scenario what happens during that time. They marched over a day to arrive at the ruin of the wizard's tower. Fought skeletons along the way and then the centipedes when they got there. It was getting dark (and the 4th player was unable to make it) so they camped for the night before going below.

While below they took one short rest and one long rest (the second after rescuing Erilyn but before dealing with the imp, but locking themselves in a room). The dungeon has a trick door that closes behind you and doesn't open back up for 12 hours or something. They then finally took care of the imp, came top side and since they had a long journey back, decided to camp one more night before heading back and had the second skeleton encounter along the way.

This was the very first adventure of the campaign for two people who had never played before and two people who had not really played since they were teens, so I may have been a little easy on them in terms of timing of when the infernal lords are returning (if they even come, it's just some lowly imp calling!).

Edit to add: Only the skeleton fights were actually Easy!

 

[el-remmen]

More data. . .

And a Dozen Eggs (from Dungeon #30 [1991] - converted from 2E) + more Saltmarsh stuff

Encounter #	Monsters (#)	# of (N)PCs / Levels	CRs	Difficulty
14	Juvenile Velociraptors (5)	4/2	1/2	Deadly
15	Rat Swarms (3), Giant Rat (1)	4/2	1/4, 1/8	Easy
16	Otyugh	4/2	4	Deadly
17	Juvenile Velociraptors (3)	4/2	1/2	Hard
18	Illusionist NPC (1), Hobgoblin Merc (1), Bandits (2), Scout (1)	4/2	1, 1/2, 1/8. 1/2	Deadly

Notes: I made significant changes to the Dungeon adventure, replacing the expansive city-sewer system with sea caves where locals threw their garbage and where Sandbalet and his crew were hiding out waiting for the return of the Sea Ghost after being rousted from the "Haunted House." I'd say the juvenile velociraptor fights were both more like "Medium." (Probably because for the first one they came in waves). The rat fights were easy. the Otuygh was definitely deadly. It was a lower hit point version, but I messed up running it, letting 3E AoO and Reach rules confuse me as I was still getting used to 5E and had not run a creature with reach in the new rules yet. As such, I had to backtrack and fudge one thing or else the PCs would have died - but that was my mistake not theirs. As it was, they still defeated it what I consider fair and square once the rules were clarified. Stumbling upon the smugglers was fun, because the party spotted them first, from the top of a trickling waterfall with stones like steps down into a large tidal cave, but in trying to sneak down someone slipped and the fight was on! Another tough one, but no one went to 0 hps and they took a captive. The party took two short rests: after the Otyugh (encounter 16), and after the second velociraptors fight. (encounter 17). They also took a long rest after the big fight before heading back to town.

 

[Flamestrike]

I don't allow or not allow rests.

Im aware of that. You don't police the adventuring day.

That decision by you the DM (youre free to make it obvs) will directly affect class balance and encounter difficulty, and will also likely lead to Rocket tag nova tactics, the 5MWD and a total lack of strategic resource management (ie button mashing).

Plus it's a boring story when there are no time constraints and the PCs can just pack up and pause whenever.

Imagine a movie with no time pressure? No ticking bomb? No impetus for the protagonists?

Managing the adventuring day drastically improves games. I do suggest trying it. Like in the above adventure all you had to do was put them on a 2 day Doom clock (the Devils arrive for the treasure then) and leave the rest in the hands of the players to figure out and manage.

It would have made the adventure much more exciting and the encounters much more deadly.

The 5E rules is based around a few mathematical things on resting. Ignoring them leads to skewed results in this edition.

 

[el-remmen]

Im aware of that. You don't police the adventuring day.

That decision by you the DM (youre free to make it obvs) will directly affect class balance and encounter difficulty, and will also likely lead to Rocket tag nova tactics, the 5MWD and a total lack of strategic resource management (ie button mashing).

Plus it's a boring story when there are no time constraints and the PCs can just pack up and pause whenever.

Imagine a movie with no time pressure? No ticking bomb? No impetus for the protagonists?

Managing the adventuring day drastically improves games. I do suggest trying it. Like in the above adventure all you had to do was put them on a 2 day Doom clock (the Devils arrive for the treasure then) and leave the rest in the hands of the players to figure out and manage.

It would have made the adventure much more exciting and the encounters much more deadly.

The 5E rules is based around a few mathematical things on resting. Ignoring them leads to skewed results in this edition.

Yes. I often do that kind of stuff. But for this introductory adventure that did not seem like the move to make. There was plenty of impetus. Save the girl and get the hell out of there. Plus they had to figure out what had happened and what the imp planned - something as new players they were still working out how best to do. I also added complications in terms of the imp deciding that turning the party's tiefling to serve his infernal masters would be even better than some farmer's daughter, so his impetus (no pun intended - but I like it) changed as well.

Trust me. It was not a "boring story." Fun was had by all.

 

[Istbor]

I am right there with ya. I never look at the difficulty of my encounters. It just has become a fine art of eye-balling it, or whether the encounter makes sense.

Plus, in my defense, my players have a tendency to announce their presence and make encounters harder for themselves.

"Should we stealth in a recon? Or should we go loud?" The party looks at one another over the rhetorical question for a moment "We're doing it LOUD!"

 

[Flamestrike]

Trust me. It was not a "boring story." Fun was had by all.

I trust you mate. I'm just saying stories with no time pressure are boring and super unrealistic as a general rule. Few stories lack impetus driving them forward.

Im not saying this particular one was boring.

Im also making the point that choosing not to police the adventuring day can affect encounter difficulty and class balance, and leads to button mashing and rocket tag.

Barbarians raging round 1. Wizards dumping high level slots like they grow on trees. No real strategy to resource management etc.

 

[Ovinomancer]

More data. . .

And a Dozen Eggs (from Dungeon #30 [1991] - converted from 2E) + more Saltmarsh stuff

Encounter #	Monsters (#)	# of (N)PCs / Levels	CRs	Difficulty
14	Juvenile Velociraptors (5)	4/2	1/2	Deadly
15	Rat Swarms (3), Giant Rat (1)	4/2	1/4, 1/8	Easy
16	Otyugh	4/2	4	Deadly
17	Juvenile Velociraptors (3)	4/2	1/2	Hard
18	Illusionist NPC (1), Hobgoblin Merc (1), Bandits (2), Scout (1)	4/2	1, 1/2, 1/8. 1/2	Deadly

Notes: I made significant changes to the Dungeon adventure, replacing the expansive city-sewer system with sea caves where locals threw their garbage and where Sandbalet and his crew were hiding out waiting for the return of the Sea Ghost after being rousted from the "Haunted House." I'd say the juvenile velociraptor fights were both more like "Medium." (Probably because for the first one they came in waves). The rat fights were easy. the Otuygh was definitely deadly. It was a lower hit point version, but I messed up running it, letting 3E AoO and Reach rules confuse me as I was still getting used to 5E and had not run a creature with reach in the new rules yet. As such, I had to backtrack and fudge one thing or else the PCs would have died - but that was my mistake not theirs. As it was, they still defeated it what I consider fair and square once the rules were clarified. Stumbling upon the smugglers was fun, because the party spotted them first, from the top of a trickling waterfall with stone like steps down into a large tidal cave, but in trying to sneak down someone slipped and the fight was on! Another tough one, but no one went to 0 hps and they took a captive. The party took two short rests, after the Otyugh (encounter 16) and after the second velociraptors fight. (encounter 17). They also took a long rest after the big fight before heading back to town.

I'm a bit confused. Why did they take 2 short rests after the Otyugh fight? There's no additional benefit for this, yes?

 

[el-remmen]

I'm a bit confused. Why did they take 2 short rests after the Otyugh fight? There's no additional benefit for this, yes?

Otyugh fight > short rest > second raptor fight > short rest

 

[dave2008]

If you want a laugh start testing how far you can keep pushing things & wait to see how many levels above the party that you need to take the deadly before they start really struggling.

Just to be clear the encounters don't have a level. They have an XP budget and a degree of difficulty. Describing encounters in terms of level or CR is misleading.

 

[el-remmen]

I trust you mate. I'm just saying stories with no time pressure are boring and super unrealistic as a general rule. Few stories lack impetus driving them forward.

Im not saying this particular one was boring.

Im also making the point that choosing not to police the adventuring day can affect encounter difficulty and class balance, and leads to button mashing and rocket tag.

Barbarians raging round 1. Wizards dumping high level slots like they grow on trees. No real strategy to resource management etc.

Not all adventures need a time pressure tho. . . that also can become repetitive and frustrating. Time pressures have to be used judiciously. What matters most is "stakes" in my view. Time pressure can definitely up the stakes - but a hardline time pressure is not always necessary or even ideal.