D&D 5E Low AC for Monsters

[Rhenny]

I'm a huge fan of bounded accuracy and keeping ac in a 10 to 24 ish range is great for that.

Think about this, if an ancient red dragon had a higher ac (say 28-30) what would prevent it from attacking towns, villages and even cities? Bounded accuracy makes it possible for even lower level pcs, npcs and monsters to actually do damage. Gather enough attackers and you can explain why fearsome monsters don't have the run of the realms. All good in my book.

It also works to make the pcs more vulnerable when attacked by larger numbers of lower level foes. Getting swarmed by 8 or more weak monsters could be deadly if a PC can't thin the ranks. Again, this is by design and to me it makes perfect sense.

 

[aco175]

I have run into problems with lower level monsters no longer being a threat to the party who are only level 8. I wanted to allow goblins and hobgoblins to remain a threat for longer which 5e was designed to allow, but it has become less than ideal. I created some elite and champion types to allow some more difficulty like what 4e did to each monster. I increased the numbers and added a more powerful monster to the group but it only marginally works when the party has spells and ac to be too powerful.

Part of the fun in being level 8 is to be able to thump on weaker monsters, especially is they are not modified and. It appears that the original intent of monsters is like in 2e when each monster had average hp and the leader had max hp for the range it gave and no goblin ever advanced beyond the 8hp given in the stat block. I assume others have come to this problem and have suggestions on improving play while maintaining verisimilitude.

 

[Oofta]

I have run into problems with lower level monsters no longer being a threat to the party who are only level 8. I wanted to allow goblins and hobgoblins to remain a threat for longer which 5e was designed to allow, but it has become less than ideal. I created some elite and champion types to allow some more difficulty like what 4e did to each monster. I increased the numbers and added a more powerful monster to the group but it only marginally works when the party has spells and ac to be too powerful.

Part of the fun in being level 8 is to be able to thump on weaker monsters, especially is they are not modified and. It appears that the original intent of monsters is like in 2e when each monster had average hp and the leader had max hp for the range it gave and no goblin ever advanced beyond the 8hp given in the stat block. I assume others have come to this problem and have suggestions on improving play while maintaining verisimilitude.

I do this too, but I always have. With 5E I find that I have to modify monsters less than I did in the past, but I still have to modify them.

I also do things like give goblins better tactics at higher levels such as throwing hives of hornets into the group before attacking with ranged weapons (giving the attackers advantage).

It depends on the race though. While kobolds have really nasty traps, they may also have elite cavalry that ride the backs of giant scorpions. Orcs aren't particularly bright so they will send champions to go toe-to-toe with the PCs or simply tackle the fighter and try to restrain them while others attack.

Of course, sometimes it's still fun to just throw waves of bad guys, even if you know the PCs are going to trounce them. They should be allowed to be heroes.

 

[Jediking]

One of the design goals of 5e was 'fast combat,' missing slows combat down. Simple as that.

I think the design goal was to try and simplify combat and make everything run smoother, so less time is spent looking up rules or away from the actual game.

Even if the party misses a whole bunch, the rounds move quickly and there is less puttering around. So the combat can still be 'fast combat' but still take a long time to complete the combat encounter. And a long time taken doesn't always mean the encounter is boring.

 

[happyhermit]

I have run into problems with lower level monsters no longer being a threat to the party who are only level 8. I wanted to allow goblins and hobgoblins to remain a threat for longer which 5e was designed to allow, but it has become less than ideal. I created some elite and champion types to allow some more difficulty like what 4e did to each monster. I increased the numbers and added a more powerful monster to the group but it only marginally works when the party has spells and ac to be too powerful.

Part of the fun in being level 8 is to be able to thump on weaker monsters, especially is they are not modified and. It appears that the original intent of monsters is like in 2e when each monster had average hp and the leader had max hp for the range it gave and no goblin ever advanced beyond the 8hp given in the stat block. I assume others have come to this problem and have suggestions on improving play while maintaining verisimilitude.

Problems with them in what way, is it the to-hit or Aoe spells? Just curious. Without tweaking monsters you are going to need quite a few and/or interesting tactics. The fact that ranged weapons don't suck in 5e helps with goblins quite a bit. There are some tables in the DMG for handling mobs to help keep combat speedy with low level monsters, by reducing the amount of dice rolls. It works especially good with strategically placed squads of archers raining down arrows (the fact that they are rather weak and poorly aimed arrows is not so important.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I think the design goal was to try and simplify combat and make everything run smoother...

The goal was 'fast combat.' Simplifying combat - removing combat options, consolidating modifiers into Adv/Dis, etc - was certainly among the ways they tried to achieve faster combats, but so were hitting more often, saving less often, doing more damage, and having fewer participants in typical combats.