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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 6383141" data-attributes="member: 30022">I'm liking that aspect of 5e. By default, any party can (if they're lucky) kill a substantially higher CR creature. Compare to 3e and 4e, where that really isn't possible. The defenses and saves scale so quickly that a monster even 3-4 levels higher than the party is simply out of reach.Of course, the converse applies as well. I can see situations where a lone 12th level character gets ambushed by a dozen hobgoblins. In 3e or 4e, that's a laughable situation. The hobgobs simply cannot hit. But in 5e, that 12th level character could be in serious trouble. If the PC has a 16 AC (quite possible, if it's not an "AC Build"), they might get hit 4-5 times. That's 10d6+5d8+5 damage from the CR 1/2 enemies. Good luck in Round 2.Don't even get me started on what happens if it's a 12th level barbarian, getting ambushed by a couple of CR 2 intellect devourers. Whoa.From my own experience, I've seen the party handily deal to a CR4 creature at 1st level through some massive good luck, including the monster's terrible initiative roll and terrible first round of attacks (it never got a second round). Conversely, I've seen 4 goblins tear a 2nd level party to shreds, thanks to a surprise round, good goblin rolls, and terrible PC rolls in their first response round.The only thing that (in my opinion) requires a bit of DM fiat is the awarding of XP. In my games, I try not to reward players for taking extreme risks that could torpedo a precious campaign through TPK. If an "honest" TPK occurs against "fair" opposition, that's fine. But I recently saw a player trying to talk the other three guys into taking on the LMoP dragon with their 2nd level characters. "C'mon guys - one good round! Bounded accuracy! We can hit it, and it might miss us. If we win, we get a massive XP reward and the dragon hoard. If we lose, we just roll up some new guys". The thing is... he was right. If they won initiative (or, worse yet, surprise), it's conceivable that they could take a CR 8 creature. The breath weapon would be the big problem (especially for the party mage), but careful tactical positioning and a few choice spells might even help with that. Even if the win chance was only 10%, that's still better than 4e... where the win chance of 4x 2nd level PCs against a CR 8 dragon is basically nil unless there is some strange char-ops combo in play.Fortunately, the other guys decided that their characters simply weren't going to take the chance. However, even if they had all gone for it, and won... I still wouldn't have given them full XP. In my games (your choices may vary, and I respect that), I won't be rewarding my players for trying to fast-track their level gain by always targeting the high CR creatures. I'll probably be limiting the XP reward for those monsters that they really shouldn't be fighting. They never quite do enough damage to kill the dragon, and it flies away at a certain point. They get 1/4 XP, and a split of the loot. Also, the wizard is gassed and the rogue is in four separate pieces. Fair enough.</blockquote>

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