D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

[Bacon Bits]

It would be simple to do so.

Treat the game like a game. Stop worrying about verisimilitude.

Rest Update: You cannot take a long rest until you've had ~20 rounds of combat.

Done.

It's kinda hilarious though.

Such obvious things as "rest as often as possible" and "hit fast and hard" were completely overlooked in the game's basic design.

A later post by Mearls. "A party that unloads with their best powers simply breaks the system."

I mean, Draw Steel did fix this.

1. Long rests no longer set the party to max effectiveness. They set you to base effectiveness.

2. When you complete an encounter, you have spent resources, but you gain effectiveness.

3. The players now have the opportunity to balance the adventuring day themselves. They can press their luck or be conservative as they choose. You know, like a game.

4. When the players rest, they get reset back to the baseline, and their effectiveness translates into earned XP.

It's such a good system that it's obviously how it should be done once you've done it for a few sessions. Stop using punishments like ambushes. Gamify it.

Unfortunately, it's not easily translated to D&D.

 

[Maxperson]

Thing is, I think WotC already put out a massive over 300 page vook last year that covers the biggest playstyles...the new DMG.

Except that WotC really didn't, because the DMG has a LOT in it that aren't about the playstyles and it doesn't have new optional rules in it that support each playstyle by adding or changing existing rules, or recommending the removal of rules.

The book I'm envisioning has a lot more that supports the playstyles than the new DMG gives.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

It is if you're arbitrarily blocking an action that is clearly allowed by the rules and supported by the fictional situation. It is not only railroading, it is very blatant kind of railroading.

Bad faith reading of the rule is not the rule. Besides, the DM is given permission by the rules to adjust and make rulings over any rule they deep necessary. I see one such case here and I make ruling to adjust. Simple.

Also, saying no is not railroading.

 

[Maxperson]

But if the PCs are aware of that pattern as you suggest, why wouldn't they act on that knowledge?

What knowledge. When is a PC a good swordsman? 5th level? 8th level? 14th level? 20th level? Is it when they gain extra attack? Well, that happens at a whole bunch of different levels.

The PCs cannot know about levels. They can know that if they practice and/or learn a lot, they improve in skill, eventually getting good enough with the sword to hurt things faster. There's not going to be a level number attached to it in the game, though.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

But if the PCs are aware of that pattern as you suggest, why wouldn't they act on that knowledge?

Because "We need to wait PRECISE NUMBER OF HOURS before taking rest for another PRECISE NUMBER OF HOURS" is the kind of knowledge that falls under "exact mechanics" and not "noticing the patterns".

 

[Parmandur]

Perhaps 6 to 8 rooms?

Yeah, exactly so, with a extra for buffering during exploration, or to vary things up.

 

[Parmandur]

Except that WotC really didn't, because the DMG has a LOT in it that aren't about the playstyles and it doesn't have new optional rules in it that support each playstyle by adding or changing existing rules, or recommending the removal of rules.

The book I'm envisioning has a lot more that supports the playstyles than the new DMG gives.

What I'm saying is thst the DMG first address various playstyles...and thst is probably what WotC feels comfortable foing to address 90% of the market.

 

[Maxperson]

"My magic has yet to recover. We may still face significant peril, so I say we wait a day or two before we face the enemy head on."

The characters know that their magic, health, stamina etc has not been restored so in absence of time pressure they have perfect rationale to wait.

A lack of time pressure in the fiction will be extremely rare. Even if the PCs aren't told, "The enemy moves out in 12 hours, you must be done by then!" the PCs can't know that the enemy isn't moving out in 12 hours or 15 hours, or preparing something nasty that will be done in 4 hours.

In the fiction the world is moving and enemies are making decisions while the PCs rest. These things might not make a difference if the PCs rest a day or two, or they might. The PCs can't know, so in the fiction there will be time pressure put on the PCs by themselves.

If they don't care if the enemy leaves or prepares something nasty while they sit around chilling for a day or two, then okay. If they do care, they probably won't just sit there after 24 seconds of fighting and being down some resources. They'd heal up and go out into that fight at 80% or wherever they are at.

 

[Parmandur]

The PCs can't know, so in the fiction there will be time pressure put on the PCs by themselves.

Precisely this, and I've never really seen people not buy into that bas players with minimal work by the DM.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What knowledge. When is a PC a good swordsman? 5th level? 8th level? 14th level? 20th level? Is it when they gain extra attack? Well, that happens at a whole bunch of different levels.

The PCs cannot know about levels. They can know that if they practice and/or learn a lot, they improve in skill, eventually getting good enough with the sword to hurt things faster. There's not going to be a level number attached to it in the game, though.

It doesn't have to have a number attached to it to be a factor in determining a course of action.

And what about spellcasting? Like it or not, folks cast spells in discrete packages of requiring different degrees of power expenditure, which is replenished after time and rest that can itself be measured. These are truths in the world that either don't change or change in predictable ways, ways which can be measured and recorded. Are spellcasters just supposed to ignore all of that in their decision-making?