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

[Maxperson]

A level 5 wizard.

A level 5 wizard has 4 1st level spells, 3 2nd level spell, and 2 3rd level spells along with the ability to regain 3 levels of spells.

They wake up from a long rest with that. This is under the expectation of having 20 combat rounds.

But nothing stops them from burning all that magic in 8 rounds.

We are all focused on fixing the rest

What's broken? They aren't entitled to use all 8 of those spells and no cantrips mixed in there. If they do, they aren't entitled to rest right afterwards. The might be able to. The might not be able to .

 

[Micah Sweet]

art, larger font, Greyhawk, bastions

Obviously I see extra art and a larger font as unnecessary, but the other two are a choice I can understand.

 

[Minigiant]

Yes, they could have different amount of resources. And that probably should be less if they refresh daily. But I'm not sure where that gets us. What's your point?

The point is that it seems the entire system was designed around upfront resources over metered resources.

Even through the game designers expected metered resource use.

What's broken? They aren't entitled to use all 8 of those spells and no cantrips mixed in there. If they do, they aren't entitled to rest right afterwards. The might be able to. The might not be able to .

Nothing is broken per se.

But if the game is designed around you only using 1.5 spells slots per encounter or 1 slot per 2-3 rounds of combat, why give all 9 slots at the start instead of 1.5 slots per encounter or 1 slot every 3 rounds of combat?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Obviously I see extra art and a larger font as unnecessary, but the other two are a choice I can understand.

I'd have kept the art and bastions. Greyhawk is obviously completely unnecessary in such a book.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The point is that it seems the entire system was designed around upfront resources over metered resources.

Even through the game designers expected metered resource use.

Because metering the resources is where the players get to make decisions. Which is a big part of playing a RPG.

 

[tetrasodium]

All this talk of rest.

To me the true source of the issues were the large quantity of your resources and the scaling of the usages of them.

D&D more or less gives you a sack of bullets and tells you to manage them.

Because of realism, you don't start with a small bag and pick up bullets every so often. No ammo pickups assumed.

And because of tropes, the few "restore your resources" items are NEVER EVER EVER crafted by ANYONE in the environment.

1) D&D should assume that the worlds contain basic common magic items.

2) Skilled craftspersons and intelligent monsters should be able to craft healing potions, mana potions, stamina potions, power pearls, chaos powder, and whatever else restores their strength.

Agreed.

Moving away from the expectation of like some regular flow of consumable wands and scrolls being reasonably and readily available to almost never available with unlimited at will cantrips was a terrible design choice in hst actually resulted in caster classes eroding their baseline spotlight & power budget to add some mediocre degree of at will party function in the role of martial classes rather than drawing on an array of wands and scrolls to provide/supplement caster specific baseline wowworthy party function.

If course the same holds true for martials who became too powerful for awesome magic gear and clutch consumables when they are really needed

 

[Minigiant]

Because metering the resources is where the players get to make decisions. Which is a big part of playing a RPG.

You can still have that.

Instead of having 9 spell slots magically pop into your body when you rest, you could get 5.

Then if the DM wants you to go farther in the dungeon he can give the evil cultists two blue man's potions. And if you kill the cultist fast enough and safe* enough, you can now drink the potions and get your spells back.


*You may want to instruct your allies to exercise restraint when using explosives.

 

[FrogReaver]

What's broken? They aren't entitled to use all 8 of those spells and no cantrips mixed in there. If they do, they aren't entitled to rest right afterwards. The might be able to. The might not be able to .

That and there's diminishing returns anyways. Most of the 'good spells' are concentration. And it's not like it's worthwhile to go concentration spell cast every single turn.

But also, there's reaction spells in there as well. So it can potentially be used up in 4 rounds. But again, diminishing returns for most of them.

 

[FrogReaver]

All this talk of rest.

To me the true source of the issues were the large quantity of your resources and the scaling of the usages of them.

D&D more or less gives you a sack of bullets and tells you to manage them.

Because of realism, you don't start with a small bag and pick up bullets every so often. No ammo pickups assumed.

And because of tropes, the few "restore your resources" items are NEVER EVER EVER crafted by ANYONE in the environment.

1) D&D should assume that the worlds contain basic common magic items.

2) Skilled craftspersons and intelligent monsters should be able to craft healing potions, mana potions, stamina potions, power pearls, chaos powder, and whatever else restores their strength.

It's comical that you complain about giving casters 'a rifle with 8 bullets' as if that's to many, but then advocate for methods of replenishing those bullets much faster than any long rest and that can eventually be stocked up to whatever limit the player desires.
So now the player starts keeping 100 bullets on hand just in case...

 

[Minigiant]

It's comical that you complain about giving casters 'a rifle with 8 bullets' as if that's to many, but then advocate for methods of replenishing those bullets much faster than any long rest and that can eventually be stocked up to whatever limit the player desires.
So now the player starts keeping 100 bullets on hand just in case...

You forget I also suggested making the full recharge long rest 3 days. 1 nights rest would just get you to 75% by restoring 25% of your resources.

1. Total slots and other "daily resources" dropped by 66%
2. 3 uses of X Recovery feature.
3. X Recovery only restores after 3 days rest.
4. 3 days rest allows for downtime to craft temporary potions, scrolls, and other consumables.