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

[AnotherGuy]

Its not the spellcasters doing the danage. Yay we neutralized the spellcaster.

Fighter action surges and shaves off 1/3rd to half.

True, the fighter and barbarians are a menace (especially multi-classed) shield, hasted, enlarged etc - those usually can get neutered with spells or controlling the environment but the casters are the ones that can counter that, control the battlefield and accentuate the power of the melee based PCs.

 

[Zardnaar]

It's resources, not the spells.

A D&D spellcaster is equivalent to a billionaire with a black market shopping app. They wake up every morning with a hand full of grenades, a hypno gun, a pair of mercs, a on call surgeon, and a bulletproof sports car.

Every morning, 1,000,000 gp goes to your bank account

Heh I think youre over rating them for most levels.

Level 11+ maybe.

What im struggling with DM wise is martial damage with caster support.
Paralyzed +action surge/smite/whatever.

If its not a hold spells its command or whatever. Basically buying time for martials to seal the deal. Hey at least its team work.

Best soellcaster can generally do is another soellcaster paralyzes then its a race to scorching ray+hex or smite/action surge.

Even Sorcererous Burst is kinda hilarious level 11.

3 strikers and 2 hybrid control/support seems the most meta.

I've got 1 striker and 3 hybrids plus pure controller. Well the controller is afk until next year add an extra weak striker.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Yeah, I am not convinced that it is particularly realistic that most enemies would have a ton of more monsters to summon on short notice. And if they do, then in most realistic scenarios they're enemies that you'd later face anyway. A difference between the power of nearly depleted party and full power one is massive, and it does not seem realistic to me that in most situations the enemies could match that in eight hours.

 

[Minigiant]

Heh I think youre over rating them for most levels.

Level 11+ maybe.

What im struggling with DM wise is martial damage with caster support.
Paralyzed +action surge/smite/whatever.

If its not a hold spells its command or whatever. Basically buying time for martials to seal the deal. Hey at least its team work.

Best soellcaster can generally do is another soellcaster paralyzes then its a race to scorching ray+hex or smite/action surge.

Even Sorcererous Burst is kinda hilarious level 11.

3 strikers and 2 hybrid control/support seems the most meta.

I've got 1 striker and 3 hybrids plus pure controller. Well the controller is afk until next year add an extra weak striker.

I'm not talking about damage.

I'm saying a caster monster sleeps and get 10 strong spells. They can shoot 5 of them at you on 1 encounter and have ~2 as passive buffs.

A martial monster sleeps and gets no offense buff. They can't teleport in reinforcement and traps. They have to manually walk to, convince, and bring back allies. They must manually built traps, structures, and engines.

Unusually only friends and cultists can. And at high cost. If they are permitted (usually the plan is to get past the summon barrier)

 

[BenjaminPey]

The three goblins can cover the hut with dry leaves and branches, climb up a tree and wait with fire at the ready. They can spread the surroundings with honey or gamey meat to attract some wolves and bears. They can cast a net around the Hut. Maybe they'll be defeated at the end all the same, but the scene will have significantly changed, and they can put up a nasty fight that will make this long rest feel like an half one, if that.

To me, LTH is not at all a good way to protect yourself from angry opponents, nor to explore a closed, dynamic environnment like a dungeon. It is, however, like many other spells or even abilities, a button the players can press when they've had enough of something, in this case the survival aspects of long resting (caring about fire, keeping guard, staying warm, this kind of stuff). For instance we played Rime of the Frostmaiden with a good emphasis on the survival aspects during chapter one. They suffered a lot from the cold. When the characters reached level 5, we simply had a conversation, "do we want to skip this aspect from now?" We were already 17-18 sessions in, we did all want to shake things up a bit, so they took LTH as a spell. Done.

 

[tetrasodium]

Heh I think youre over rating them for most levels.

Level 11+ maybe.

What im struggling with DM wise is martial damage with caster support.
Paralyzed +action surge/smite/whatever.

If its not a hold spells its command or whatever. Basically buying time for martials to seal the deal. Hey at least its team work.

Best soellcaster can generally do is another soellcaster paralyzes then its a race to scorching ray+hex or smite/action surge.

Even Sorcererous Burst is kinda hilarious level 11.

3 strikers and 2 hybrid control/support seems the most meta.

I've got 1 striker and 3 hybrids plus pure controller. Well the controller is afk until next year add an extra weak striker.

Martials get their real power from magic items, weapons & armor especially. Given. Suitable allotment of those a level 5+ or 11+ martial can easily keep up and eventually exceed pretty much any caster but warlock due to getting multiplicative returns most every round.

 

[Maxperson]

3 goblins cannot find 50 goblins in 6 hours and bring them back in 2 more hours after their cave is fireballed.

Yes they can. Perhaps these scouts/hunting party/whatevers have a village close by with wargs to ride back very quickly.

2 bandits cannot return 10 other bandits, 3 captains, 2 bandit mages, and a bandit lord in 8 hours.

Sure they can. They may or may not have more of them close by.

1 ogre cannot spontaneous summon 3 more ogres and a ogre magi.

No, but he can go and ask his two stone giant friends if they would come back and take care of some pesky humans who killed his mate. They are only 3 hours up the mountain.

This is why every thief in my setting is a member of a guild, every raider from a nearby horde, every warrior and brute a member of a nearby army which teleportation access.

That's as unrealistic as never having any allies nearby. It would only be sometimes that the creatures have access to allies who are close enough.

Because if a monster group isn't caster heavy, a party can safely nova down a huge chunk of them knowing either they can't replenish faster than them or the DM has to commit to putting casters all over their world.

This is why the "grounded low magic settings" rarely make sense at height levels in modern D&D and fantasy RPGs.

Numbers can make up for lack of casters.

 

[Minigiant]

The three goblins can cover the hut with dry leaves and branches, climb up a tree and wait with fire at the ready. They can spread the surroundings with honey or gamey meat to attract some wolves and bears. They can cast a net around the Hut. Maybe they'll be defeated at the end all the same, but the scene will have significantly changed, and they can put up a nasty fight that will make this long rest feel like an half one, if that

The point is none of that of a threat to a party who has access "rest enabling" magic.

And much of that takes more than 8 hours and runs on the premise that the goblins don't rest.

Thats the crux of the issue.

On rest and recovery it's Spellcasters, Armies/Factions/Guilds, Everyone Else

 

[James Gasik]

The three goblins can cover the hut with dry leaves and branches, climb up a tree and wait with fire at the ready. They can spread the surroundings with honey or gamey meat to attract some wolves and bears. They can cast a net around the Hut. Maybe they'll be defeated at the end all the same, but the scene will have significantly changed, and they can put up a nasty fight that will make this long rest feel like an half one, if that.

To me, LTH is not at all a good way to protect yourself from angry opponents, nor to explore a closed, dynamic environnment like a dungeon. It is, however, like many other spells or even abilities, a button the players can press when they've had enough of something, in this case the survival aspects of long resting (caring about fire, keeping guard, staying warm, this kind of stuff). For instance we played Rime of the Frostmaiden with a good emphasis on the survival aspects during chapter one. They suffered a lot from the cold. When the characters reached level 5, we simply had a conversation, "do we want to skip this aspect from now?" We were already 17-18 sessions in, we did all want to shake things up a bit, so they took LTH as a spell. Done.

And the party inside sees the goblins doing this and reaches outside the hut to brush them away, or just, I don't know, steps outside to kill the goblins? Only the caster has to stay inside for the duration, and it doesn't obscure their vision.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, I am not convinced that it is particularly realistic that most enemies would have a ton of more monsters to summon on short notice. And if they do, then in most realistic scenarios they're enemies that you'd later face anyway. A difference between the power of nearly depleted party and full power one is massive, and it does not seem realistic to me that in most situations the enemies could match that in eight hours.

It isn't about realism, it is about responding to choices with consequences. If players are going to cheese the baddies, the baddies will cheese them.