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

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I once accidentally made an encounter slightly harder than intended when I by mistake added four Orcuses instead of four orcs.

Wow, that sounds more devestating than the time when our GM had us fight a Hill Giant but due to a layout problem of the 3E monster manual was using Stone Giant stats or something. Two attacks and two Cleaves later, the party was dead...

 

[Minigiant]

So the characters decimated the clan in a huge battle against 20 of them. Battling three more would be inconsequential, and the most logical outcome is the remaining three flee for their lives (and maybe become better antagonists later). Characters won the day. The rest is well deserved.

It's not 3 goblins left.

It's 3 goblins who flee after the party novas half of them down. There aren't enough goblins left to challenge the party.

Think of it this way:
After a long rest, a mid level party has 100% of their resources.

100% of their resources is design to deal with 6 combat encounters plus some out of combat expenses. So let's say they are designed to spend about 15% of there resources on each combat.

The issue is when the party uses 20-30% of their resources on 3 encounter then uses the remaining 10-30% to escape and rest. Then they return and face the remaining 3 encounters worth of power with 100% resources again.

The issue is, the majority of D&D monster lack

1) the resources to nova and ramp up to a party going all out. The Default for monster is they are already going 100%

2) the resources to rebuild in 8 hours to match a returning party

3) the resources to disrupt escape and rest

4) all of the above.

Typically only spellcasters, armies, and formal organization can either Nova, Rebuild, or Disrupt. So at the mid levels when parties can Nova then Rest the only quality enemies a DM has to offer our spellcasters, organized crime, and armies.

Because the party is designed to meter out resources but the monsters are designed to go all out.

 

[tetrasodium]

I don't know. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. If you think goblins only live in clans of three, and no other goblins within three hours can be found, then we just disagree. That, to me, sounds like a very odd world. A goblin, especially a greedy one, could go persuade many goblins to come to their aid if there was a bunch of treasure wielding adventurers trapped in a bubble that was about to burst. As for bandits, maybe they can, maybe they can't. It depends on the size of the bandit camp or if they belong to a thieves' guild. Again, the adventurers' treasure, and maybe even a ransom, might make it worthwhile. And ogres, I agree. They are more of a wandering creature. But, what about these creatures? What if the party meant them harm, and used LTH in a place they were spotted near their lair? Could they do something?
Aarakocra
Aboleth
Angel, Deva, Planetar, Solar
Animated armor, animated sword, animated rug
Ankheg
Azer
That is just the A's of the MM, and seven out of eleven can indeed make life miserable for the party. And I conceded the point that against most "dungeony" monsters, it is awesome protection. Almost too good? Yes, until you look at all the downfalls. (Although, I would hate to have a group of basilisks outside the hut forcing everyone to just do saving throws. )

I guess I just have a hard time understanding the setting people are playing in. Forgotten Realms is supposedly the most popular, and in it, most dungeons or quests have intelligent bad guys that want the adventurers dead.

And this is also pretending that narrative pacing has zero effect on the players. (I have never seen a group not respond to it, such as in Hoard of the Dragon Queen or The Rise of Tiamat.)

The point is, with narrative setting the pace sometimes, intelligent foes (which are everywhere), magic wielding enemies, and homefield advantage because it's their home being invaded, I just don't see how anyone can think that a group of players could do it to be fresh for every battle. It is literally impossible if the DM uses any fidelity. One or two bad outcomes from using the spell in an obvious dangerous area would prevent it from ever happening again. And those outcomes, they would be logical if the world felt real.

The players can LRH & long or short∆ rest at any point in an adventure so unless that is being refuted & swept under the rug this reads like it almost needs random portals to the goblin home world and dungeon core managed dungeons needed to support that ewok move by a group of goblins bandits or whatever encountering LTH in an empty room somewhere. That kind of respawn solution doesn't particularly fit most settings though..


I can't think of any d&d or ttrpg settings that build out the world even a little around anything like spawn points that provide challenge. Going beyond that ime
Anime/litrpg fiction rarely uses such an overt heavy handed application of monster spawns even when the characters are literally in a game. At best you seem to be describing a risk that could hypothetically be faced by a limited use relic in a system with a much higher bar on resting/recovery.

∆ once again, short rest classes don't need a long rest to recover their nova.

 

[BenjaminPey]

You're describing a static world where everybody's waiting to be mowed down by the party.

If the characters invade a camp and kill 80 % of its inhabitants, what kind of intelligent creatures would stay there waiting to be killed, anyway? The "adventuring day" was narratively finished. The camp is all but emptied. Mowing down the remaining goblins would just have been a chore (and a quite sadistic one at that) in order to complete an XP budget, not my kind of story. I vastly prefer challenging the characters in other ways, of which they are plenty.

 

[Minigiant]

You're describing a static world where everybody's waiting to be mowed down by the party.

If the characters invade a camp and kill 80 % of its inhabitants, what kind of intelligent creatures would stay there waiting to be killed, anyway? The "adventuring day" was narratively finished. The camp is all but emptied. Mowing down the remaining goblins would just have been a chore (and a quite sadistic one at that) in order to complete an XP budget, not my kind of story. I vastly prefer challenging the characters in other ways, of which they are plenty.

Again.

It's not that the monsters are static.
It's that the monsters are poor.

50% of most monster manuals are Monsters without resources to leverage a threat.

The idea of dungeon crawl is very very vulnerable to guerrilla tactics because most monsters are broke.

 

[BenjaminPey]

So what are the characters doing in the camp, exactly? Aren't they here for something other than killing gobs? A treasure maybe ? One the surviving gobs could run away with?