Bounded accuracy actually made it worse because it justifies not increasing a monster's bonus from being high level due to the bounds of the bonuses but it justifies the casters DC increasing by level which creates the imbalance of the caster having a high DC but the monster having a low bonus.
Now if you are willing to say every monster of CR8 or greater it has Proficiency or Expertise in every saving throw and has a 15 of better in ever ability score then fine There's no problem.
It can easily be solved with giving a monster a class feature or feat (not the ability bonuses) for every 4-5 HD with Resilient being one of them.
So
Accentuate the tankiness of your Hill Giant with 12 HD by giving him 2nd Wind, Savage Attacker and Resilient.
Heighten the fluidity of your Water Elemental with 12 HD by giving it Mobility, Resilient and Cunning Action (Dash and Disengage)
..etc
That's only because the designers skewed monsters and spells that way.
This is why I keep saying
"Equalize" the Frequency and Strength of spells targeting all 6 ability scores
Equalize the Frequency of high stats in every ability score
For example my fantasy heartbreaker at "level 5" would have a major spell for each ability score save
Strength- Slow
Dexterity- Fireball
Constitution - Stinking Cloud
Intelligence - Brain Blast
Wisdom- Fear
Charisma- Magic Circle
But monsters would have a very good save by type. Undead would have great CON saves, Giants great STR saves, Aliens great INT saves, and Cultists great CHA saves. So in a random dungeon, you can't count on any weakness.
Not quite accurate when we had fort/reflex/will+SR. Firstly and most obvious is the fact that intelligence was not one of those saves even if there were probably feat/prc boons to use it for wis saves. What you are describing is a symptom that is the result of 5e breaking an objectively better design for control and debuff spells. Here's a quick buy probably not exhaustive list of relevant spells & their save
Sleep:sr will (& 4 hd limited)
Glitterdust:will & blinded(-2 ac & 50% miss chance)
Web: reflex limits to 5foot step rather than speed 0
Sleet storm: reflex half speed blocks vision both ways and checks to move without falling
Slow:SR will limits action economy drastically
Black tentacles: grapple
Fear:SR will panicked condition does lots
Solid fog move action limited to 5ft no 5ft steps -2 on attack rolls
Hold person/monster: sr will/creature type
Bestow curse:sr will does lots stuff
Etc
It continues like that as control and debuff spells get more obscure and into higher levels where their impact is more and more niche. Simply having a control spell targeting a monster's weak save doesn't mean that spell is relevant. Yes there were a lot of save or suck/save or lose spells but theywere often SR:yes weren't always applicable to a scenario and you couldn't always have available slots to prep a different spell targeting a different save for a given scenario even if you could find one that even existed .. Wiith 5e every part of the whole interlocking set of tools was broken and responsibility got thrown on them to just use legendary resistance to no sell save or lose spells that were now widely applicable and trivially able to target weak saves
Not quite accurate when we had fort/reflex/will+SR. Firstly and most obvious is the fact that intelligence was not one of those saves even if there were probably feat/prc boons to use it for wis saves. What you are describing is a symptom that is the result of 5e breaking an objectively better design for control and debuff spells. Here's a quick buy probably not exhaustive list of relevant spells & their save
Sleep:sr will (& 4 hd limited)
Glitterdust:will & blinded(-2 ac & 50% miss chance)
Web: reflex limits to 5foot step rather than speed 0
Sleet storm: reflex half speed blocks vision both ways and checks to move without falling
Slow:SR will limits action economy drastically
Black tentacles: grapple
Fear:SR will panicked condition does lots
Solid fog move action limited to 5ft no 5ft steps -2 on attack rolls
Hold person/monster: sr will/creature type
Bestow curse:sr will does lots stuff
Etc
It continues like that as control and debuff spells get more obscure and into higher levels where their impact is more and more niche. Simply having a control spell targeting a monster's weak save doesn't mean that spell is relevant. Yes there were a lot of save or suck/save or lose spells but theywere often SR:yes weren't always applicable to a scenario and you couldn't always have available slots to prep a different spell targeting a different save for a given scenario even if you could find one that even existed .. Wiith 5e every part of the whole interlocking set of tools was broken and responsibility got thrown on them to just use legendary resistance to no sell save or lose spells that were now widely applicable and trivially able to target weak saves
Mostly agree. Trouble is that the oversimplification broke a bunch of safeguards and outright removed most of the safety valves previously under gm control in the name of simplicity for the sake of simplicity
Mostly agree. Trouble is that the oversimplification broke a bunch of safeguards and outright removed most of the safety valves previously under gm control in the name of simplicity for the sake of simplicity
The spells were simplified and thus removed the barriers and limitations D&D's powerful magic could run into.
The monsters were simplified so they lacked the raw numbers nor additional defences they needed to resist D&D magic outside of case by case basis.
So monsters had to be clutched on the back end by giving them legendary resistance spell resistance and various saving through a proficiencies just to be valid boss monsters.
You couldn't simply grab a monster and use it as a boss they had to be designed as a boss in order to have the wrong numbers needed to be boss worthy. There was no real way to calculate how strong giving a monster legendary resistance and spell resistance on the back end from a blank state.
You couldn't simply give your fire giant legendary resistance and spell resistance and have a good handle on how strong that monster would be and would be mostly winging it.
Some uproars can be weathered, though. Stun is whatever the game rules say it is, there is no hard-determined real world description for it, it covers a wide range of possible states it might describe, unlike, say "dead".
Some uproars can be weathered, though. Stun is whatever the game rules say it is, there is no hard-determined real world description for it, it covers a wide range of possible states it might describe, unlike, say "dead".
But fans will want Stunned, Paralyzed, Frightened, and Restrained to be similar to what that seem in real life. One or two could be off but too many could create too much bad press.
I believe if 5.5e wasn't tied too much to backwards compatibility, WOTC could have introduced new lesser conditions.
