D&D 5E Setting Party level vs an Ancient Red Dragon

[hawkeyefan]

Look at it in another way:

Have DMs changed these last twenty years? Have I and others suddenly gone soft, lost our edge?

Don't be absurd.

What has changed, however, is the challenge level of monster critters taken straight out of the MM.

That is why I react when people try to push over the blame on DMs.

Perhaps change is in order? Perhaps the lack of changw on the part of a DM could contribute to the problem?

Certainly, playing 5E and expecting results along the lines of 3E is a bad idea. The game has changed. Why shouldn’t the DM?

The game is not perfect...about that, you are right. But there won’t be consensus about its flaws, so it’s up to us to fix whatever problems we find with the game.

For the record, I agree about solo monsters. They generally don’t stand a chance unless they’re significantly higher CR than the party should face. That’s a problem I’ve found with the game. There are a few ways I address that problem:

- I don’t rely as heavily on solo monsters as I used to (in other words, I changed from my past methods)
- I incorporate and expand upon the Legendary Actions rules to increase a solo monster’s action economy in order to make it more able to face multiple enemies
- I do my best to make the encounter dynamic, using terrain, environment, high ground, and other factors to alter thedifficulty. I also try and add alternative goals to encounters when possible, so that simply depleting an enemy of HP is not always the goal.

These are all things that I do now to try and improve my encounters. I didn’t necessarily do these things before....I changed along with the game.

I honestly think you need to stop blaming designers and own your own gaming experience. Jeremy Crawford is not going to pop on the board and say “You know CapnZapp, you’re right! We’re going to put out a 5.5 ruleset soon!!!”

Only you and your players can fix your game.