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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8959672" data-attributes="member: 7006">You said you don't want to restructure the game or redesign monsters after 5th level or so.  Unfortunately, I am going to suggest that restructuring monsters is going to be the only thing that works.  Because like you just mentioned above... anything you do to try and curtail PC power will just result in the players doing whatever they can to minimize that curtail.  You use gritty rest?  They will find ways to return to town more often to come back to the adventure at full strength.  You greatly minimize the number of magic items you give out?  They will quite possibly find the game less interesting and not be interested in adventuring without suitable rewards.So really, anything you do to make things more challenging needs to be on your side of the screen.  Because it's the only thing you have complete control over.However, that being said... there are ways to "redesign" monsters that are not painful to do... especially if you find your players always seem to greatly overpower whatever you throw at them.  I will suggest something that admittedly I have never tested myself... but seems to me to be the easiest thing to do that will provide the most success in what you are looking for.You build your encounters in your regular way, however it is you usually do it.  Then once you have your monster pool you do three things:1) Up their HP to Maximum (rather than the average the book gives you).2) Double the monster's Attack roll number.  Most monster with CRs in the 1/8th to CR 8 range have attack bonuses around +3 to +8.  With PCs easily able to get ACs upwards of 18-22 after armor and shields and magic bonuses from spells and whatnot... having attack bonuses instead be doubled and between +6 to +16 is just going to allow you to give out more hits without needing to add additional hits more often.3) Double the damage statistic of the monster.  So if a monster normally does 1d6+3 piercing damage... it now does 2d6+6.  Or if it does 3d4+3 necrotic, it does 6d4+6 necrotic.  And if the monster crits... then it's doubled again.  Now that might seem like a lot... but with 6-7 players you will have probably 2 to 4 PCs that have healing magic at their disposal and thus they will be able to keep themselves on their feet no matter how bad you smack them around.  But even if they can't... they will learn quickly that they may have to change tactics if suddenly fights aren't cakewalks anymore.Those are the three things that you can do easily at the table right as every encounter starts-- calculate their Max HP, double the attack bonus, and double the damage.  Do that and I think you will find fights to be a little more even.  However... if even that doesn't solve your problem and your monsters are still going down easy... there are a couple additional things I would recommend:4) Every monster you throw down on the table has Pack Tactics.  Meaning that any time two monsters are adjacent to an enemy in melee... they both have Advantage on their attacks.  Which will let them hit more often and avoids you having to give monsters more attacks or put more monsters on the board just to have enough attacks available to all the PCs.5) Create a generic Ranged attack and a generic AoE attack that you can give to any and all applicable monsters that do not have any on their monster statblocks.  However it is you wish to fluff them-- bows/crossbows/javelins for the Ranged, and Molotov cocktail or large vial of acid for the AoE... you HAVE to give your monsters as many opportunities to hit the PCs that stay out of melee more often.  So just create a generic attack statblock that you keep at hand (for example: Ranged attack: +10, 2d8+6 piercing damage) and just add it to any monsters that might use it / need it.  And then fluff the attack however it makes sense.Good luck!</blockquote>

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