D&D 5E (2024) Tier 1 Encounters RAW Getting Hit With Cone of Cold 4th Level?

[Zardnaar]

So I have a 5 Person Party.

Heres some numbers

​

Xp Per CR Monsters
CR1/8 25 xp
CR¼ 50xp
CR½ 100
CR1 200 xp
CR2 450
CR3 700
CR4 1100
CR5 1800
CR6 2300

Xp Buckets Encounter Design Low, Medium High (LMH)

Lvl3 150, 275, 400 Per PC
Lvl4 CR 250/375/500 per PC

My players are currently Level 4. LMH xp budgets are 1250, 1875 and 2500. Goblins are 50xp, Ogres and Gargoyles are 450. Rules recommend you don't go over X2 the party size. In my case that is 10.

If you do ignore that you can throw 45 Goblins at a party. For a low encounter. You can also do something like 2 Ogres I suppose and 7 goblins for a low encounter. A high one is double that. 5 Gargoyles can be a high encounter at 4th level with 250xp spare. You could also use a CR 6 critter and 4-8 minions at 4th that is potentially a Mage with cone of cold. Or a CR5 Gladiator with 700 xp left over.

At level 3 I did a high encounter. 2 Ogres, Goblin Hexer (CR 3)and 8 Goblins. That was almost a TPK and the party had to nova of and were basically tanked for the day.

Party

1 Paladin (Vengeance)
Rogue (assassin)
Barbarian (Great Weapon)
Knowledge Cleric
Star Druid

So I'm wondering. Is anyone else trying the RAW? To me its an art form but generally even with low encounters the PCS are struggling a bit. 3-4 encounters they are tanked. At level 12 one day I gave them 10 encounters (3 low, medium, high, 1 boss fight). No surprises the higher level ones did it a lot better.

1 Boss, few minions (CR 4-6 depends). Very vulnerable to things like command.
Few (CR 1-3) generally you get around 4-6 monsters. Comparatively buckets of HP
Many (8-12+) Similar to few but often multiple CR 1/8th to 1 to pad out the numbers with left overs. AoEs early on are weak however.


For the most part I'm using fairly typical monsters low CR monsters. Goblins, Hobgoblins, Zhent soldiers, Ogres, skeletons, cultists, apprentice mage zombies and some shadows and spectres. Nothing meta aimed at PCs specifically. Tomorrow I'm using orcs (probably thugs, thug bosses MM substitutes etc cant be bothered carrying to many books).

Any suggestions of encounters or thoughts on what I have laid out RAW.? Not after specifics but a 1250 encounter could be 1 CR 2 and 8 CR1's. THats a lot of HP to chew through however.

 

[Minigiant]

Yes

A CR 4 monster can pop out 1 level 4 spell for 3 turns and be on CR.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yes

A CR 4 monster can pop out 1 level 4 spell for 3 turns and be on CR.

CoC is5th lvl.

 

[Shiroiken]

The encounter guidelines for 5E24 are much more accurate than the 5E14 DMG. I've been running a series of adventures that have many encounters without a long rest. To keep the party from getting whipped, I've been using about half the value of on level Low encounters. By taking numerous short rests, they've been able to handle about 8-9 of those per long rest, plus one Medium encounter/boss fight. Last session they had only 4 combat encounters before a long rest, so I set those up as all Medium encounters, and they did fine (actually a lot better than the high number of weaker fights). My next series of sessions is likely to have 1-2 High difficulty encounters, plus 2-3 Medium encounters before a long rest, and we'll see how that goes.

Edit: I didn't answer the question... While I didn't hit a tier 1 party with a cone of cold, I did hit a level 5 party with a Mind Flayer. It used it's mind blast, which would be about equivalent. I rolled high and one PC rolled badly, causing him to drop from near full to 0 HP. However, the party used good tactics and prevented it from getting another mind blast off before they withdrew.

 

[Minigiant]

CoC is5th lvl.

Doesn't change what I said.

Coc, Fireball 4th, Fireball 4th is just a ignorable amount of damage too high.