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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 7229822" data-attributes="member: 58197">Got it. That's a nice, clear list. Let's break it down and look at the causes of each:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">BBEG viability: I have found that my BBEGs suffer when a) they can't soak the party's combined damage output, or b) they get locked down by stun attacks and the like.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wile E Coyote falling damage: Results from PCs having too many hit points at higher levels.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Character hit point bloat: Obviously, PCs having too many hit points at higher levels.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rocket tag: Results from "save-or-lose" effects and ultra-powerful damage spells.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Video-game style natural healing: Results from the very generous resting rules.</li> </ul>Looking at all this, it occurs to me that much of it could be solved with the E6 solution. If you're not familiar with E6, it was an idea someone came up with for 3E, where you simply cap the PCs at 6th level. Once they hit 6th, they no longer gain levels; instead, every so many experience points, they get an extra feat. (Some additional feats were added to fill in gaps, like adding new spells known.)The idea is to stop the PCs' "vertical" advancement (getting better at what they currently do) and focus them on "horizontal" advancement (learning to do new things).E6 should port pretty well into 5E. Everything works normally up to 6th level. At 6th level, you stop gaining levels; but every 10K or 15K experience points, you get an ASI, which you can convert to a feat as normal. This will stop the party's damage output from scaling to infinity, limit their hit points, and limit their access to save-or-lose effects.You'll probably also want to use the optional rules in the DMG for "gritty" rests, where a short rest is 6 hours of sleep and a long rest is a week of downtime. That should tackle the natural healing issue.Hmm. That's a trickier thing, since it requires a fundamental change to how D&D models defenses. How important is this specific example? If you really want to do this one thing, the least disruptive way would be to have certain monsters be "slow"--the monster has a high attack bonus, but it's reduced by the enemy's Dex modifier after armor.For example, say the giant has attack bonus +10, and its enemy is a fighter with Dex 18. In full plate, the fighter has AC 18 and no Dex mod after armor, so the giant hits on 8 or better. If the fighter swaps the full plate for studded leather, the fighter's AC goes down to 16, but the giant gets -4 to hit, requiring a 10 or better. You could even make the penalty be double the Dex modifier, to make the difference really dramatic.</blockquote>

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