D&D 5E What is your preferred style, and what tweaks do you do to get there?

[Sacrosanct]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I don't know if I'd call it a tweak since it's always been an option, but I frequently switch up monster stat blocks. Humanoids will have all sorts of weapons and armor, and not just those in a statblock, HP are variable, I might even make a local clan "chief" beefed up by giving it more HP, armor, and an extra ability or two.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Yeah, I ignore CR too unless I'm publishing something, and even then it's only a guideline. I typically do what I did in AD&D, and that's just create encounters that feel right. No better way to really explain it. And unfortunately that only comes when you're really familiar with the game.

Has anyone done tweaks to feats, or spells, or abilities?

I should have also mentioned in my summary that I ditched the CR and encounter design guidelines, and we use milestone advancement. Been doing that for a long time now, so we weren't going to switch back at the start of the new edition.

As far as things along the lines of what you suggested, the only tweak I made was short lived (the player moved, so it wound up not mattering) was to lessen the Exhaustion effect of a Berserker Barbarian. The player thought that the exhaustion was too strong a drawback for the ability. Or more that he thought it was a strong drawback that was not easily overcome.

So we worked it out that he could reduce exhaustion by one level with a short rest, but could only do that once per day.

 

[Miladoon]

Every once in a while I will offer the players a Black Flag encounter. I tell them it might mostly likely probably kill their PCs. But the rewards are very high. Likewise, I will ask them if they want a Care Bare encounter and walk away with no loots.