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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SilverfireSage" data-source="post: 6476138" data-attributes="member: 6778313">Simplest solution: Stop using experience points. In my 10 years of DMing, I've only used experience points once and that was in the Starter Set of 5E. Experience points have never been that important to my group, just the act of leveling has, and I reward them by milestone. So, if they complete their goal (beat the big baddie, rescue the person, etc.) then they get to level up. Typically this happens once every couple sessions, but we only play once a month for a straight 8 hours so we're certainly not the norm. But they've never complained, never asked to go back to experience points, and everyone's been happy. Contagion only takes effect after they fail three saving throws, which for high level monsters with good constitutions, may take a while. Force cage is fine if you really want to trap and get one person or a small group out of the way, but using it against the big baddie is almost worthless since you can't hurt him inside the cage either. If the baddie is too big, like a dragon, the force cage is worthless, since it just shunts the dragon out of it. Ottos Irresistible Dance is pretty great, but it's also 6th level, and the creature gets to make wisdom saving throws every round against it. In fact, with all of these spells, I would be far more worried that a Lich or some other caster would use those against the party! Imagine your front line fighters taken out of the battle with Force Cage, and your wizard and bard must suddenly deal with 5 giants alone? Imagine your clueless fighter getting hit with Ottos Irresistible Dance and getting pummeled by a low level ogre! These are all good spells with drawbacks, but always remember that whatever the PCs can use, the NPCs can use as well. As for Bless, I actually don't see much of a problem. +1d4 is pretty good, sure, but at the level you're describing the Cleric should have a lot more and better Concentration spells than that to use. Not to mention at that level, monsters do an obscene amount of damage, making the Concentration check very difficult to make. Your OP PCs decided to take warcaster instead of up one of their Ability Scores to the maximum, so that's pretty good in my book. I think I see the problem though, and it has to do with CR and encounter design. Do not design encounters with CR. It is a weird, seemingly arbitrary number that doesn't speak to the difficulty of the encounter. Instead, use the EXP calculator in the DM's guide or in the Basic Rules. You'll quickly find that a group of 4 PCs level 12 should be able to take on any adult dragon with no casualties, but then find that adding even one extra monster into that mix makes the encounter far more difficult. More monsters means a lot more in this edition than it has in the past, so if the PCs are giving you grief, shut em down with overwhelming numbers!Oh, quick question though, you said in your OP that you have 12th level PCs, but in your above post you complain about several 7th level spells. How are they getting these spells?</blockquote>

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