Ok so, I have recently come up on a new challenge involving my group. I'm not new to dming so I'm usually prepared for most dangerous groups, but this new group has really caused major stress for me. Stealing body parts from dead monsters and looting every body and armory they come across. Kind of stressful but I've gotten used to it as I should. The most daunting part for me is combat. Seeing as most were new players I allowed for a lot of leeway with feats and characters and it's come back to haunt me. There are five members, but the three most dangerous are a rogue with crossbow expert, ranger with sharpshooter, and variant human hexblade warlock with sentinel and polearm Master, with all of them also around lvl 4 or 5 I thought it would be easy to make things difficult for them, but in terms of individual fights it's hard for me to judge proper encounters, and the only way I've made them have close calls is by gradually draining them without short rests which doesn't seem like much fun. What are some options or strategies to create some better, more balanced encounters?
I'm also a very new DM, so this solution may not work. If you want to challenge them, you could do something as simple as take a higher CR monster, and lower either the HP or damage bonus. (or both) It should provide a harder, but not longer fight
Challenge them with tactics. Ranged enemies that cannot be immediately reached because they are across a bridge and the melee enemy is holding the bridge, that kind of thing.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
D&D is a game that is all about resource management. Wearing down their resources is a good way to do it. It sounds like you don't like that? But D&D is designed with that style of play in mind, though obviously you don't have to do that all the time, and some fights should be long and epic and throw everything you got at it.
really focus on the battlefield. What I'll call a "dynamic battlefield". platforms that move, fighting in/over a rushing river, plants that explode noxious gas or grab you with vines, and all sorts of whatever you can come up with, there are so many things, even something as simple as a patch of ice you have to make a dex save if you run over or fall prone. Traps. Make them spend their spells and other abilities on doing things that aren't just directly attacking another creature.
less single target combat, more targets on the battlefiend. flying creatures with ranged attacks, creatures that burrow, climb, swim, don't leave any movement type unused.
Homebrew your monsters. Take the encounter you think "should be fair" and just add another ability to the monster perhaps, unfortunately I have no advice for balancing this, just go with your gut.
really focus on the battlefield. What I'll call a "dynamic battlefield". platforms that move, fighting in/over a rushing river, plants that explode noxious gas or grab you with vines, and all sorts of whatever you can come up with, there are so many things, even something as simple as a patch of ice you have to make a dex save if you run over or fall prone. Traps. Make them spend their spells and other abilities on doing things that aren't just directly attacking another creature.
...flying creatures with ranged attacks, creatures that burrow, climb, swim, don't leave any movement type unused.
Yes! I just tried out a climbing monster, and it was so fun! Burrowing is next. Also, displacer beasts--I haven't used those much with my current game cause they're still low level and I don't want a whiff-a-thon. But if your guys are hitting everything, that could be fun.
Monsters and traps that impose conditions--blind, deaf, prone, grappled, etc. Illusionists and shapeshifters, mundane weapon resistant creatures, or just something above their technical CR might challenge them.
There are five members, but the three most dangerous are a rogue with crossbow expert, ranger with sharpshooter, and variant human hexblade warlock with sentinel and polearm Master, with all of them also around lvl 4 or 5 I thought it would be easy to make things difficult for them, but in terms of individual fights it's hard for me to judge proper encounters, and the only way I've made them have close calls is by gradually draining them without short rests which doesn't seem like much fun. What are some options or strategies to create some better, more balanced encounters?
Well, it's expected to have about two encounters per short rest. Other than that, those are all basically single target attackers so just swarm them with weenies. 50 kobolds fits in your hard encounter budget :)
Whenever I think a fight is too short I might add a second phase to whatever boss I use or throw in a couple more enemies that sneak attack, but Ill try to see what cr would better fit them now
Very simple, but yea I haven't tried that yet. I did plan on using a secret tunnel that only the smaller members of the party could fit through and have them fight seperately, but I'll try to keep more terrain based tactics in mind too
Yea I see that now. I've kind of been too single minded about enemies being sort of straight forward fights and haven't gotten too creative with fights. Ive trapped them in dark rooms with shadow demons and used doppelgangers to make them fight eachother but I have to be more tuned into exactly what all the monsters are really capable of. Thanks for the advice
I like the idea of swarming but as we use roll 20 pretty often, keeping track of all the figures gets to be sort of difficult for me since I've barely started using it. But I'll keep the swarm tactic in mind too
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Ok so, I have recently come up on a new challenge involving my group. I'm not new to dming so I'm usually prepared for most dangerous groups, but this new group has really caused major stress for me. Stealing body parts from dead monsters and looting every body and armory they come across. Kind of stressful but I've gotten used to it as I should. The most daunting part for me is combat. Seeing as most were new players I allowed for a lot of leeway with feats and characters and it's come back to haunt me. There are five members, but the three most dangerous are a rogue with crossbow expert, ranger with sharpshooter, and variant human hexblade warlock with sentinel and polearm Master, with all of them also around lvl 4 or 5 I thought it would be easy to make things difficult for them, but in terms of individual fights it's hard for me to judge proper encounters, and the only way I've made them have close calls is by gradually draining them without short rests which doesn't seem like much fun. What are some options or strategies to create some better, more balanced encounters?
I'm also a very new DM, so this solution may not work. If you want to challenge them, you could do something as simple as take a higher CR monster, and lower either the HP or damage bonus. (or both) It should provide a harder, but not longer fight
Challenge them with tactics. Ranged enemies that cannot be immediately reached because they are across a bridge and the melee enemy is holding the bridge, that kind of thing.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
D&D is a game that is all about resource management. Wearing down their resources is a good way to do it. It sounds like you don't like that? But D&D is designed with that style of play in mind, though obviously you don't have to do that all the time, and some fights should be long and epic and throw everything you got at it.
really focus on the battlefield. What I'll call a "dynamic battlefield". platforms that move, fighting in/over a rushing river, plants that explode noxious gas or grab you with vines, and all sorts of whatever you can come up with, there are so many things, even something as simple as a patch of ice you have to make a dex save if you run over or fall prone. Traps. Make them spend their spells and other abilities on doing things that aren't just directly attacking another creature.
less single target combat, more targets on the battlefiend. flying creatures with ranged attacks, creatures that burrow, climb, swim, don't leave any movement type unused.
Homebrew your monsters. Take the encounter you think "should be fair" and just add another ability to the monster perhaps, unfortunately I have no advice for balancing this, just go with your gut.
Hope something here was helpful.
Yes! I just tried out a climbing monster, and it was so fun! Burrowing is next. Also, displacer beasts--I haven't used those much with my current game cause they're still low level and I don't want a whiff-a-thon. But if your guys are hitting everything, that could be fun.
Monsters and traps that impose conditions--blind, deaf, prone, grappled, etc. Illusionists and shapeshifters, mundane weapon resistant creatures, or just something above their technical CR might challenge them.
Well, it's expected to have about two encounters per short rest. Other than that, those are all basically single target attackers so just swarm them with weenies. 50 kobolds fits in your hard encounter budget :)
Whenever I think a fight is too short I might add a second phase to whatever boss I use or throw in a couple more enemies that sneak attack, but Ill try to see what cr would better fit them now
Very simple, but yea I haven't tried that yet. I did plan on using a secret tunnel that only the smaller members of the party could fit through and have them fight seperately, but I'll try to keep more terrain based tactics in mind too
Yea I see that now. I've kind of been too single minded about enemies being sort of straight forward fights and haven't gotten too creative with fights. Ive trapped them in dark rooms with shadow demons and used doppelgangers to make them fight eachother but I have to be more tuned into exactly what all the monsters are really capable of. Thanks for the advice
I like the idea of swarming but as we use roll 20 pretty often, keeping track of all the figures gets to be sort of difficult for me since I've barely started using it. But I'll keep the swarm tactic in mind too