I've recently come back from a DMing break, but now that I'm back, I've decided I'd like to try running a more difficult and unforgiving combat-style.
For background context: the current campaign I'm working on is going to go into pretty high level, but I'm starting the party off at level 5, and the party is around 5-6 people. As for the campaign's setting; the party were all villains in their lives, though eventually being slain by a nondescript "hero's party." Soon after, they inevitably found themselves in their eternal resting place, the Underworld. However, they were now missing both memories and powers of their past lives, with only small wisps of their old selves remaining (just to be clear, I do know that amnesia campaigns can often feel like the DM's controlling much of things, but I managed to work this out already with all my players, so it isn't an issue. Their actual sheets were made by them, and they have a sort of "core" memory they keep that tells them about themselves, which they each wrote themselves, and then I just built off that). They now hope to regain their former identities, and then manage to escape the Underworld.
For specifics on the combat for the campaign; a neat idea a thought up was that as already lost souls, the party doesn't really "die" in the literal sense anymore. Rather, they will always resurrect in a sort amount of time, though now possessing a curse or other issue. With this, I'm trying to make the combat far more challenging, as my previous combat encounters have usually ended with all the enemies being killed in only a handful of rounds. I'd also like to add some more strategies added to combat, as I think traditional combat in Dnd is usually "hit __ until it dies or you do."
I've already come up with a few minor changes that honestly do a lot for changing the gameplay, though not substantially, which I've liked. But, I think outside perspectives are always fun to have. Could anyone help brainstorm a couple ideas with me?
I've recently come back from a DMing break, but now that I'm back, I've decided I'd like to try running a more difficult and unforgiving combat-style.
For background context: the current campaign I'm working on is going to go into pretty high level, but I'm starting the party off at level 5, and the party is around 5-6 people. As for the campaign's setting; the party were all villains in their lives, though eventually being slain by a nondescript "hero's party." Soon after, they inevitably found themselves in their eternal resting place, the Underworld. However, they were now missing both memories and powers of their past lives, with only small wisps of their old selves remaining (just to be clear, I do know that amnesia campaigns can often feel like the DM's controlling much of things, but I managed to work this out already with all my players, so it isn't an issue. Their actual sheets were made by them, and they have a sort of "core" memory they keep that tells them about themselves, which they each wrote themselves, and then I just built off that). They now hope to regain their former identities, and then manage to escape the Underworld.
For specifics on the combat for the campaign; a neat idea a thought up was that as already lost souls, the party doesn't really "die" in the literal sense anymore. Rather, they will always resurrect in a sort amount of time, though now possessing a curse or other issue. With this, I'm trying to make the combat far more challenging, as my previous combat encounters have usually ended with all the enemies being killed in only a handful of rounds. I'd also like to add some more strategies added to combat, as I think traditional combat in Dnd is usually "hit __ until it dies or you do."
I've already come up with a few minor changes that honestly do a lot for changing the gameplay, though not substantially, which I've liked. But, I think outside perspectives are always fun to have. Could anyone help brainstorm a couple ideas with me?