Learning Not to Leeroy Jenkins

[BaconAwesome]

I'm in a party of new 5e players, and it seems to me that (a) many encounters, especially in the official modules, are designed to have a creative alternative to standard "form your marching order and attack" and (b) even more to reward ideas the DM/adventure designer hasn't thought of.

We're not true Leeroys - we tend to design a decent battle plan that maximizes our strengths. But we're not actually super well optimized for combat, and the encounters are pretty tough, so it feels like a third of the party is making death saves on most encounters, and we're constantly short on healing. (And worse, as a level 1 cleric, I never get to cast anything else with my spell slots!)

Can anyone recommend a good way to get smarter about alternatives?

[Unoriginal]

I'm in a party of new 5e players, and it seems to me that (a) many encounters, especially in the official modules, are designed to have a creative alternative to standard "form your marching order and attack" and (b) even more to reward ideas the DM/adventure designer hasn't thought of.

We're not true Leeroys - we tend to design a decent battle plan that maximizes our strengths. But we're not actually super well optimized for combat, and the encounters are pretty tough, so it feels like a third of the party is making death saves on most encounters, and we're constantly short on healing. (And worse, as a level 1 cleric, I never get to cast anything else with my spell slots!)

Can anyone recommend a good way to get smarter about alternatives?

Which module did you try so far, just to know?

[Strangways]

I'm in a party of new 5e players, and it seems to me that (a) many encounters, especially in the official modules, are designed to have a creative alternative to standard "form your marching order and attack" and (b) even more to reward ideas the DM/adventure designer hasn't thought of.

We're not true Leeroys - we tend to design a decent battle plan that maximizes our strengths. But we're not actually super well optimized for combat, and the encounters are pretty tough, so it feels like a third of the party is making death saves on most encounters, and we're constantly short on healing. (And worse, as a level 1 cleric, I never get to cast anything else with my spell slots!)

Can anyone recommend a good way to get smarter about alternatives?

Level 1 characters are extremely fragile, so your sense that combats are all lethally dangerous may be a function of that. You may not feel so fragile by level 3. Apart from that, it’s still worthwhile to consider options other than combat. I’d talk about it with the other party members and see whether your most charismatic party member is willing to step forward to see if he can talk you past that NPC, whether your druid or ranger can cast Pass Without Trace to stealth you all past that band of orcs etc.

[BaconAwesome]

Which module did you try so far, just to know?

We've done two sets of encounters - the first arc of Phandelver through the first miniboss and then about half of us generated new characters and are in the middle of the one at the beginning of the Giants module. (The other half of the party kept their characters and is at level 2).

It's fun to have problems that aren't simple to solve, to be fair - I'm just getting the feeling that there are alternatives we're missing and want to think more creatively. Thanks!

[Strangways]

We've done two sets of encounters - the first arc of Phandelver through the first miniboss and then about half of us generated new characters and are in the middle of the one at the beginning of the Giants module. (The other half of the party kept their characters and is at level 2).

It's fun to have problems that aren't simple to solve, to be fair - I'm just getting the feeling that there are alternatives we're missing and want to think more creatively. Thanks!

If you’re reverting back to level 1 with new characters (instead of starting them at level 2) when you’re already partway through the module, that’s probably part of the problem.

[LordEntrails]

At 1st, 2nd, 3rd level you are not superheros. Don't form your marching order and attack. If it were that easy then the goblins/kobolds/etc would not still be around. i.e. you're not much more than farm boys (with potential).

Have you tried smoking them out? Picking them off when they come out to hunt? Sneaking in? Distracting them? Illusions?

If you walk into the prepared defenses of an enemy that is ready and waiting for you, expect to get your butts handed to you on a silver platter.

[Alatar]

Running away works really well in 5e. That means skirmishes work too. Engage the enemy, focus your fire, take down a few of them, two of them, one of them, then break off the attack. Disengage and retreat. Move off and lick your wounds.

Then hit them again. The ones you killed in the first battle probably won't contribute much to the second engagement, or the third.

In our games, it is not uncommon for player characters to die at 1st level. Session one can be a bit of a killing field. We've been at it for a while and that is one of our traditions. But at any table, it's not too hard for a 1st level character to end up dead. They are delicate flowers, most of them. But if they survive a bunch of battles, they get tougher to kill.

[johnbragg]

Chiming in--one feature of 5th edition is you don't stay 1st level very long.

[Dalebert]

I've also seen groups with the opposite problem--not enough Leroy Jenkins. They overthink things and spend too much time planning and lag the game.

Not enough healing, often translates to another problem IMHO--not enough DPS, not enough crowd control. Just basically you're not killing things fast enough to lower their dmg to your party. Healing is expensive in terms of actions and other resources and should generally be a last resort. Most healing in 5e comes from rests.