Vorenus
2022-06-13, 07:35 PM
I've been running D&D 5e for a little over 3 years now. I've been running and playing other games for 36 years. I am currently running three different D&D 5e campaigns. I have noticed a couple of trends regarding combat in 5e. First, player characters have tons of advantages and win almost every fight that is allegedly even close to the appropriate level of their CR. Second, sometimes higher level characters lose to low-CR monsters in hilarious ways.
A few months ago, I ran one of my groups, consisting of six level 9 PCs, through a published adventure that said it was for level 13-16 characters. The level 9 PCs stomped everything in their path without breaking much of a sweat. The adventure was still quite fun, I just had a hard time believing it was written for level 13-16 characters.
I recently ran a major boss battle with that same group of PCs, now level 11. The boss battle was the capstone of an adventure that had lasted about six sessions. The final boss of the adventure was an Ancient Red Dragon. I know what you're thinking, there's no way that a group of lowly level 11 PCs could ever hope to defeat an Ancient Red Dragon--in its lair, no less. Well, they did. The battle lasted 12 combat rounds. The Dragon used all of its Lair actions multiple times, and made profligate use of Legendary Actions. Also, the Dragon had henchmen--a lot of henchmen, in the form of a whole gang of Kobolds, many riding Fire Serpents, and whenever a wave of Kobolds got wiped out, another wave showed up right quick. I even gave the Dragon a free regeneration when it dove into a pool of lava in its lair--it regenerated 30 HP--and then swam submerged through the lava to burst out of another pool of lava in another area of its lair. Despite using Legendary Actions, Lair Actions, adding multiple waves of henchmen, and giving the Dragon free regeneration a couple of times, after 12 rounds the PCs had whittled it down from its very high starting HP to a total of 9 HP. Whereupon I had the dragon use one of its Legendary Actions for free movement (which I had used multiple times so it was supposed to be hard to pin down) and had it dive into a pool of lava and flee. That's right, the PCs chased an Ancient Red Dragon out of its lair.
How did they do it? Well, for starters, three of the PCs were resistant to the dragon's fire breath (one was a Dwarven Forge Cleric, one was a Golden Dragonborn Horizon Walker Ranger, and the third was a Path of the Half-Orc Totem Warrior Barbarian). PC number 4 was a Githyanki Eldritch Knight who has both the Shield Master and Resilient (DEX) Feats, and he also has a Ring of Evasion, and Absorb Elements as one of his spells. Suffice it to say the Eldritch Knight soaked up a ton of damage with that combination. He also took a ton of damage, but he just kept on ticking. The final two characters are a Githyanki Divine Soul Sorcerer and a Tabaxi Rogue Scout.
The Forge Cleric went down to zero HP twice, but both times the Sorcerer used Mass Cure Wounds and brought the Cleric back plus healed up a couple other PCs. As far as I can recall, the Forge Cleric was the only PC to go unconscious in the whole fight. The Half-Orc Barbarian did go down to 1 HP once, but not zero--i.e., his Relentless Endurance never triggered, because he didn't go to zero.
The Tabaxi took zero damage the whole battle, due to making every DEX save combined with Evasion, and generally always being in a good position in the lair to snipe at the dragon and then fade away.
The Sorcerer also took very little damage. At the start of the battle she cast Blink, and then every round she would move and either use Misty Step for more movement, or cast a twinned Ray of Frost, or cast a spell. She generally used all her spell slots for healing other players or other effects like that. Due to Blink, she was not there for most of the Dragon's turns, and therefore could not be targeted. On the occasional turn when the Dragon did have a chance to go after her, the combination of Shield, Absorb Elements, etc. made it so she could survive long enough to Misty Step away.
The Barbarian and the Fighter chased the Dragon all over the lair. They spent several turns just dashing hither and yon, but the Fighter, being a Githyanki, could also Misty Step and so had a lot of mobility when it came time for the clutch play. In one turn both the Fighter and Barbarian managed to flank the Dragon, and between the two of them they did close to 200 HP that turn. (The Fighter did use his Action Surge that turn and did something like 97 points of damage total. The Barbarian got a nat 20 on one of his attacks and ended up doing somewhere around 70. I don't recall the exact number but that's the ballpark.) The Dragon used its claws, tail, bite, etc., and did manage to do a ton of damage to the Barbarian (he had a much lower AC than the Fighter), but of course it was halved by Rage, and then the Dwarven Forge Cleric cast Heal on him to heal him 70 HP.
Anyway, to sum up: The PCs kicked its butt and chased it out of its lair.
Which brings us to the second battle I wanted to mention:
Two sessions later, the same group of PCs, now all level 12, just about got wiped out by a village of Kuo-Toas who had five giant crayfish with them and a Froghemoth who the Kuo-Toa worshipped as a god. The Froghemoth did more damage to them than the Ancient Red Dragon did, and the Froghemoth even managed to eat the Cleric and the Horizon Walker. But the real surprise damage dealers were those stupid Giant Crayfish! One of the Giant Crayfish did 52 points of damage to the Tabaxi Scout in one round, which is 52 more than the Ancient Red Dragon ever did to her! And the Giant Crayfish are supposedly a CR 2 monster!
Moral of the story: D&D 5e combat can be rather erratic sometimes.
A few months ago, I ran one of my groups, consisting of six level 9 PCs, through a published adventure that said it was for level 13-16 characters. The level 9 PCs stomped everything in their path without breaking much of a sweat. The adventure was still quite fun, I just had a hard time believing it was written for level 13-16 characters.
I recently ran a major boss battle with that same group of PCs, now level 11. The boss battle was the capstone of an adventure that had lasted about six sessions. The final boss of the adventure was an Ancient Red Dragon. I know what you're thinking, there's no way that a group of lowly level 11 PCs could ever hope to defeat an Ancient Red Dragon--in its lair, no less. Well, they did. The battle lasted 12 combat rounds. The Dragon used all of its Lair actions multiple times, and made profligate use of Legendary Actions. Also, the Dragon had henchmen--a lot of henchmen, in the form of a whole gang of Kobolds, many riding Fire Serpents, and whenever a wave of Kobolds got wiped out, another wave showed up right quick. I even gave the Dragon a free regeneration when it dove into a pool of lava in its lair--it regenerated 30 HP--and then swam submerged through the lava to burst out of another pool of lava in another area of its lair. Despite using Legendary Actions, Lair Actions, adding multiple waves of henchmen, and giving the Dragon free regeneration a couple of times, after 12 rounds the PCs had whittled it down from its very high starting HP to a total of 9 HP. Whereupon I had the dragon use one of its Legendary Actions for free movement (which I had used multiple times so it was supposed to be hard to pin down) and had it dive into a pool of lava and flee. That's right, the PCs chased an Ancient Red Dragon out of its lair.
How did they do it? Well, for starters, three of the PCs were resistant to the dragon's fire breath (one was a Dwarven Forge Cleric, one was a Golden Dragonborn Horizon Walker Ranger, and the third was a Path of the Half-Orc Totem Warrior Barbarian). PC number 4 was a Githyanki Eldritch Knight who has both the Shield Master and Resilient (DEX) Feats, and he also has a Ring of Evasion, and Absorb Elements as one of his spells. Suffice it to say the Eldritch Knight soaked up a ton of damage with that combination. He also took a ton of damage, but he just kept on ticking. The final two characters are a Githyanki Divine Soul Sorcerer and a Tabaxi Rogue Scout.
The Forge Cleric went down to zero HP twice, but both times the Sorcerer used Mass Cure Wounds and brought the Cleric back plus healed up a couple other PCs. As far as I can recall, the Forge Cleric was the only PC to go unconscious in the whole fight. The Half-Orc Barbarian did go down to 1 HP once, but not zero--i.e., his Relentless Endurance never triggered, because he didn't go to zero.
The Tabaxi took zero damage the whole battle, due to making every DEX save combined with Evasion, and generally always being in a good position in the lair to snipe at the dragon and then fade away.
The Sorcerer also took very little damage. At the start of the battle she cast Blink, and then every round she would move and either use Misty Step for more movement, or cast a twinned Ray of Frost, or cast a spell. She generally used all her spell slots for healing other players or other effects like that. Due to Blink, she was not there for most of the Dragon's turns, and therefore could not be targeted. On the occasional turn when the Dragon did have a chance to go after her, the combination of Shield, Absorb Elements, etc. made it so she could survive long enough to Misty Step away.
The Barbarian and the Fighter chased the Dragon all over the lair. They spent several turns just dashing hither and yon, but the Fighter, being a Githyanki, could also Misty Step and so had a lot of mobility when it came time for the clutch play. In one turn both the Fighter and Barbarian managed to flank the Dragon, and between the two of them they did close to 200 HP that turn. (The Fighter did use his Action Surge that turn and did something like 97 points of damage total. The Barbarian got a nat 20 on one of his attacks and ended up doing somewhere around 70. I don't recall the exact number but that's the ballpark.) The Dragon used its claws, tail, bite, etc., and did manage to do a ton of damage to the Barbarian (he had a much lower AC than the Fighter), but of course it was halved by Rage, and then the Dwarven Forge Cleric cast Heal on him to heal him 70 HP.
Anyway, to sum up: The PCs kicked its butt and chased it out of its lair.
Which brings us to the second battle I wanted to mention:
Two sessions later, the same group of PCs, now all level 12, just about got wiped out by a village of Kuo-Toas who had five giant crayfish with them and a Froghemoth who the Kuo-Toa worshipped as a god. The Froghemoth did more damage to them than the Ancient Red Dragon did, and the Froghemoth even managed to eat the Cleric and the Horizon Walker. But the real surprise damage dealers were those stupid Giant Crayfish! One of the Giant Crayfish did 52 points of damage to the Tabaxi Scout in one round, which is 52 more than the Ancient Red Dragon ever did to her! And the Giant Crayfish are supposedly a CR 2 monster!
Moral of the story: D&D 5e combat can be rather erratic sometimes.