D&D: Five Ways To Run Harder Encounters
If you’re looking to up the challenge of your games without trying to be unfair, try these tips for running harder encounters.
Player characters are stronger than ever in D&D 5.5E. And while some of the numbers have been adjusted to match in the new Monster Manual, there’s no denying that DMs have simpler tools for challenging players. But if you want to run harder encounters (without necessarily making it feel like you’re just out to get everyone) then there are a few things you can do.
Because, when the enemies are trying to win a fight—the game feels sharper. It’s less of an amusement park ride (oh no now we’re being attacked, whew thank goodness we got through that) and more of a thrill. But how do you make your encounters harder? You can start with ideas like these:
The Enemies Know How the Game Works, Too
D&D is a world built of a lot of little idiosyncrasies. And by and large they make for a fun game. But you can add a little bit of “realism” and make your encounters harder by having enemies act as though they know what’s up. After all, this is a world where people could reasonably know things like “Wizards aren’t as tough as Barbarians.” Or “kill that guy casting the healing spells and they stop getting up.”
Basically this boils down to let your enemies use some of the same tricks your players use. Counterspell that crucial Healing Word. Make use of monster mobility to get in there and attack the squishies. Do your PCs use focus fire to drop one enemy before moving on to the next? Your monsters can do the same thing!
It might sound mean, but this can change the dynamic of a fight. Especially when you have enemies start attacking downed PCs. After all, one attack on a downed player character means two automatic death save failures. And if you have an enemy with multi-attack standing near a downed player character, and the whole tenor of the fight changes. It becomes how can we save our friend before this enemy goes. Suddenly, the stakes are real.
Have Enemies Show Up in Waves
Want harder encounters in D&D? Put more guys in the fight. That advice may seem trite, but that’s the solution to a huge chunk of the problem. But how do you make it not feel unfair? A great way is to have the fight occur in waves. Have additional monsters show up—but on different rounds. Don’t let them trickle in too slowly.
But a fight with a small patrol of goblins changes when suddenly their ogre bruiser crashes through the door. This is a great way to help shake loose players who get stuck in patterns of “use these abilities, in this order, win fight.” Because in D&D combats typically last three rounds—and if you vary up when the enemies are there, suddenly which resources you use start to matter a lot more.
Enemies Can Use the Treasure They Have
You know how in published adventures, you’ll often find monsters with a list of treasure that adventurers can find when they loot the body? Or how if you’re brewing up your own campaign, sometimes a monster might have a magic item or two for a player—that enemy might be able to use that treasure. I especially love doing this with monsters that I roll random treasure for.
An enemy that has a magic sword is one thing; but the fight can get even harder when they start drinking the healing potions they were supposed to drop for the party. Or if they start using the magic wand to cast extra spells? Basically let your monsters make use of the gear as well and you can up the challenge.
Put ‘Em on Dragons (or Other Things)
This is a piece of advice taken straight from some of the best Paizo adventures. There are so many monsters in D&D and they can ride on other monsters and it makes the fight that much more dynamic. Fighting a knight on horseback is one thing, but fighting a Death Knight on a Nightmare? Or an Archmage on a Dragon? Or a deadly Assassin on a Dragon—the list goes on.
It’s a real easy trick for making combat that much deadlier. And it’s a chance to start using some of the monsters that the PCs might have outgrown—like having a few marauders riding wyverns or the like. Just trawl through the monster manual and see what combos you can turn up.
Give the Enemies a Plan
They say if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And the enemies might well have a plan for dealing with the PCs. Think about what the monsters might know about the players after they’ve either fought them before or seen the aftermath of their battles or scried on them. Enemies can do recon too!
Once you figure out what they know, what actions would they take to prepare? Do they know there’s a fire sorcerer in the party? Maybe it’s time to find a potion of fire resistaance or something like that. Obviously, you want to do things like this sparingly because you don’t want to negate players’ abilities whole cloth. But it can help your encounters feel harder (and more “real”) if enemies go in with a plan of action.
Happy adventuring!
