How to Make 5e Dungeons and Dragons More Deadly

If you've ever thought about ways to make your 5e D&D combat encounters more deadly and lethal, this is the episode for you! We're sharing our tips and techniques to make encounters more challenging and MORE FUN!
This episode is brought to you by the ORDINARY TOWNS KICKSTARTER by LEGENDARY PANTS! 50 full towns! Locations! Maps! NPCs! One of a kind book! Click here to check it out: legendarypants....
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Written & Hosted by Jonathan Pruitt & Jim Davis
Produced, Directed & Edited by Travis Boles
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Intro To 5th Edition - • 5th Edition Dungeons &...
Backgrounds, Feats & Spellcasters - • Backgrounds, Feats & S...
Inside Editions - • Inside Editions - Web DM
Getting Started in 5th Edition - • Getting Started In 5th...
Character Creation Part One - • Character Creation Par...
Character Creation Part Two - • Character Creation Par...
Campaigning “On Rails” - • Is Your D&D Campaign "...
Treasure - • Treasure: How Much Is ...
Player Styles - • Different Player Style...
Killing Characters - • Killing Characters Res...
Barbarians & Bards - • Barbarians & Bards - W...
Druids,Fighters, Monks, Rangers & Rogues - • Druids, Fighters, Monk...
Sorcerers, Warlocks, Clerics, Paladins & Wizards - • Sorcerers, Warlocks, C...
Beholders - • Beholders - A Classic ...
Kobolds, Goblins & Bullywugs - • Zombies in 5e Dungeons...
Red Dragons - • Red Dragons in Dungeon...
5e Dungeons & Dragons is here to stay, and Web DM is here to help!!! Jim Davis & Jonathan Pruitt have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for a combined 30+ years, and on Web DM they demystify, dethrone, and defrock this Dungeon we call Dragons! Subscribe to our channel for weekly videos on 5e Classes, Monsters, DM Tips, and more! Join Pruitt & Jim as we kick down the door and talk some serious Dungeons & Dragons!

[@WebDM]

Thanks for watching! Want more Web DM in your life? Check out our Patreon for our podcast, bonus vids, and more! Patreon.com/webdm Or our Twitch channel for live streamed ttrpgs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! Twitch.tv/webdm Or our live play archive on KZbin: KZbin.com/webdmplays

[@Diditallforthexp]

Thanks for the great content guys, and for the point toward that Ordinary Towns kickstarter. That book needs to live on my shelf.

[@legin777]

Backed the Kickstarter. This looks so helpful to all of my upcoming sessions.

[@joggeskoarbeidsstvelsjef6380]

Hi Web DM, I just had to resubscribe, I couldn't find you and you weren't on my subscription list, this is really odd, has anyone else had this problem?

[@Diditallforthexp]

"Hey Pruitt we're about to start taping-" "KNIVES TO OUR FISTS!? YAH HAH!" "No, taping the show. Please stop stabbing the miniatures."

[@KappaKiller108]

I once ran a joke "Super Lethal" game where every player was a kobold. The goal was to break into the Dwavern cave-city to steal a magic item they though was shiny. Each player died no less than 10 times over 4 sessions. The way we worked it was based on the Kobold religious lore regarding reincarnation. Everytime they died their soul was sent back to an unhatched egg in their layer, with no memories but the same class levels. It was one of the greatest games I ever ran, kobolds dying in hilariously grizzly ways, basically using long term wave-tactics to gain information on the city for their clan.

[@tmage23]

You played Paranoia in a D&D setting.

[@WebDM]

That sounds amazing!!

[@General12th]

KoboldGenocide

[@jamestanzer9188]

#KoblodLivesMatter

[@abeingofpureenergy]

#KoboldLivesMatter And this sounds brilliant

[@MN-cr5jh]

DM behind the screen: this fight is too easy, this monster won’t even get another round Meanwhile.... Players at the table: oh god, oh god, we’re all gonna die!

[@orcassio17]

>You see a man and he introduces himself as '7 Finger' Larry >"Why are you called '7 Finger' Larry?" >"I only have 7 fingers." >He holds up his hands. One hand has 7 fingers. The other hand had none.

[@alderbrand]

“Oh boy, here I go killing again!”

[@johnsnow9210]

R.I.P. Crombopulous Micheal

[@XxNinjapimpxX]

Listening to Jim and Pruitt just chat really helps me get into my own creative space and come up with some of my best ideas. Love listening to ideas on the craft of being a DM

[@WebDM]

Glad to help inspire!

[@asdmrbyalchemicailleach3657]

Oh man, me too.

[@PattheBassist]

Web DM: releases video about making 5e deadlier Me: *smiles in DM as “O Fortuna” plays in background*

[@zeik101]

Pat Ward i understood that reference

[@Ebolson1019]

Love using that song for boss fights

[@abeingofpureenergy]

Had to look it up to get the reference, and it made me laugh uncontrollably. I feel you.

[@squaredup1800]

@@zeik101 What "reference"? It's only the most overused song in movie and TV history. There's no "reference" here.

[@squaredup1800]

@@abeingofpureenergy Look what up?

[@smaspa8627]

The intros keep getting tighter. Good on ya boys for turning this into a real thing! Way to career!

[@WebDM]

Thank you! We're trying!

[@_bats_]

Seriously, each one is better than the last practically. Great work!

[@danielpayne1597]

@@_bats_ Arguably the best intro yet.

[@asdasd-ty9se]

Was the intro a reference to something?

[@monty2732]

Once again, that intro! Keep rocking guys.

[@paranidherc]

Video A: "Murderhobos bad" Video B: "If they leave enemies alive, use it against them" Which one will it be, jimbo?

[@williamwontiam3166]

Both, if they leave one kid alone but raze the village there screwed, if they kill everyone they’ll be a pain at the table.

[@TheTrueMorningStar]

"There is always a bigger bad!!!" My father ran AD&D games for us, people die, that is the nature of hero work! "You are starving, yes you hare penalties, you DIE!", "The flaming dragon corpse falls on your now dead body!", "The cave fell on you, because you clasped the cave!" -Dennis Kelly Almost all of my monsters have max health and a class with skills late game it is a good balance for high fantasy and powerful magic items. Then give the enemies magic items! Sacrifice is part of the job, if it was easy everyone would do it. It takes courage in the face of death to be truly good in any of the worlds of D&D, but it shows very little about the nature of the "hero" if the have nothing to lose win the fight.

[@oOPPHOo]

6:55. Some editor who really hates Pruitt kept that part in instead of editing it out and I just wanna voice my appreciation about that.

[@charleswain6124]

I ran exhaustion on downs when I ran Murder in Baldurs Gate (superb adventure, btw), which was fantastic for bringing about an exhausting, deadly trawl through the sewars to find a wererat. Other than that: just hit players on the ground.

[@thehat222]

Charles Wain or start dragging off unconscious characters. I had a pack of dire wolves escape with an downed player. Really makes the players panic. But anything that eats humanoids may retreat once they get some food in their maws.

[@falfires]

I'll tell you how: get your players to the bridge in the first level of Forge of Fury, let them kill what they see, and then ignorantly push the entire horde on their heads at once... That encounter was more than triple-deadly, which I got to know only the next day, and yet none of them even went unconscious. Bless tunnel fighting and strategic Grease placement.

[@andrewunderwood8534]

Handbooker Helper and Web DM release at same time, the rest of my day at will be better

[@DurdleDers]

fellow Andrews rejoice!

[@AshleyArbelos]

Sometimes if I want to make a boss harder, like have it just be 1 guy and all, I give the boss a second turn on initiative 10 with a different moveset

[@falconforgefantasy9496]

Ashley Jackson this is what I do, but I don’t make it a set number because if it rolls like 11 it may go twice. So if it rolls high I do around 8-10, if it rolls low, I do 14-16. Somewhere in the middle, it will just go again, around 1-3.

[@IamIK3]

Ashley Jackson that’s a dope idea! I’m definitely using this.

[@mindartis4081]

Great idea. It’s like a minor form of legendary

[@Worldtraceur]

Great idea, its essentially a legendary action or lair action. Don't be afraid to change monster for your ganes people!

[@jeremydavis6209]

I never thought of that, that's cool

[@tannerlebel5167]

Your intros never cease to impress.

[@DirtyDerg]

Entertain*

[@ANTIMATTERLAZAR]

a player of mine recently got critted down to zero for the second time in the same fight, so I asked if they'd be willing to take a roll on the lingering injury table and they arguably got the best one. Their barb lost an eye, and while base line it's only negatives, to stuff like ranged attack rolls and persuasion, I also gave them a bonus to intimidation, because that seemed appropriate for a character missing an eye.

[@ChristnThms]

Love the video, as usual. A couple observations... Making an encounter more difficult doesn't have to be about slowing the game down. The lengthening of rests and wound/injury ideas have a place. But drudgery isn't the same as challenge. It's sort of like the teacher assigning more homework, rather than coming up with more challenging lessons. I know you guys hate the comparisons to videogames. But we can learn things from them in some cases. In many MMORPGs, one thing that devs do to make an encounter complicated, but still single group capable, is by having respawns mid-fight. This means that regardless of how successful your opening volley of control is, you're going to have to stay on your feet. This concept transfers very well to D&D, with minions adding to the fight and Lair Actions that defeat control mechanics or that call for help. Additionally, these minion adds can be tweaked mid-fight to either ramp up difficulty or back off a bit depending on how the group is doing. It also gives the DM a chance to threaten a back-row PC who is being a little too effective, without having to crush him with the BBEG. Another videogame trope is the escaping BBEG, a character that has an "escape hatch" designed into the encounter, that you'll have to face again at a higher level. Adding Lair Actions and Legendary Actions is a no-brainer, as a way to bump the potency of a single BBEG. I'd be more hesitant to bump AC or to-hit bonuses. Small tweaks here can have a huge impact, and players are usually very aware of these numbers, so you can't really adjust mid-fight if things are going south. In general though, I think that players that want more challenge are NOT interested in lots of downtime and permanent injuries. These things take the adventure out of the game. Slow isn't fun.

[@mandisaw]

+100 for this. I prefer to customize my monsters with more complex & varied tactics rather than just make them last longer. Essentially I measure combat encounter success in terms of "pucker factor" on the part of the PCs. If I mean to test their mettle, then I want to see them sweat a bit, but ultimately enjoy a hard-fought/well-earned victory. I've had one or two misses, where I didn't properly convey the danger level to the PCs (once higher than they thought, once lower). Communication *during* combat is key here. Downtime activities are best-handled away from the table IMO, like over email, or one-on-one with the GM pre/post session. We're all adults, with work/life schedules, so our table-time is very precious.

[@dylandugan76]

Finally, the video that my players don't want me to see, that I definitely don't need to see, but will anyway.

[@samwellfrm]

My house rule is that any time a character is brought to 0 HP, they gain a cumulative level of exhaustion that can only be removed with a long rest.

[@kiyoshiinoto]

I personally like this one and cumulative death save negatives, meaning depending on how many death saves you’ve had to make in that long rest you get that as a mod. Eg in one combat you make two death saves and in another after a short rest you make 2 more the next death save will be made at a -4 even if you had healed or even gotten a nat20 on a save.

[@mechanussunrise]

I am moving to this too.

[@cook279]

The stab-stick resting near the window, menacingly

[@JM-rp5lo]

Could you guys please do a show on the alternate rules in the DMG? Talking about things like proficiency die, speed modifier, etc...

[@kyliepoe6231]

In regards to using crits to cripple PCs... what's cooler, the cleric heals your flesh wound, or the cleric heals the ruined flesh in your eye socket,then with a pop! You can see from it again! Crits can be nasty, fireballs can char the skin, limbs can be hacked off, if you allow magic heals and potions to undo this normally permanent damage, make your combat deadlier with the obvious penalties, but a way to fix them on the fly.

[@bibbobella]

I disagree with being able to heal a severed hand/arm right of the bat. Some damage is harder to deal with than others and should be seen as that. You fighting a firethrowing mage? Well yes you might get burned and that could lead to bad scaring and even pain that might lower your con slightly untill healed but that is still fairly surface level even if you might need to use simple healing magic more than a few times to get all of it. That being said..getting your arm cut off from your elbow and below..Or crushed to bits with a huge hammer? I feel like it should take some more. Would also make getting into a fight with a really well trained fighter be way more scary than it usually is. Mages are without a doubt stronger than fighters overall since they can attack from affar and well..fucking magic..so how about giving the slicers, crushers and smashers a higher chance of making a really lasting impact by giving their crit cripples be way more devastating for a slightly longer time or cost a stronger spelllevel to be able to heal?

[@Draeckon]

It should be noted that lesser restoration and greater restoration are explicitly for healing otherwise permanent damage you describe like severed limbs and ability damage, which includes blindness. Cure wounds and the potion variant thereof are what only heals flesh wounds. Whether or not they can cure broken bones is up to interpretation, but I'd say a broken limb would be one of the possible flavor descriptions of ability damage to your physical stats since a broken limb cannot be used effectively, in which case, you need one of the restoration spells to fix it.

[@kyliepoe6231]

My response to both of these is the same. I know, and this is more fun. Dealing with lost limbs and scarred faces are the mundane concerns of NPCs. The restoration spells are too prohibitive to make this work. It is a change to the rules put out there as an alternative to RAW.

[@vicioushellsing]

Crits are too common on a d20 in my opinion to risk cutting off someones hand. Injuries are something that I incorporated after playing Dark Heresy(crit bases injuries) but for 5e I only use them when someone goes to 0.

[@Tmanowns]

I would maybe be nice, at lower levels, having a confirmed crit (another 20) to sever a player's limb, or maim their eye(s), otherwise blinding them with blood, or breaking a bone. This way a low level cleric can still repair their wounds, but if you're unlucky enough, it's very possible that you could lose a limb. At which point, you could retire the character. I mean, if I lost a leg, I think I'd retire and just work in a tavern.

[@IndorilNerevar-MoonandStar]

Definitely my favorite video so far, I'm going to run Curse of Strahad for my group pretty soon and I was just wondering how I could really drive the danger of Barovia into the heads of the players. Thanks!

[@paulcoy9060]

I also have a plan to use Curse of Strahd, but my idea was to have a full moon Every Night. It's a small demi-plane, and the moon just hangs there. All monsters will have Advantage on their first attack during an encounter, if they are in moonlight.

[@charlesmayes7020]

Playing a game on Roll20 right now with my younger brother DMing for the first time. In his first major combat (hag) we got the jump on the main enemy, meaning she was surprised. On the first turn, the rogue got a critical that dealt huge damage. I immediately messaged my brother to suggest he give the hag the "Alert" feat, so she wouldn't be surprised and would actually get to act before we killed her. It ended up being an awesome fight. (To be clear, my brother had asked me to help out with stuff like that since he's brand new)

[@MrJethroha]

I've been working on a Rest Variant in between RAW and Gritty Realism which emphasizes the difference between "Downtime" places and "Adventuring" places, which encourages players to plan their movement and adventure carefully, and to cherish places where they are actually able to get in a long rest. I call it the "Standard Adventuring Week" rest variant, based on the idea that a party will travel 1 day to the site of their quest, dungeon crawl (or whatever) for 3 days, then travel 1 day back to a safe town for a long rest over the "weekend". So basically every week is equivalent to 1 day in standard play with only 1 or 2 relevant short rests during the "dungeon crawling" phase.

[@williamwalton9154]

The 5e Lord of the Rings has a system like this.

[@danieldosso2455]

I've never been able to integrate Gritty Realism, but everytime I read through the DMG I always love readying Gritty Realism. Just feels more realistic to me. It's like each day you get a little regen for your health and abilities and a long rest is equivalent to a weekend after a long, stressful week of work where you can sleep in and relax for most of the day.

[@Relfar2]

My DM was brand new starting 5e. We've never had a problem dying in the three campaigns we've had

[@Exisist5151]

Gritty Realism makes catnap an amazing spell.

[@branhan215124]

Seeing Jim point a jerryrigged spear at me with such mirth and jollyness on his face- it makes me smile

[@rsl5067]

Big fan of the not editing-out Pruit's sneeze because the editing is generally pretty tight as indicated by the switch to camera 2 so we got a better view of the sneeze. Can't wait for the video editor to level up and give us the sneeze and then follow-up with a slow-motion instant replay. btw, Bless You!

[@theshadow5251]

There is a supplement by giffyglyph called Darker Dungeons. It is a modular rule set that is inspired by Darkest Dungeons. It has rules for stress, crits, a variant on gritty realism, a slot-based inventory system, and much, MUCH more. It's free so check it out! Edit:Spelling

[@cpoates777]

Thank you this will definitely get used

[@Tanglangfa]

CR messes up the fear a lot. I don’t often use it. If they know I’ve picked mobs that are calculated for them to succeed, none of the game really matters. Not knowing if you can beat something or knowing you can absolutely steamroll a fight drastically changes player and character behavior. You’re going to speak with an adult dragon at level 5. You should probably work really hard to make it happy. Plus, normal, low level criminals will still pick a fight. They don’t know you’re a level 20 barbarian, etc. It. An also force them to use the 7488283844 gold they have to hire mercenaries or even an army.

[@drysocks4412]

Just watched the trailer for Darkest Dungeon 2 so this is surprisingly fitting.

[@MikeKilo1969]

At my table we use a more …. realistic rule: 100-50% HP: No restrictions 49-25% HP: Disadvantage on attack roles 24-0% HP: Disadvantage on attack and defense roles. Move at half speed. You would be amazed at how quickly this changes the method of play. Heroes don’t rush in swinging, they actually create plans and utilize everybody’s skills and abilities.

[@badger6728]

My solution: -remove Toughness -replace hit die HP every level with Toughness HP bonus (+2 per level) and add hit die count (for example: a level 5 character has their base HP + 2 + 5) 5e’s major when it comes to combat is issue is HP bloat

[@steveejohnson7932]

The intros get better every episode, I swear. This one made me actually laugh out loud.

[@WebDM]

Yay we got a lol!

[@DanimalCannonOfficial]

lol why did you leave in the giant Pruitt sneeze?

[@WebDM]

Well you did lol, didn't you?

[@chaospastor]

My halfling barbarian is totally a Leeroy Jenkins. Had several situations where the team has to try an stop me from initiating combat! Love every minute of it!

[@IanPanth]

Keith Amman’s The Monsters Know book really helped me consider the uniqueness of each monster.

[@sandimtavares]

I love how Jim and Pruitt are such nice, wholesome people that they can't even keep themselves from smiling on a silly intro where they pretend to be violent.

[@WebDM]

A purge should be a grand old time, shouldn't it?!

[@HumanoidCableDreads]

Was gonna rec that Warhammer Fantasy RPG injury table but then I remembered I got it from you guys to begin with.

[@bobbylind1145]

Where can I find it?

[@HumanoidCableDreads]

@@bobbylind1145 www.windsofchaos.com/?page_id=19

[@HumanoidCableDreads]

@@bobbylind1145 WebDM has a Warhammer Fantasy video where they discuss it in more detail.

[@levishackelton4437]

Our dm does have a house rule for “lingering injuries”. If you lose more than 50% of you hp max in one attack, you roll a d12. If you drop below 25% hp max, roll a d12.

[@leviangel97]

What do the d12 do? Are they damage? Or do you mean that you replace the d20 with a d12?

[@levishackelton4437]

McPeeperson Smith, the d12 determines what type of lingering effects happen. Some are exhaustion, some are crippling a limb, a 1 is you fall prone and go unconscious for one round plus take a level of exhaustion.

[@levishackelton4437]

Exhaustion is the same. Cripple a leg and speed/carrying capacity is halved, cripple both and speed/carrying capacity drops to 0. Cripple an arm and can only use one handed attacks or hold a shield and strength get a -2, cripple both and you can not use your arms and strength get a -4 lingering injury can be cured with a week of bed rest or a lesser restoration.

[@preettygoood7774]

By far the best opening gag I've seen on this channel so far

[@daisyjohnson4837]

Jim: "look at my knife stick!" Pruitt: "do you mean a spear?" Jim: "blocked"

[@merlinmeurer5339]

Our DM wanted to challenge us real hard last week with a 8 on 8 death battle with NPC's of our level with much better equipment and some cheesy forum builds. We defeated them in 5 Rounds with only 1 NPC casulty on our side. It can be hard to make games deadly without making them really unbalanced.

[@zenzin7725]

Pruitt your sneeze made KZbin buffer. That was one powerful sneeze!!

[@vesperschake6241]

I'm excited to run Zweihander for the deadlines

[@prkr07]

My favorite way to make fights more challenging: add a "Focus" legendary action. It uses up all remaining legendary actions, but the next attack the creature makes does double damage if it hits, regardless of roll. And if it crits during an epic-level campaign...maybe it does triple damage.

[@Edenshex_official]

I was expecting a regular intro as usual, but I was not prepared for that cause that was one I was not expecting and I had to pause cause I was laughing too much, good job on the intro alone!

[@jonc2995]

Something my group did to make going down more serious, everytime you dropped to 0 hit points and got back up, you gained one level of exhaustion. Had a lot of healing magic, and had lots of deadly encounters, so it happened a lot.

[@simonblanjean6538]

That intro was easily Top 5 WebDM intros. And it's not an easy thing to achieve.

[@LexFrank-Arcaneium]

Another amazing episode :) I too wear hand knives during my games (just in case the players get frisky)

[@matthewjennings7645]

I've seen suggested for Lingering Injuries to instead just use exhaustion because a random crit is so easy to sustain a permanent injury from, but exhaustion I fear would snowball to harshly to death. The ruling I've come up with is to alternate for each injury after a long rest, the first being exhaustion (themed as bruising or bleeding) and the next being a roll on the injury table. I also use Gritty Realism at the same time and I can't wait to see how it comes together!

[@thevoidcritter]

Sometimes I take a page from the anime/JRPG book and divide my bosses into having different "forms", which forces my party to rethink their strategy in the middle of a battle.

[@andrewbeauman]

6:56 RIP Headphone users

[@bmcgivrn]

Andrew Beauman Saw this comment with two minutes to spare. Thanks!

[@thecosmicspaceturtle]

What a dad sneeze

[@ishmiel21]

Important video! I totally feel that 5E is D&D on "easy mode" so videos like this that reach a large audience are a boon to the hobby!

[@nikrue22]

I use what I call the "Endure System." If a character hits zero, they can choose to endure. If you endure then you fail a death save (which only recovers with a long rest) and roll on the injury table. You roll a d12 to determine the affected limb then you roll a d20 to determine what happens. 1 of 5 effects occur scar(50%), shake(25%), disable(20%), deform(5%) or loss(2.5%). A loss occurs when you roll a 1 twice. Each of these apply different affects based on the effect but in general shake=disadvantage, -2 to certain skills and saves or movement penalty, disable=inability to use that limb or disadvantage to certain skills and saves, deform=permanent penaltys, and loss= your limb comes off or you die(head and chest). Made this myself because I wanted permanent injury to be rare but sprains and dislocations to be more common. I also wanted a system that allows players to choose to risk their characters health in exchange for reward.

[@MrDeadlysirius]

Something ive put in to make dropping to 0 more serious for my players is "lingering injuries". I wrote up a chart and due to the type and "severity" of the damage taken, (I. E. How much past 0 did it take you or narratively how terrible was the hit) theyll be stricken with a condition that carries a lasting penalty that needs a proper medicine check, magic or rest to fix.

[@FlamingWalrus1]

Could you guys think about doing a video on nobility and their lair/homes? I find it to be difficult (especially after this video) to not use nobles power for either a boss or defaulting to stereotypes of medieval castle/noble types. I want my party to not default be against the nobles, make them more neutral than type cast.

[@chandlerpearce6213]

I have a vampire spawn spying on my group currently. She has a magic ring that makes he look alive and stops her by in fried by the sun, so all she does is act like a woman who lost her husband (they wanted to seduce her, which was a perfect time to describe her ring on her finger showing she was “married”). It’s really fun to throw in those NPCs who are displayed in such a way that the hints are there, they just don’t see it.

[@Majikkman13]

You guys always killed it with your episode’s content and the intros, but I’ve been loving the last few months especially. Keep up the awesome work!

[@WebDM]

Thank you so much!

[@elis.5350]

Im part of a campaign that the DM started us in Neverwinter on the cusp of a Eldritch Apocalypse and almost all of our combat encouters were lethal level difficulty not just from strong monsters but from some relatively weak ones with special abilities or that used good tactics and it forced us to play much smarter from the get go he would also keeping us from leveling at some points because it would force him to up the anty either way every time we scraped by by the skin of our teeth using all of our abilities and at the most optimal time and sometime we got through by sheer luck like a monsters random teleport ability keeping himself from us long enough to escape and alot of the time half of our reward money was spent on getting us healed from seriously debilitating conditions...like losing a hand to a series of Saw rooms run by a Chain Devil...and I've loved every minute of it!!

[@lydiasteinebendiksen4269]

For tougher gamesI use slow natural healing and some other variations I've made myself. here are a few: Healing fatigue: Whenever you maically recover hitpoints (spells, potions, etc.) you need to make a constitution saving throw against a DC of the hp you regained-your level, or suffer one level of exhaustion. If you are unconcious the DC is the hp you gained, and if you aren't stabilised you make the save with disadvantage. If you don't like exhaustion for healing fatigue, you can use some other form of penlty unless you want to rework the exhaustion system like I did (to much to describe here). for my purposes, which is making combat healing risky, I add this to give thems some slack: When casting a spell that would restore hitpoints, and has a casting time of an action, you can instead cast it over the course of a minute and the recepient doesn't need to save against healing fatigue. Are they relying too much on healing potions when you use slow natural healing? try this: When using any potion of healing, you recover the amount that is added to the die roll (so if 2d4+4, then you heal 4) and record the dice you would have rolled. Whenever you next finnish a short or long rest, you roll those dice and recover hitpoints equal to the amount rolled (so 2d4 if we continue the example). Wanna slow down the growth of their maxhp? try one of these: 1. they recover either their con modifier or what they rolled on the hit die, rather than both. 2. they gain hp every 2nd level, but devide what they get on this and the next level (half each). 3. Hit dice used to gain hp after 1st level are reduced by one size (d6 to d4, d10 to d8, etc.). 3.2: hit dice used to gain hp after 1st reduce by one size every even level (d4 to d2, then 1hp, then 0) Wanna limit those spells? try this!; Arcane veins: you can only recover spell slots as part of taking a rest (long or short) if you do so near an arcane veins (draw lines on the maps). To know where they are you must aquire a map, ask locals, or experiment. Arcane spirits: spell slots represent magical spirits of energy that wizards catch in their dreams due to a trance they have learned to enter in their sleep. For each spell slot, make a spell attack roll against a DC of 10+the spell slots level. if you fail the spirit escapes and you don't regain that spell slot. (you can set a cap, I only use this rule for 6th level and higher slots) Mentally taxing spell preperation: preparing spells is difficult. Whenever preparing spells you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability modifier for each spell you prepare, where the DC is 10+ the spells level. and if you want some bonus stuff: You can add your proficiency with a skill relevant to your classes spell-casting: arcana-wizards, religion-clerics, nature-druids, or your constitution modifier (in addition to your charisma modifier) if you are a sorcerer. Cantrip slots (for when you want low magic): you must expend 0th level slots, or cantrip slots, when you cast cantrips. You have a number of cantrip slots equal to your level + your spell casting modifier (minimum of 2 slots). If you cast a cantrip that deals damage and it deals more than 1 die of damage (because you're over 5th level) you must expend extra slots for each extra die of damage, or not add that die to the damage roll. You regain all expended cantrip slots when you would regain any number of spell slots of 1st level or higher (arcane recovery, perl of power, sorcerer using flexible casting, etc. in addition to long rests, or short-rests for warlocks) Life force-based magic: whenever you would recover spell slots you must expend a number of hitpoints equal to the slots level (or the magic point cost, see the dmg for points instead of slots for the numbers). You can choose weather or not you want to recover spell slots. Variant: Whenever you cast a spell of 1st level or higher, your current hitpoints are reduced by an amount equal to the spells level (or point cost, up to you). You can choose to suffer one level of exhaustion to forgo this penalty. Vancian magic: when you prepare spells, you must expend a slot of the level you wish to cast that spell at to prepare a spell. You can then cast the spell once without expending any spell slot for it. You may also expend multiple spell slots to prepare the same spell multiple times. Any spell slots you don't expend to prepare spells this way are lost. Spell burning (or reverse vancian magic): When you cast a spell, you can't prepare it again. If you are a wizard, they instead dissapeat from your spellbook, and you have to copy it from a scroll (consuming the scroll) to add it again. If you don't prepare spells, you either gain another penalty (see literally every other system) or you can only cast each spell you know once per 2+ twice the spells level numer of days (so every fourth day for a 1st level spell, and every 20th day for a 9th level spell). magic source dependency: to prepare spells, you must be in a temple for your gods if you use divine spells, in the region of nature that best suits your druid, or in a library with arcane resources if you are a wizard. The process takes a number of hours equal to twice the level of the spell you want to add to your prepared list. Alternate slot recovery: There are several variants; 1. the arcane veins I mentioned earlier 2: mana potions, they work like potions of healing, but restore magic points (see the DMG for magic points instead of spell slots) instead of hitpoints. 3: magic metabolism, you need to eat an aditional half ration of food for each slot, or full ration if the slot is above 5th levle. this will make your wizards crazy about food, which is great. 4: they are bought and sold. You can get official one's for a high price, or black market one's but they might be of a lower level, or trigger wild magic surges when used. This eliminates slot capacity, but you can still use the table for the class as a limit for how many they can use each day, just that they don't recover any. 6: magical super fatigue: whenever you want to recover spell slots, you need to lose level, and then gain the slots for that level. this keeps your wizards far behind, and makes slot recovery so slow you should let them multiclass a level in something else per 2nd level or something.

[@bigfatopinions1338]

Such a great topic! Something I have been struggling with while still making the game feel fair.

[@toshomni9478]

Fantastic video. When using gritty realism 8 hours for a short rest and 24 hours for a long rest makes more sense. Taking a week off for a long rest just seems excessive. From what I've seen using a few minion patrols during and/or after a boss fight would vastly improve the challenge of many encounters. It's fun to keep the pressure on with something that's not too difficult.

[@philippebreault560]

Love your show!!! the weirdest game that i've run was that my players were moon rat (from 3e) and could play them only 3 days per month when they where intelligent but could be randomly killed beetween... they wanted to call forth their moon rat goddess to destrot the little town they where in. One of them was a ranger with cats as favored ennemies. So much fun

[@AnnanMoth]

Oh! I just died in the game tonight It must have been that natural twenty I should have used Disengage...

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

I sang that for some reason. Was that meant to be sung?

[@Meteor2022]

I am running my first real campaign and I started in Curse of Strahd and plan on moving from Barovia to my own world. I have killed 3 party members, 1 resurrected and it was all by doing what the book told me to do XD. Like throwing an Arcanaloth at my 4 person 6 level party which got wiped out by a fireball followed by chain lightning. It really sheds light on why the Abbey quest gives you three uses of resurrection.

[@Meteor2022]

Updated story, I don't even remember commenting this but I'm glad I did. I ran my homebrew world shortly after, and I'm still running it. My campaigns have gotten no less deadly, people who say 5e isn't deadly enough when I'm killing PCs with 10+ levels clearly are being too soft.

[@snarkmarx]

When I googled "how to make dungeons more deadly" this wasn't the content I had in mind..... still enjoyed it tho!

[@1234kalmar]

My dearest friend and DM, please skip this one :'D I want Mendy to live!

[@WebDM]

Good luck Mendy!

[@OriginalWarwood]

I have taken base creatures, changed a detail or 2 (skin colour, added fur, erc) amd provided bonuses to make "new creatures". Bald grey orcs with blindsense, and additional health. Furry goblins with extra health and minor breath weapon. Keeps the party guessing, increases risk, and you don't have rules lawyers explaining that an orc couldn't do that.

[@Ars_Fabula_TTRPG]

The joke in the opening caught me off guard and I laughed like a madman.

[@hasturnz1445]

good commentary. Personally, at higher levels I've found two things very useful - a long rest doesn't se-set hit points (so you have to spend hit dice), also after say 10th level you only get your Con bonus, no more hit dice (so like you said, more like AD&D was). That's not Lethal, it's just keeping a lid on invincible PC's, esp. vs standard monsters

[@deaconnukem]

Use monsters with Withering touch, if you reduce the characters max hp to a low amount the rule of if you take damage equal to max hp in the negative you die instantly will come up more frequently. Also monsters with three or more attacks. First. Hit knocks them unconcious and prone. 2nd attack has advantage and hits it counts as crit which is two death fails. Third attack has advantage and hits the character is dead

[@simonburling3762]

My transmutation wizard had to raise a sorceror who tried to start a dragon three way fight, all he did was give us a 3 dragon at once fight, where a bite/claw/claw attack killed him just as you said. My comment was justice was served.

[@abcdestroyer]

A big change I made that drastically improved my games is making failed death saves persist until a long rest. Players suddenly have urgency to actions and think much more carefully about encounters instead of just rushing in to unga bunga everything.

[@KeacePeeper]

"Death or Glory" doesn't mean anything when ther's no chance of death.

[@dynamicworlds1]

Not just that, but the RP around when death is very seriously on the table can be really good.

[@KittSpiken]

Just another story.

[@alystine6781]

We did come up with quite a list of house rules over time - gritty works but we do 8 hrs short, 24 hrs (in safety) for long rest. This usually means long rests are either between sessions or at very specific points in a given adventure (like that safe castle you just reached). The other one we do is that each time you go to zero HP and are brought back, you gain one level of exhaustion...usually not much bad comes from this but it did feel a bit silly with people going down and up all the time (especially with a life cleric which the group got). EDIT/Addition: while we use 8/24hrs resting rules, it is noticable that any change here isnt well balanced between classes - for example the Wizard has Arcane Recovery while the Cleric really needs that 24hrs pause...but havent found a better way yet to handle this either. A full week definately seems mean, further increasing the value of features that recover on short rests over those that require that 1 week.

[@hammond1994]

LOL! Back in the beginning this, so called, "Gritty Realism", was just the way it was.

[@dirk_gently]

Reduce the ability to take long rests. I think that's about all you need to make life hard on a party. They might smoke 1 encounter, but 3 without a long rest will probably make resource management tricky enough.

[@IAmTheStig32]

I like doing that. It makes martials more viable, and spellcasters are still strong as ever but now they have to actually think about using non-magical solutions or rituals to conserve their slots.

[@Draeckon]

It should be noted that baseline in 5E, the party is already explicitly limited to a single long-rest per 24 hours (and must also have at least 1 HP at the start to benefit from it). They gain no benefits from additional long rests in that time period. Basically, what this means is that you just need to setup the encounters or sets of encounters you want to be difficult in such a way that they are time sensitive - which is pretty easy in most scenarios. Sure, the party can waste two or three days recovering after every fight, but by the time they get to the ritual chamber the ritual's already finished and the captives they were sent to rescue have been dead for hours (bonus points if they now have to fight a much, much harder, possibly suicidal encounter because there's now a pissed off demon in the room or something). Or the princess' kidnappers are long gone with their captive in tow. Or the person suffering from a lethal illness they were sent to get the cure for has already expired. Or the king's assassin has escaped, along with his head, and the crown or whatever other symbol of authority is vitally important to the ruling family. Or the Big Bad beat them to the Macguffin they were going after. Or the invading army managed to break through the city's defenses because the party was too late to stop their infiltration team. Or in the time they're gone, one of the villains have used the party's prolonged absence (or dilly-dallying) to convince a vital NPC to join their cause or make an otherwise terrible and hasty decision (such as turning against the party, if they don't necessarily join the villain). And so on and so forth. It's not actually that hard to punish players for trying to abuse long rests. Even if the encounters themselves aren't made harder, their continued insistence on dragging their feet will quickly ruin any hope of having any kind of meaningful relationships with NPCs. If it's a party motivated most by greed, it's even easier since a lot of patrons or quest-givers will _not_ be pleased with them if they come back with suitably sub-par results, even if they technically succeed; leading to either a reduced reward or no reward at all. Possibly even the threat of a severe punishment depending on the context. If they don't correct their behavior, it's not hard to imagine that NPCs with more worthwhile rewards to offer might decide not to seek them out for help when they learn of their reputation... though at this point, if you really haven't had a chat with your players about this being a problem, what are you even doing? Abuse of the long rest mechanic is only a problem if you as the DM let it happen. More so now than ever with how the mechanic works these days.

[@dirk_gently]

@@Draeckon huh, I guess i never noticed that was RAW. You and your fancy "I can read" nonsense. :)

[@jamestanzer9188]

I'll second anything that nerfs full casters.

[@Seoulwanderer]

I agree with this... I had a team of adventurers sneaking through a ruined city full of enemy soldiers and the danger felt real. They might ambush and kill a few guards at a time, but if they got reckless, they got swarmed. And not allowing them a long rest while in the enemy controlled city definitely made them watch their resources carefully.

[@Stupidtalkspointlessthoughts]

My favorite thing to do to showcase the lethality of a trap/room/monster is to have a super helpful cheery DMPC get wrecked by it either through arrogance, ignorance, or curiosity

[@nicogrey1728]

Use Tomb of Beasts monsters for challenges. Usually they're much more complex and versatile in combat and most players aren't familiar with them so metagame knowledge isn't a problem. Also giving enemies a healer makes battle much longer and more difficult and tactical

[@dokidokiduckie]

One thing I love to do is create a 2nd phase for my monsters that are meant to be notable encounters. Depending on how the pacing of the fight is going, I decide when that 2nd phase begins, if at all. Sometimes that first phase is more than epic and challenging enough, other times it's an "oh fuck" moment in an otherwise straightforward battle that leaves the heros second guessing!

[@mordiveer5957]

It seems like every week you guys tackle the exact problem im trying to solve! Thanks for these great insights once again!

[@NoNamesLeft0102]

Just realized. The purge in an area overrun by devils who have it in their contract would be terrifying. Using

[@rileymcleran2895]

All my boss stat blocks come with max hp plus "tough" (2hp per hit dice), and some player class levels (with rolled hp and feats) to flavor the monster. A white dragon would probably have barbarian levels and durability feats, while a green dragon might be an arcane trickster with anti magic and mobility feats. A legendary storm giant champion might be a fighter or ranger with weapon feats. Etc etc.

[@therocketboost]

Fellas, some quick shooting/editing tips. Not trying to be snarky, think you guys do great work but think these could help. If you're shooting with a window behind, your guys' faces are gonna be in shadow, recommend using a reflector or some lights to balance that out. But if you're going to be shooting with bright light coming in I also recommend attaching an ND filter onto your lens to cool down that white light. I also recommend using the Lumetri Color tool in Premiere (or your software equivalent if different) to match the look and colour balance between your wide shot and close up camera angles to make cuts smoother. This can be minimized by matching up during setup, but its hard to get perfect so doing it in post is fine. I would run a noise reduction tool in Audition (or whatever you use), capturing some room tone as the sample, to get rid of background fuzz. When you're jumping between cuts, fade the audio between them to make them less jarring.

[@MastertheGamerpg]

All of these tips are great. Nothing new here for me but I can see why others need this video. This is a common complaint from old school gamers it seems who like always deadly games.

[@HoundofOdin]

This is my favorite episode so far. One option I've used for increased challenge and lethality is giving everyone Wizard hit points and bumping up the damage dice by two steps. Everyone is rolling a d4 for hit points, and if the module says 1d6 of damage, I bump it up to 1d10. That mob of goblins looks a lot more deadly now, doesn't it?

[@vladislav8989]

I've been considering, since HP is the amalgamation of both ability to endure harm and the battle fatigue that comes from narrowly evading harm. That a more lethal way of calculating damage would be that normal damage affects your battle fatigue and reduces HP normally but crits are real damage and reduce your HP maximum. Then short/long rests recover normal damage but to restore HP maximum requires medical attention. Healing spells short of restoration only reinvigorate the body but do not mend wounds.

[@joesgotmore]

Just got an idea for HP watching this video. Start with Max HP at lvl 1 then each level after first minus 1 from max until you get the minimum for your class. This would gradually lower the HP as they climb in levels. Every class would reach the minimum HP based on the HD they have. So a wizard would reach his/her minimum by level 6 and a barbarian would get to his minimum by lvl 12. Only thing is multiclass would have to go by the overall level to be fair. So a lvl 3 Wizard, lvl 3 Barbarian would be 6+5+4 then (minus 4 from barbarian) 8+7+6 for a total of 36+Con.

[@loki.odinson]

Well done guys!! Excellent video.

[@patrickduvall6855]

I'm currently running an Epic Legacy to level 30 in Eberron right now and working on one to run in Toril. Keeping those encounters deadly when the cleric becomes an Archon is going to be hard

[@stevenburton7725]

Thank you for the Berserk reference

[@jelte3754]

This video came out just when our party needed it, thanks!

[@petegiant]

I have the following rule: failed death saving throws are only removed by spending a hit dice at the end of a rest. 1 hit die per failed death saving throw.

[@lord6617]

Giving a single large enemy minions which are actually threatening can be really deadly. I really liked that early fight that Critical Role had in the start of season 2 against ______. ________ summoned 3 Imps, and suddenly the party had 2 people downed, healer at low hp, and danger in the wind.

[@AlternityGM]

The optional rule about short rest being 8 hours and long rest bring one week would make combat more deadly if players have wait an entire week to get back all hit points absent magic. Also making PCs make Fatigue checks on critical hits and when they wake up after being knocked out in combat