u/skypandakicks

a little context, as of now we have a party of 6 level 4's, consisting of 2 rogues, a paladin, a druid, a sorcerer and a bard. in a session or 2 we'll not only be leveling up but we'll be introducing a new player to the game, a barbarian/artificer. it feels like if i throw anything at the party they'll just one-shot it or it will destroy them.

is there any tips anyone has on how to ideally balance encounters like this? i know i can add minions and such, but i havent played enough with this size of a party to know how much is too much

if a guard or npc grabs the player preventing them from moving and the player fails the check to break free, can they just retry?

ive tried looking this up and it seems retrying checks is allowed but it seems very case by case.. so im honestly not sure?

in the original context, if someone fails something like that, how many times can they try? should i just be telling them no? im just confused tbh

i wanna send my players through a maze with a giant monster inside, simple question really

should i be asking the party which direction they wanna turn every time there is one? or should i make them role a check to see if they go down the right path or not? or if theres any other ideas, if the maze is complicated enough 1 seems annoying and tedious, but 2 seems like defeating the purpose of the maze

for context im running a campaign set in a multi-layer dungeon, think SAO, or Danmachi sorta deal. so far to proceed to the next floor the need to beat the floor boss, however im experimenting with other ways of getting to the next floor such as puzzles, mazes or just straight up looking for it for certain floors. for instance this next floor im running just requires them to locate the exit without being killed by the floor boss. but knowing the party they will probably try to fight the boss regardless. they know its something i wanna experiment with but should i be telling them "hey this boss is optional, you dont need to kill it to proceed"? or should i just let them figure it out?

In the game I’m running I have 5 level 2 players running around this SAO style dungeon with multiple floors, as of right now every long rest you can consume a ration to reset starvation, but considering there won’t be many towns (if any at all) on certain floors, I wanna find a way where they can pull a dungeon meshi and cook whatever they come across. Any advice helps, like what skill check to use or if there’s any websites that have useful dnd cooking info as when I looked it up it seemed really confusing?

i try to have a battle encounter every session, but in the wild im struggling to figure out what to throw at my party, like ive done goblins and a couple wild animals, but like should i just throw more goblins at them? i dont exactly wanna reuse monsters over n over, but they are a level 2 party of 5 and i dont have enough experience to know what they can exactly handle.. any advice?

i am a DM and something i really find interesting is encountering monsters and creatures you are supposed to outsmart, hide from or get away from.

ive been thinking of trying something like it in my own game but i was wondering, has anyone ran an encounter that the party was not supposed to fight and try to avoid? how did it go? is there a way to properly handle these types of encounters?