Make Tactical, Memorable Combat (Patreon)
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Are those little demigods some call PCs running all over your encounters without breaking a sweat? Maybe they've even had the audacity to call the encounters “easy.” 5th edition has really ramped up the power levels of the players, and as the DM you may find it difficult to meaningfully challenge them. You can always spend more XP on your encounter budget to increase the challenge, but giving all your combats the “Deadly” difficulty also makes the fights a lot more swingy, where a couple bad rolls can spell a sudden TPK. Instead, try adding the following tactical elements to your fight which has the dual benefit of making combat more challenging without increasing the encounter budget, and engages your players more by forcing them to cooperate and pay attention even when it's not their turn.