The increasing difficulty in DnD 5e isn’t exactly like in video games, where you just open settings, change the option in a drop-down menu, and finish with it. In DnD, the DM is the one adjusting the whole game setting and making sure it’s not too hard or too easy for anyone playing.
The fact that DMs are changing difficulty on their own while taking care of everybody is what makes it a tough thing to do. So hold on tight as we delve into why, how, and when the DMs are making your game more challenging.
Upgraded Difficulty – Who Is It For?
First of all, a DnD harder difficulty doesn’t benefit everyone, as it can introduce extra rules that players need to follow. More often than not, these new rules will make the game harder to survive, play, and generally keep up with.
I would say that taking the game to a new level is best for veteran and experienced players. New players often get too much on their plate trying to wrap their heads around character creation, basic combat rules, and other game elements.
A party of experienced DnD players who’ve played at least a couple of campaigns before will not be struggling to get the grips on the new rules that will make them strategize a lot more and think ahead of time. Even then, new rules should be added one by one, and the DM should check with everybody if they agree on introducing the new proposed rule.
How Can a DM Increase Difficulty?
There are numerous ways a DM can turn the tide in the game and provide you all with a fearsome challenge. I’ll introduce some most often used ones that I’ve experienced as well.
Spicing Things Up
The quickest and most simple thing a DM can do for the team to make their character’s lives more miserable is to spice things up with some creative gameplay tweaks that don’t require adding any new rules.
For example, if I noticed that my party was having an easy time fighting off enemies and leaving virtually unscathed I would up the difficulty by introducing them to new environmental conditions or natural habitats. An icy cold cave that would give them a disadvantage on movement, would benefit the giant polar bear living inside, or a dense jungle that gives their lizard enemies a lot of opportunities to ambush them.
Random Character Stats
When just starting the game, instead of using fixed values, you can roll for them. This is one old-school rule that can be implemented to make your game more complicated if you wish.
If everyone or most of you are lucky, you can get away with some solid stats. However, rolling for stats also opens an option of starting off with fewer points in various stats than expected.
In some of my previous games, the biggest problem occurred when people got a lot less HP than they expected. Whether it was a front-line fighter that was supposed to be a tank for all of us or the backline healer type that just wanted not to be too fragile, in both cases, players had it really bad to try to play with that kind of a beginning. But, then, that’s the point, isn’t it?
Massive Damage rule
A rule that you can introduce to easily make everyone’s game more difficult is the Massive Damage rule. What it essentially does is that it opens up an opportunity for everyone (players or monsters) to one-shot each other.
When a creature or a character strikes another with an attack that is equal to half or more of their HP, they force that damaged party to roll a Difficulty Class (DC) 15 Constitution Saving Throw. This means that the attacked one now must roll a d20 on top of which they will add their Constitution modifier but the total result needs to be higher than 15.
It might not sound like much, but scoring 16 on a DC15 Saving Throw is hard. If you’re in this situation and you’re not successful, your character could end up with serious permanent injuries or even death.
Monsters have the upper hand when it comes to this rule since you will often be fighting as a party versus a single strong monster. His chances of knocking half of someone’s HP are much greater than vice versa.
Add a Dose of Reality
Some rules are making the game more of a challenge just by adding a bit more reality to it. The first one is called the Lingering Wounds rule, which essentially leaves a character or a monster with a lasting wound when they suffer a critical hit and drop to zero HP without dying or when they fail a death saving throw by 5 or more.
Now, even though this can happen to both you and the monsters, think of a situation when you’ve encountered the exact same enemy twice. I can’t.
In most DnD campaigns, you would end your fight with a monster and be done with it (whether you’ve killed him, captured him, or something else). On the other hand, you would be stuck with that wound until a short rest, long rest, or until some of the stronger healing powers are used on you (depending on how serious the wound is).
The second reality check rule is called Encumbrance. Encumbrance is a rule that limits how much stuff your character can carry around with them. Think of it as an inventory in a classic video game RPG.
By default rules of DnD, every character will have a much bigger inventory than it’s realistic, as they can carry 15 times their Strength Score in pounds.
If Encumbrance is introduced, everyone will go down from 15 times their Strength Score to 5 times their Strength Score. Exceeding the limit is possible, but as soon as you do you will get a disadvantage in movement.
It is a cruel rule but it will change how your party carries around things. You will have to decide who will carry the potions, which loot is worth carrying and which is not, etc.
As you can see there are multiple ways to make your game hard and challenging with just one additional move or rule. However, think this through seriously with your friends before you embark on a journey with one of these rules.
The increased difficulty of games with what some like to call weird DnD rules isn’t for everybody.
