Hi there, fellow DMs!
I'm a fairly new DM (as in: I have around 20 sessions behind my back), and while my players seem to be enjoying the campaign, I've run into a bit of a problem.
Namely, that the three godsdamned paladins are trivializing most combat encounters.
They just leveled up to level 8, but even at level 7:
- Attack rolls against them? LOL, CR 7-9 enemies usually have +6-+8 to hit at most; they will miss the paladins (and the cleric) in plate armor + shield 60-75% of the time.
- Saving throw abilities and spells? Fuck me, aura of protection, everybody gets +2 or more to all their saves.
- Even if a spell slips through? Ancients paladin. Whoever came up with the Aura of Warding at WotC deserves a kick in the head. Everybody near the paladin takes half damage from every spell (quarter if they make the save) because balancing encounters is soooooooooooooo easy!
And that is just their passive abilities. There's of course the usual issue of smites (the three of them can easily deal 24d8 damage in one turn, that's 108 on average - and that's without accounting for crits or them stacking a smite spell on it too). Ranged enemies? LOL, orbital laser goes BZOT! (Moonbeam) Or they'll just leave them to the ranger, cleric, and the warlock. And if they still get banged up, they have 105 HP of dedicated healing between them (plus the cleric and the ranger).
Is there any way to make combat encounters challenging for this party besides trying to overwhelm them through action economy (it's a party of 6, so that would take a shitton of monsters and turn the combat into a slog), finding a way to force them into 6-8 encounters between long rests (wouldn't do anything about the passive abilities but it would at least curtail the smite-nukes), or turning the game into Dark Souls with every monster being a horrible damage sponge that can one-shot any player on a hit?
Because at this point I'm afraid that anything shy of a tarrasque would be a minor inconvenience at best instead of a challenge or a boss.
3 paladins, 6 players, what's the other 3?
Any fireballs?
A mob of smaller enemies could give a bit of work to paladins, between raw numbers and pack tactics or stuff like that.
Running hordes by Sly Flourish might help keep it reasonably flowing: https://slyflourish.com/running_hordes.html
Even if they get fireballed, at least those characters get to shine for once.
Keep in mind that you, as a DM, "win" whenever everyone's having fun, not when you beat them.
That said, it sure is fun for everyone when you give them a challenge.
You can also put pressure on them indirectly.
If they're so fearful, maybe the monsters just avoid them so they can focus on easier pickings.
Their martial prowess is unmatched, sure, but how do the bad guys deal with it?
Maybe the bbeg sacrifices fodder to occupy the party to buy themselves time to focus on whatever ritual or macguffin.
Even goblins could overwhelm them eventually, given the numbers. A hundred? A thousand?
Also, the party can't be everywhere at once.
The ones occupying the PCs die just fine, but the other hundred still ransacked the town.
Whether the PCs crush the monsters might not matter to your bbeg if they can just delay them long enough to accomplish their goals.
Maybe the bbeg has a doppelganger win their trust or manipulates them somehow.
Mechanically, your paladins probably dumped dex or int. Feeblemind, Enemies Abound, Mebtal Prison, Synaptic Static or even Mind Sliver could be annoying.
But then, is it fun? Idk.
A few mindflayers ambushing them, or maybe a vampire turning a beloved NPC.
If you can't challenge their martial prowess, challenge their morals.
Will the party keep messing with the bbeg plans, or will they focus their efforts on saving that npc, buying the bbeg time.
Maybe a one way portal can spice things up more than a bag of hp or a save-or-suck effect.
Idk
Worse. One of the other players is a Forge cleric. Wall of Fire, Guardian of Faith, or Spirit Guardians all make mincemeat out of minions. Then there's a hexblade who can treat minions like medkits on legs. And a ranger who can use hail of thorns to cluster bomb them.
My goal of course isn't a TPK, it's to make them sweat for their victory, for once. And in that, I'm feeling like a failure. Combats should feel meaningful, after all, with real stakes and uncertainty. But as of now the only uncertainty about them is whether the paladins will finish it in 3 turns, or 2 because they roll a crit.
(I do have a mindflayer encounter prepped in the near future, but it won't last long either. If any of them make the save vs. the mind blast - and some will, because 1) Aura of Protection, and 2) Their dice loathe me - then they will turn it into calamari in about 0.00234 nanoseconds. Whatever minions I throw in won't matter at that point.)
Take a few mindflayers, including arcanists.
Sure, the party could wreck them in close combat, they know that.
Levitating to be our of melee, splitting/cornering the party with a wall of force in a nice ambush spot with difficult terrain, and just mind blasting them.
If they ever lose the upper hand, they can just plane shift and come back later, better prepared.
Maybe their minion fodder are hobgoblin warlords.
I feel like most enemies encountering this party would avoid the melee meat grinder if at all possible.
The party can probably wreck an aboleth too if they face off head-on, not that the aboleth would give them such an opportunity.
I'd recommend TheMonstersKnow.com [... what they're doing].
It's a blog which is also available in book form with tactics for monsters.
I tried restraining the paladins before.
Any restraint that can be escaped with a save is useless. They all have very high strength scores, not too shabby DEX, and there's the Aura of Protection. And when I tried any other restraint, they just misty-stepped out of it because, hey, why have a class that can tank, heal, buff, DPS, and be the face of the party when you can have a class that can tank, heal, buff, DPS, be the face of the party, and can jump in the face of any ranged enemy who tries to abuse their one weak spot? "Party balance? Dafuq is that?" - WotC, probably. (I'm just glad there's no fighter in the party, they would feel absurdly useless.)
I know about The Monsters Know... but if the monsters knew what they were doing, it would be a reeeeeeeeeally boring campaign, because the monsters know not to be where this party is.
Thanks anyway!