I seriously don't get it. 5e is already an edition with a lot of hp inflation and low lethality, mainly if compared to 2e. Why inflate enemy hit points even further? I saw an lv 4 spider in a cave with freaking 138 hp. Back on 2e times, Vecna, a Legendary demigod Lich had 150 hp. Demogorgon, one of the most legendary demon lords, had 200 hp. Myrkul avatar, 228. Goblins which you cold slay an entire army with an single fireball on previous BG, takes so much time to die. It is not fun or engaging, just boring.
138 hp is enough to soak 18 heavy crossbow bolts from a good(+3 dex/str) hunter. firing dozens of eldritch blasts, firebolts, arrow shots and polleaxes swings is not fun or engaging. Just tedious.
5e already has a lot of bloat. We don't need more hp bloat. Especially in a turn based game with slow animations and no option to use concurrent turns like ToEE had.
Really? One of my biggest complaints for the 5e monster manual is how few hitpoints everything has relative to the amount of damage players do
A level 10 party can kill most CR10 monsters in a single round. A level 9 hexblade sharpshooter can do over 100 damage with a single arrow
The queen spider is not balanced for a fourth level party, by the way, it's closer to a young red dragon in CR than it is to a Giant Spider
but...yeah... don't use 2e hp values to make any judgements, this isn't 2e. A 5th level party has ABSOLUTLEY no problem chewing through 138hp, and you should really be 5th before fighting the Spider Queen Fight (literally nothing compels you to battle it at level 3-4, you can just go past it) Let me lay out ONE good round (assuming the game is finished):
- Laezel uses Great Weapon master to attack four times (Action surge.) Statistically, she'll miss twice, so she uses Precision Attack to hit. She uses Menacing Attack on the two that already hit.
She deals on average 89 points of damage if all four hit (really! do the math yourself, I might be wrong cuz its 3:26am, but it sounds right to me. 2d6+3+2d6+3+2d6+3+2d6+3+1d8+1d8+10+10+10+10)
- Wyll uses hex on the spider and casts Scorching Ray at third level, dealing 12d6 points of damage, averaging out to 42 damage (assuming they leave in 2x casts in one turn)
-Wyll's imp stabs the Spider Queen for 5 points of damage, killing her
- Gael uses Fireball to destroy minions
- Shadowheart casts Spirit Guardians, huddling around the party, to deal 14 damage to anything that comes within 15 feet of the party and slow its movement to a crawl
Yes this is, statistically, a VERY good round, but in just ONE good round, with two party members not doing anything to the spider queen, they've killed it
The reason I say 5th level is that it seems to me like the spider queen fight is a pretty well balanced encounter for a 5th level party
