TOPIC: Dungeon Difficulties Suggestion

My group ran our first Nightmare this year using our tokens (we had previously ran a Nightmare with Mike Steele's tokens).

This was a hodgepodge of 1st year players, 3rd year players and a number of seasoned veterans. We tackled Underdark Combat.

I was not expecting us to defeat the final boss (which we didn't) but I thought we should be able to make it there which we did.

We have a number of relics sprinkled amongst the various characters, but we are still using a bunch of rares in other slots like armor and ioun stones.

The difficulty felt right too me. We were able to defeat everything but the final boss. It did take us usually 4 rounds of combat and most of the time. Some of that was due to poor sliding some of it too the difficulty of the monster.

Only one of my veterans was unhappy about the Mind Flayer's blink. Everyone else I think was just enjoying the run.

We had finished Sable Puzzle on Hardcore an hour before with only 4 making it to the final room. But that was because of poor planning on my part (I didn't insist on 2 healers with our 2 cutting wizards) and because no one listened to me when I said attack the egg sacks.

I think Nightmare was very appropriate this year.

I really liked the Nightmare difficulty this year.

Yes, it was harder than in past years. And yes, the Coaches (in as much as I noticed) warned us of that fact when we asked for Nightmare.

I don't know if it's safe to make the assumption that all Nightmare parties will be equipped with Legendaries and Artifacts. Fully min/maxed with URs? Yes. But if you set Nightmare at a level where Legendary equipment is necessary to make it through, then you're setting the barrier too high for people who just don't have that $$ to invest. Make it UR+, and if people kitted in Legendaries & Artifacts want it tougher, they can do a 5-man run, or choose to go in with no healing potions, or slide with their off hand for a challenge.

The Treasure Stamps thing, tho....

I've been thinking about it quite a lot, and I think (in retrospect) that I like the new ruling.
I like it for the Hardcore & Nightmare groups, at least.

Please, let's go back to the old ruling for Normal mode ("Did you solve the room? Then you get the treasure!") so New Players are not adversely affected. If a new player gets to use their awesome Boots of Lava Walking, more power to them! If newbies want to brute force it.. they take damage, and have to spend valuable resources healing up. Let them make that choice.

Let Hardcore have X chances for mistakes (1? 2? maybe 3?)

Then... give Nightmare zero tolerance.
I mean, let's face it: If you're playing on Nightmare, you've got some URs, and odds are pretty good that some of those URs will be treasure enhancers. You're not going to walk away with Zero Treasure, the way newbie groups might.

But whatever you do, make sure the information is communicated ahead of time.

Saying ahead of time that one misstep will cost you the treasure... that's harsh, that's intense, and I don't have a problem with that on Nightmare. If it's clearly communicated.

I would say bring back the mini true dungeon adventure. It was fewer rooms and was still a lot of fun, I played back when I was still rather new. Give no exp for it and only 1 treasure pull, no matter what tokens you have or what your level is.
Having a simple dungeon like that just for new people, at least in my opinion would help a lot. I know it takes a lot to build a dungeon and staff it, but I really think it would be worth it.