Samuel Wise
Demigod
Ready to Help...
Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Apr 13, 2015 17:48:20 GMT
I have only played 2 games as of yet (and still looking for a new gaming group) and I am not entirely sure how to build battle encounters in 5e. I have been looking at the exp to battle charts in 5e, but they do not make too much sense. Does the exp table count toward a group of people or just a single person in a battle? How do you make monsters stronger (level them up) so that players meet stronger versions of past monsters? Just thinking that this might be important for the next group I'll be playing with. How do you build battle encounters?
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Post by joatmoniac on Apr 13, 2015 18:23:42 GMT
If you are using the table from the DMG pg 82 you would evaluate each character on the table and add up the totals to find the amount of XP you can spend on monsters for the encounter you are building. Granted these are more of guidelines rather than set rules, as certain things certain monsters can do will be easier or harder for each group, but it is a really nice guideline to start from. This is of course easier if the group is consistently the same level across all players. If you have five level three characters and want to present them with a Hard encounter you would multiply the 225 XP by five and have an XP budget of 1125 to spend on the monsters. Giving monsters class levels is a great way to beef them up and be harder for the players to defeat. I lean towards more monsters (within reason) as they bring with them more action economy. A single large monster gains all of the focus of the party, and may go down quicker than you expect, and will either be a scenario where you fudge how many hit points they have so that they are at least marginally effective, or where the monster comes across as a chump. There is no guaranteed method by which you can make an encounter because of how different every DM and group is, but hopefully this info is helpful, and hopefully others have ideas too!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2015 19:39:05 GMT
I posted this over on the DM resources thread awhile back, but here's a link to the encounter-builder-by-CR I use. Not my own creation, can't remember who made it or I'd give credit. It's a bit more elegant than the XP calculator default, and accounts for a high disparity in monster CRs, rather than the default which just says to ignore them. It's been pretty spot on for designing appropriate difficulty challenges through PC level 9, but I'm not sure how it holds up beyond that. Level Charts
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Post by DMC on Apr 13, 2015 21:06:32 GMT
I'm STILL looking for that sweet spot. Sometimes I feel an encounter is way too easy, other times it borders on TPK, and that's just using the tables out of the DMG.
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Samuel Wise
Demigod
Ready to Help...
Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Apr 13, 2015 21:31:03 GMT
If you have five level three characters and want to present them with a Hard encounter you would multiply the 225 XP by five and have an XP budget of 1125 to spend on the monsters. That explains why everything felt a little too easy. thanks for the replies and the chart. Very helpful...
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Post by joatmoniac on Apr 13, 2015 22:16:50 GMT
I'm STILL looking for that sweet spot. Sometimes I feel an encounter is way too easy, other times it borders on TPK, and that's just using the tables out of the DMG. I agree, all you need are a few clerics that totally fit into the XP table from the DMG and have them cast the mind numbing Inflict Wounds. Three to thirty damage from a 1st level spell, or the awesome might of a bugbear who gains surprise and hits for what is essentially 2d8+2d6(or 7)+2 for a measly 200 XP. I love that lower levels are more deadly in this edition, but finding that balance between faceroll and instant kill is hard to do. I haven't done much at higher levels, and wonder if it normalizes out more at those levels? Have you guys done any higher level encounters?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2015 23:43:55 GMT
I'm STILL looking for that sweet spot. Sometimes I feel an encounter is way too easy, other times it borders on TPK, and that's just using the tables out of the DMG. I agree, all you need are a few clerics that totally fit into the XP table from the DMG and have them cast the mind numbing Inflict Wounds. Three to thirty damage from a 1st level spell, or the awesome might of a bugbear who gains surprise and hits for what is essentially 2d8+2d6(or 7)+2 for a measly 200 XP. I love that lower levels are more deadly in this edition, but finding that balance between faceroll and instant kill is hard to do. I haven't done much at higher levels, and wonder if it normalizes out more at those levels? Have you guys done any higher level encounters? Yes and no. It really depends on how safe the higher level party feels expending their daily resources. If they alpha strike (first round, majority of PCs have high initiative and use their biggest attacks), they'll probably turn a deadly encounter into a medium or easy by the end of the first round. Thus, tracking PC resources and learning their behavior becomes an integral part of encounter design. I've run groups that only use their long rest resources sparingly, because they're always expecting something worse just around the corner. Others burn through their resources like gasoline, reasoning that every HP of damage they don't take now is one they'll have for whatever comes up next. It does normalize compared to low levels, but the game is always swingy regardless of level, because we're dealing with a 1-20 random success range for every action.
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