Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Xeviat-DM Jun 21, 2015 11:32:42	Hi everyone; please, not an edition war thread. After running 5E for a while, I'm finding myself pulling out my 4E DMG for encounter building advice. While 5E doesn't have defined monster roles like 4E had, the roles are still there, just hidden. I've been looking at the encounter templates, and I'm converting them to 5E to help me out with combat encounter design a bit. Here's the templates, as they were in 4E; remember, a standard encounter was made up of X creatures of Y level, where X was equal to the number of PCs and Y was equal to the PCs' level (standard difficulty only):   Battlefield Control 1 controller of level n+1, 6 skirmishers of level n-2   Commander and Troops Commander of level n+3, 5 troops of level n-2 (replce some troops with artilery for variety)   Dragon's Den Solo monster of level n or n+1 or Solo monster of level n-1 Elite monster of level n-2   Double Line 3 front line (brute/soldier) of level N 2 rear line (artillery/controller) of level N or 3 front line of level n-2 2 rear line of level n+3   Wolf Pack (one of my favorites) 7 skirmishers of level n-2 or 5 skirmishers of level n   Encounter building in 5th requires a little more work. There isn't a simple formula like Level +/- X. But these templates are still useful to building varied encounters.   What are some encounter set ups you've found enjoyment with in the past?
#2 Danny_Montanny Jun 22, 2015 5:27:15	I find there is a lot more nuance than encounter = x + y. 5 goblins with short bows and cover on top of a 60ft difficult terrain hill will give your party a lot more trouble than 5 goblins out in the open. It's still just 5 goblins worth of XP, though.   You really need to start with the why of the encounter first. What's the dramatic question that needs to be answered from this encounter? When you throw tactics and motivations for the enemy NPCs the CR is much harder to figure out, and no formula can account for it. I just worry about the reason why the encounter should happen in the first place. Then figure out the CR as the DMG details. If it's about right, I go with it, if not then I'll do some tweaking. It'll never be encounter = x + y, and I'm thankful for that. The encounters seem real and fitting to the narrative. It's not just PC + Monsters + white room = fight.
#3 BadMeeple Jun 22, 2015 6:04:49	The Angry GM posted a series of articles with some suggestions for building combat encounters. They were partly inspired by some of the material in the 3E Dungeonscape book.   http://theangrygm.com/the-angry-guide-to-akicking-combats-part-1-picking-your-enemies/   http://theangrygm.com/the-angry-guide-to-kicka-combats-part-2-battlefields-and-battlefeels/   http://theangrygm.com/the-angry-guide-to-kickass-combats-part-3-lets-make-some-fing-fights-already/
(Reply to #3) Danny_Montanny	BadMeeple wrote:
#5 Xeviat-DM Jun 22, 2015 23:09:04	The 5E book does say that if you put in a terrain feature that benefits the enemies, then up the difficulty by one step in your considerations; if you do the opposite, reduce the difficulty. So that's there in the books already.   I'll definitely read the articles!
(Reply to #5) Danny_Montanny	Xeviat-DM wrote:
#7 Wuzzard Jun 23, 2015 18:26:06	I know this will sound curmudgeon-y, but I've never used encounter building rules or advice in my 30+ years playing this game. I might adjust an element or two on the fly if the encounter is not going well or not interesting enough challenge for the scenario, but I'm not going to do any math to white room prove that it fits into some expected mold. My encounters exist because of the story, and they are what they are.   If you are uncertain about the lethality of an encounter, just split it up, if after the first round the PCs are having no issues, introduce more baddies. If they are barely keeping their heads above water, hold off on the rest and incorporate them later, maybe only a few rounds later to either get give them a chance to heal or chose to hide or retreat.   If it's just one big solo, and it looks too formidable during actual play, just ease up or introduce new elements or goals for the critter, not all creatures are always looking for the kill. Maybe it's just enough to lay out some overwhelming punishment and back off, as it's probably got better things to do.     Be inventive, switch it up!  Make mistakes!
#8 MechaPilot Jun 23, 2015 18:27:01	Wuzzard wrote: