When building an encounter, I typically type up a word document with the stats of all of the monsters so I can quickly reference all of the monster stat blocks on one easy to reference page. This is obviously time consuming. The biggest thing I would want is the ability to select monsters and compile their stat blocks in a single location. If that location is on a computer screen that would be OK, but I would really like it to be a printable PDF.
Right now I use screenshots of stats and abilities and print them out, as I've seen some other folks here do here also. I also, sometimes, print out pictures to show to players.
I agree with Matt and others on XP calc, DMG, CR, and terrain filters. I also like the idea of the DM "Fudge Factor" suggested by Kerrec. Perhaps that could be something along the lines of a player or campaign experience setting. Maybe a scale from newbie to godlike that would auto adjust the cr rating and add in more challenging encounters if you've built a party of twinks? Loot calc table would be awesome too!
Something that I always find challenging is keeping track of a mixed monster encounters special abilities. I would love it if you could highlight, or checkbox, any special abilities you really needed to keep track of and that would show up as it's own tab for all creatures in the encounter. I know it's my job as a DM to keep track of that kinda stuff but in large scale battles that gets crazy and I find I forget some cool ability that could have enhanced the encounter! :)
There needs to be some kind of encounter tool added to D&D Beyond.
It would allow DMs to build encounters in advance, and link all the content in the encounter to each monster, NPC, notes sheet, etc.. The option to number them however you want and name them would be amazing. Also, maybe an option to auto add all the XP for encounter too?
It would just be a simple Encounter block with quick links for the DM, should be pretty easy to layout (much like the modules already do)
Example:
EC1 "Troll Ambush" 10,000 EXP or 1,666 EXP per player
x3 Trolls
x1 Troll Shaman
x1 Dire Troll
Treasure: Ring of Protection, 13 gold, 11 Silver, old dirty boots.
Each NPC, Monster, Treasure Item you would be able to link them to any content you've purchased or created in Homebrew.
Public Mod Note
(Stormknight):
Post merged from it's own thread
I like to build out several encounters based on what the players might do for the session, and then pick one that's relevant for the situation and area they're in. To me, manageability of a lot of different encounters is crucial.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
I currently use Improved Initiative (http://www.improved-initiative.com) running on my laptop. I show the player window on a large screen tv so the players can see health status, conditions, initiative, turns, etc. I configure encounters in advance (tedious at times) and manually update player stats as they level (also time-consuming).
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
The players in my current campaign are a few levels ahead of the content we're running so I'm manually tuning the encounters in Improved Initiative to be more challenging until the content catches up with their level. I'm experimenting with increasing/decreasing monster stats (more work) and/or simply increasing the number of monsters (longer combat). This is all manual and takes a considerable amount of time.
I write up summaries, variations, hooks, and outlines in OneNote and link to content in DDB for reference. I often research and work in content and characters from other campaigns and wikis. It would be really nice to be able to do this in DDB by annotating official content with text blocks and links. A DDB hosted custom content/outline/journal editor would be awesome but I digress.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
I would love to have this functionality built into DDB so I wouldn't have to manually enter campaign monsters and manually update player stats. Integration with DDB would be such a time saver and give me instant access to my content and campaign characters.
Anything else you want to share with us about encounter building!
The player view-only window that can be viewed on another display or player device is a real feature.
I would like to have the similar control over individual creatures added to the encounter as one has tracking creatures like familiars and mounts added to a player character sheet; HP tracking and the ability to adjust size, type, alignment, AC, and max HP. Would also be nice to have spell slot and limited use action tracking.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter."
Look at Kobold fight Club. It's got a great feature set for building encounters without violating WotC's trademarks- xp difficulty thresholds, environment, creature type, and so on. What DnD Beyond can bring to the table is the ability to save encounters, instantly list monster stats, and basically provide an at a glance view of everything that's needed during a fight.
I understand some users want to be able to import player characters over from their campaigns, which is great - but also have an ability to select just the number of PCs and their level(s) for the builder.
And
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
At the moment my DM prep workflow for tabletop encounters looks like this: Go to Kobold Fight Club, balance out an encounter to the desired difficulty for my number of players and their level, come back to DnDBeyond and input the monsters into one of the extensions that's been published by other users (such as d&d Toolbox or Beyond Help) to view stats and the like. Then I throw monster names into Improved Initiative and I'm ready for the evening.
Online games are slightly different- it's just Kobold Fight Club and then go to roll20 - though I have been keeping DnDBeyond open in another tab(s) to quickly view monster stats without cluttering up my map space.
Being able to do everything via just this site would be an immense help (and Chrome will stop being angry at me for the number of tabs extensions I run!) - especially if all the built encounter information can be viewed on one page. For monsters I would highly suggest displaying a small tooltip statblock and then a pop out like the creatures section of the Character viewer.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
As far as making an encounter I'd like to be able to do some of what the google extensions can do where you see a monster in bold in the book you've purchased and you click it and it brings up a menu that asks how many of those you want to add to the encounter, perhaps you could name that encounter and save those encounters for quick pull up later in whatever program or page is running it. As far as making and running encounters the biggest thing I want is of course adding players and monsters, determining the order of combat so being able to order them up and down from highest initiative to lowest initiative. Then AC, HP, and maybe any condition tags that would help me know this guy is concentrating, and this guy is blinded etc.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
I generally just go with whatever the book says they are fighting, if anything I think having options to say keep the average or base HP, or choose an option where each one is rolled based on the HP formula given.
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
If anything I try to make encounters quicker by making fewer monsters but stronger encounters so I might beef up the monsters by saying they are an elite band of x or y, and make their damage a bit higher and their health a bit higher but not usually too much or the fight drags on forever. but giving it some more deadly shock and awe.
Anything else you want to share with us about encounter building!
Just having a nice program you can have open that helps you run encounters at the table without having to switch back and forth between a spreadsheet and what not would be nice.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
The ability to search for creatures using various filters. The ability to select and modify creatures to add to the encounter. A display notifying me of the current structure of the encounter and an encounter challenge rating. The ability to connect the encounter to a campaign, with the campaign's party being used to base the encounter's challenge rating off of. The ability to make changes on the fly to "run" the encounter, such as being able to decrease/increase HP off of the list.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
I start using the Kobold Fight Club's encounter creation tool, which I will call KFC from here on out. I filter according to the environment and/or creature type, and only include the official content. I set the group info to the party's specifications, then search and randomize to let KFC provide me with a list of possible options.
I then switch back to D&D Beyond, search for each of the enemies I thought might have potential to read up on them and better understand them. I usually have a lot of monster tabs open, flipping back and forth. Once I've made a decision for what creatures I will be using in the encounter, I switch back to KFC and start adding those creatures in varying amounts until its algorithm has determined it to be the appropriate encounter difficulty for my players.
From here, I create an Excel file. The Excel file will often have multiple encounters. Headers are Player, Creature, Current HP, Max HP, AC, Initiative, and Comments. At the top, I list the party's information. Player's name, character's name. Initiative column is left blank. Putting a blank row in-between each encounter, I then start adding the creatures selected per encounter. Because I like to individualize my creatures, I roll HP for each and every single one of them. I also pre-roll their Initiative and other ability checks that might be relevant, such as Perception or Stealth, which I include in the Comments column.
If I'm modifying a creature further than just their HP, like granting one a magic item, the ability to spell-cast, or modifying their ability scores, I'll create a homebrew of that creature. I don't do this that often, as the tools currently available don't make it quite as easy and intuitive as I'd like, but I want to do this more often if it could be improved upon.
To run the encounter, I use the Excel file and two Chrome windows. One window has all the PCs open in their own tabs, the other window has all the monsters open in their own tabs. All are through D&D Beyond. I add in the PC's rolls for Initiative, then Cut/Insert the encounter rows into the player block. Sort by Initiative, then track HP. I keep the blank rows in-between so that I don't accidentally sort multiple encounters together.
That's just the mechanics of it. Any notes I take, of which I do write a lot, are done in OneNote.
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
See above, I simply use the provided encounters as the filter through which I first build the encounter through KFC and D&D Beyond. I do use published adventures a lot, either the official adventures I've bought here or the Adventurer's League content I've purchased from the DMs Guild.
Anything else you want to share with us about encounter building!
Nothing I can think of at this moment, except to reiterate that I would really appreciate the ability to modify creatures through the process of building the encounter. Simply having the ability to modify the HP would be great, both their current HP during combat and their max HP while building the encounter. Best case scenario, I have the means to select a monster, create a homebrew copy that I can modify then and there, and finally add that homebrewed creature to the encounter. This all doesn't necessarily need to be in a single tool set, and I know a revamped monster creator tool is incoming, I'd just like it if it was integrated enough that I could use these tools together.
Main takeaway for me is that I use outside sources solely because D&D Beyond doesn't currently fill that role, but use D&D Beyond around those holes as much as able. I only use KFC to search in a way that D&D Beyond can't, and I only use Excel to keep track of what D&D Beyond doesn't.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
Playing any creature with limited use abilities (i.e. Spell casting or legendary actions) can be a chore to maintain (spell slots, spell effects at higher spell levels and even what the spells say exactly).
Quickly rolling for initiative would make time better (being able to group enemies into Squads has been suggested and that would be valuable).
Forgetting status can be a big problem in higher level play, being able to monitor status of enemies / NPCs / PCs at a glance would keep the pace going (even more so in timed encounters).
Being able to edit the monsters stats on the fly if the PCs are doing well or not (remaining HP)
Quick dice rolling feature would be just amazing, a button to make an attack roll and another for damage would shave time and give us more time for the players turns.
many people have suggested, a total XP counter really helps when you have 6 children (i mean players) asking how much XP they got for that encounter.
Often times we have no clue what monster of the thousand+ options we want to fight, being able to have randomly generated encounters using optional criteria would give us some inspiration.
I know Bradford talked about the DM Screen being a future feature, but having quick search for rules (I always forget the cover benefits, or what classifies as 3/4's cover etc) would shave that awkward look up the rules time.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
Pick a theme for the encounter and the setting
Find monsters that would make sense for the above
Think about what challenge rating really means, and look at the monsters abilities / stats
Magic math to make some monsters stronger or weaker depending on how many things I want to throw at my party (or who shows up)
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
I am always looking for thematically correct fights that have a mix of powerful vs many less-powerful enemies. Tracking status effects, and fudging HP for various mobs based on how the encounter is progressing is also important.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
I use a mix of KFC and just digging through the MM. I try to find thematically interesting enemies that tie in to the campaign I'm running somehow, and try to create each as their own mini-story. It helps for me to determine how the enemies would behave when encountering adventurers, and gives things a little bit of flavor. Are they just brainless monsters trying to eat people? Are they a group that has their own goals, hopes and dreams and they're just about to have a very bad day?
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
I'll pepper in some named NPCs where it seems appropriate. People that may be related to the BBEG, or not, or just some other way to mix the world in with the fights when it makes sense to do so. I sometimes add a few of the more interesting enemies, or drop some of the lesser. In a book like WDDH, I go through all of the possible encounters and maps and retool them for the adventure the group is running. I've taken the Cassalanters and added them as a compelling subplot along with Jarlaxle as a villain.
There are a lot of good requests on what people want to see. There is one thing I would definitely like to see.
If I'm running an adventure that I have purchased on DDB it would be cool to have an encounter builder that pops out like on the character sheet when adding spell, equipment, etc. In addition to that it would be cool to have it autopopulated with the encounter that is in the adventure.
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
So, since I was typing on my phone earlier, I completely forgot to reply to this one -
At the moment I have three homebrew campaigns going that published adventures don't exactly fit.. That said, as a Legendary Bundle owner, I often look at the published adventures for inspiration. I might not run the entire adventure, but I might lift certain aspects that fit within my storyline. This can vary between certain mechanics and moods- I have one group using Tomb of Annihilation exploration rules with a more Curse of Strahd Gothic (Southern Gothic in this case) setting, I have another group that was delving into a Tiamat like cult, so used episode 4 of Rise of Tiamat as an idea/easy encounter layout. I also look forward to running the Waterdeep series mostly as is once we wrap up one of the current campaigns - and so I've been thinking about how I use/modify official encounters.
The main thing is, I know published adventures are supposed to be run for 4-5 players. I run between 6-8 players in each game. So I'll plug the encounters from the published adventures into Kobold Fight Club and use the automation from that site to determine what the expected difficulty of that encounter is with what the published source tells me is the desired level of adventurers. Then I'll plug in my adventurers and adjust the number of enemies to match the difficulty. If I think the enemies in the adventure are too stale given the higher numbers I might throw in a few creatures of a similar CR or one thematically similar creature of a higher CR to balance things out. The same philosophy would apply if I were trying to run a party of 2-3 through the adventure, just scaled down instead of up.
Speaking for myself, as a DM, the main thing I want to know whether running a published or completely brand spanking new encounter is just how hard is this encounter going to be on my players, all things being equal.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
For making an encounter, the most simple ones are where I have a creature type in mind and need to find creatures of that type that make sense for the narrative to be there. Sometimes I am trying to balance directly to the party, so knowing the encounter difficulty is key and what I could add to reach certain thresholds (Even if its just the CR I can add). Other times for random encounters, I need to know creatures which can be in that environment so I can decide what makes most sense and what might potentially be interesting.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
I either use a tool like Kobolds Encounter Builder, or use my own spreadsheet for cases where I know the enemies I want and just need to find our the CR combinations I could use. I also have my own C# tool for running the encounter, which also calculates the encounter difficulty, so sometimes I just add monsters in there and eye ball it.
Sometimes I need to create new monsters to make the encounter actually reach the difficulty I need. Doing this just requires buffing stats in line with the DMG recommended increases between CR levels.
Sometimes I have to go back and adjust planned encounters in areas, based on changes to the players levels or due to choices they have made.
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
Whilst my games are totally in a homebrew campaign, I do sometimes go to an official book and look up interesting encounters and use them as a base. I then adjust the numbers to equal the same kind of encounter difficulty for my much larger party (My games typically have about 8 players)
Anything else you want to share with us about encounter building!
When creating an encounter, I like to use similar types, so either a filter by type or region would be handy, a suggestion list would be ideal, but might be reserved for later development. Also, a running tally of difficulty and xp earned is helpful for at a glance monster choices. I also like to roll individual hp’s to give it a little more natural feeling so being able to change or random roll those would be great.
Ideally, encounters could be split into groups or waves so that initiatives could be assigned to more than one enemy at a time. At a glance, AC and HP should be visible, with stat blocks shown when enemies are selected, including possible attacks and ideally a tracker or counter for spells and special abilities.
The ability so save NPC notes for recurring enemies would be great as well.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
Encounter Building Needs:
Encounter building based on party level and number of members with dynamic Difficulty Level check (E.g., what is the difficulty level for this party against these opponents)
Ability to use unique NPCs from one encounter to the next, both as allies and enemies.
Notes section for DM to flesh out any unique details pre-encounter
Notes section for DM to document results of encounter. These notes should be available inside of the specified campaign.
In-game encounter management needs
Initiative manager
Quick reference of current monster/PC/NPC
Easy status view (health, active conditions, etc) for each monster/PC/NPC
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
Currently use several 3rd party tools
Kobold Fight Club for quick monster searching, spec'ing and difficulty level checks
DnD Beyond for official monster reference checking
Game Master 5 (iOS) for in-game encounter management
Also use donjon.bin.sh's dungeon builder to quickly get a monster base framework, then build on that.
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
Usually run official encounters as-is
Document outcome each time I run the encounter, so need way to create multiple instances of the same encounter for different campaigns
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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When building an encounter, I typically type up a word document with the stats of all of the monsters so I can quickly reference all of the monster stat blocks on one easy to reference page. This is obviously time consuming. The biggest thing I would want is the ability to select monsters and compile their stat blocks in a single location. If that location is on a computer screen that would be OK, but I would really like it to be a printable PDF.
Right now I use screenshots of stats and abilities and print them out, as I've seen some other folks here do here also. I also, sometimes, print out pictures to show to players.
I agree with Matt and others on XP calc, DMG, CR, and terrain filters. I also like the idea of the DM "Fudge Factor" suggested by Kerrec. Perhaps that could be something along the lines of a player or campaign experience setting. Maybe a scale from newbie to godlike that would auto adjust the cr rating and add in more challenging encounters if you've built a party of twinks? Loot calc table would be awesome too!
Something that I always find challenging is keeping track of a mixed monster encounters special abilities. I would love it if you could highlight, or checkbox, any special abilities you really needed to keep track of and that would show up as it's own tab for all creatures in the encounter. I know it's my job as a DM to keep track of that kinda stuff but in large scale battles that gets crazy and I find I forget some cool ability that could have enhanced the encounter! :)
Lastly, a beer tap. Could it include a beer tap?
That's what happens when you wear a helmet your whole life!
My house rules
There needs to be some kind of encounter tool added to D&D Beyond.
It would allow DMs to build encounters in advance, and link all the content in the encounter to each monster, NPC, notes sheet, etc.. The option to number them however you want and name them would be amazing. Also, maybe an option to auto add all the XP for encounter too?
It would just be a simple Encounter block with quick links for the DM, should be pretty easy to layout (much like the modules already do)
Example:
Each NPC, Monster, Treasure Item you would be able to link them to any content you've purchased or created in Homebrew.
I like to build out several encounters based on what the players might do for the session, and then pick one that's relevant for the situation and area they're in. To me, manageability of a lot of different encounters is crucial.
Any plans on making something like this?
You could add monsters to it and the builder could auto roll loot, tabulate experience and have the health pools for the different monsters.
There is probably loads of simple things I've missed off as well.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
I currently use Improved Initiative (http://www.improved-initiative.com) running on my laptop. I show the player window on a large screen tv so the players can see health status, conditions, initiative, turns, etc. I configure encounters in advance (tedious at times) and manually update player stats as they level (also time-consuming).
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
The players in my current campaign are a few levels ahead of the content we're running so I'm manually tuning the encounters in Improved Initiative to be more challenging until the content catches up with their level. I'm experimenting with increasing/decreasing monster stats (more work) and/or simply increasing the number of monsters (longer combat). This is all manual and takes a considerable amount of time.
I write up summaries, variations, hooks, and outlines in OneNote and link to content in DDB for reference. I often research and work in content and characters from other campaigns and wikis. It would be really nice to be able to do this in DDB by annotating official content with text blocks and links. A DDB hosted custom content/outline/journal editor would be awesome but I digress.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
I would love to have this functionality built into DDB so I wouldn't have to manually enter campaign monsters and manually update player stats. Integration with DDB would be such a time saver and give me instant access to my content and campaign characters.
Anything else you want to share with us about encounter building!
The player view-only window that can be viewed on another display or player device is a real feature.
Agreed
That's what happens when you wear a helmet your whole life!
My house rules
I would like to have the similar control over individual creatures added to the encounter as one has tracking creatures like familiars and mounts added to a player character sheet; HP tracking and the ability to adjust size, type, alignment, AC, and max HP. Would also be nice to have spell slot and limited use action tracking.
The ability to add monsters to an encounter from the Monster Manual. The ability to add status effects.
Mostly using the encounter creator in XgtE.
Mostly changing HP for lower levels. I'll occasionally add spells/attacks for higher level play.
I look forward to testing it.
So, to answer "
Look at Kobold fight Club. It's got a great feature set for building encounters without violating WotC's trademarks- xp difficulty thresholds, environment, creature type, and so on. What DnD Beyond can bring to the table is the ability to save encounters, instantly list monster stats, and basically provide an at a glance view of everything that's needed during a fight.
I understand some users want to be able to import player characters over from their campaigns, which is great - but also have an ability to select just the number of PCs and their level(s) for the builder.
And
At the moment my DM prep workflow for tabletop encounters looks like this: Go to Kobold Fight Club, balance out an encounter to the desired difficulty for my number of players and their level, come back to DnDBeyond and input the monsters into one of the extensions that's been published by other users (such as d&d Toolbox or Beyond Help) to view stats and the like. Then I throw monster names into Improved Initiative and I'm ready for the evening.
Online games are slightly different- it's just Kobold Fight Club and then go to roll20 - though I have been keeping DnDBeyond open in another tab(s) to quickly view monster stats without cluttering up my map space.
Being able to do everything via just this site would be an immense help (and Chrome will stop being angry at me for the number of tabs extensions I run!) - especially if all the built encounter information can be viewed on one page. For monsters I would highly suggest displaying a small tooltip statblock and then a pop out like the creatures section of the Character viewer.
The ability to search for creatures using various filters. The ability to select and modify creatures to add to the encounter. A display notifying me of the current structure of the encounter and an encounter challenge rating. The ability to connect the encounter to a campaign, with the campaign's party being used to base the encounter's challenge rating off of. The ability to make changes on the fly to "run" the encounter, such as being able to decrease/increase HP off of the list.
I start using the Kobold Fight Club's encounter creation tool, which I will call KFC from here on out. I filter according to the environment and/or creature type, and only include the official content. I set the group info to the party's specifications, then search and randomize to let KFC provide me with a list of possible options.
I then switch back to D&D Beyond, search for each of the enemies I thought might have potential to read up on them and better understand them. I usually have a lot of monster tabs open, flipping back and forth. Once I've made a decision for what creatures I will be using in the encounter, I switch back to KFC and start adding those creatures in varying amounts until its algorithm has determined it to be the appropriate encounter difficulty for my players.
From here, I create an Excel file. The Excel file will often have multiple encounters. Headers are Player, Creature, Current HP, Max HP, AC, Initiative, and Comments. At the top, I list the party's information. Player's name, character's name. Initiative column is left blank. Putting a blank row in-between each encounter, I then start adding the creatures selected per encounter. Because I like to individualize my creatures, I roll HP for each and every single one of them. I also pre-roll their Initiative and other ability checks that might be relevant, such as Perception or Stealth, which I include in the Comments column.
If I'm modifying a creature further than just their HP, like granting one a magic item, the ability to spell-cast, or modifying their ability scores, I'll create a homebrew of that creature. I don't do this that often, as the tools currently available don't make it quite as easy and intuitive as I'd like, but I want to do this more often if it could be improved upon.
To run the encounter, I use the Excel file and two Chrome windows. One window has all the PCs open in their own tabs, the other window has all the monsters open in their own tabs. All are through D&D Beyond. I add in the PC's rolls for Initiative, then Cut/Insert the encounter rows into the player block. Sort by Initiative, then track HP. I keep the blank rows in-between so that I don't accidentally sort multiple encounters together.
That's just the mechanics of it. Any notes I take, of which I do write a lot, are done in OneNote.
See above, I simply use the provided encounters as the filter through which I first build the encounter through KFC and D&D Beyond. I do use published adventures a lot, either the official adventures I've bought here or the Adventurer's League content I've purchased from the DMs Guild.
Nothing I can think of at this moment, except to reiterate that I would really appreciate the ability to modify creatures through the process of building the encounter. Simply having the ability to modify the HP would be great, both their current HP during combat and their max HP while building the encounter. Best case scenario, I have the means to select a monster, create a homebrew copy that I can modify then and there, and finally add that homebrewed creature to the encounter. This all doesn't necessarily need to be in a single tool set, and I know a revamped monster creator tool is incoming, I'd just like it if it was integrated enough that I could use these tools together.
Main takeaway for me is that I use outside sources solely because D&D Beyond doesn't currently fill that role, but use D&D Beyond around those holes as much as able. I only use KFC to search in a way that D&D Beyond can't, and I only use Excel to keep track of what D&D Beyond doesn't.
There are a lot of good requests on what people want to see. There is one thing I would definitely like to see.
If I'm running an adventure that I have purchased on DDB it would be cool to have an encounter builder that pops out like on the character sheet when adding spell, equipment, etc. In addition to that it would be cool to have it autopopulated with the encounter that is in the adventure.
So, since I was typing on my phone earlier, I completely forgot to reply to this one -
At the moment I have three homebrew campaigns going that published adventures don't exactly fit.. That said, as a Legendary Bundle owner, I often look at the published adventures for inspiration. I might not run the entire adventure, but I might lift certain aspects that fit within my storyline. This can vary between certain mechanics and moods- I have one group using Tomb of Annihilation exploration rules with a more Curse of Strahd Gothic (Southern Gothic in this case) setting, I have another group that was delving into a Tiamat like cult, so used episode 4 of Rise of Tiamat as an idea/easy encounter layout. I also look forward to running the Waterdeep series mostly as is once we wrap up one of the current campaigns - and so I've been thinking about how I use/modify official encounters.
The main thing is, I know published adventures are supposed to be run for 4-5 players. I run between 6-8 players in each game. So I'll plug the encounters from the published adventures into Kobold Fight Club and use the automation from that site to determine what the expected difficulty of that encounter is with what the published source tells me is the desired level of adventurers. Then I'll plug in my adventurers and adjust the number of enemies to match the difficulty. If I think the enemies in the adventure are too stale given the higher numbers I might throw in a few creatures of a similar CR or one thematically similar creature of a higher CR to balance things out. The same philosophy would apply if I were trying to run a party of 2-3 through the adventure, just scaled down instead of up.
Speaking for myself, as a DM, the main thing I want to know whether running a published or completely brand spanking new encounter is just how hard is this encounter going to be on my players, all things being equal.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
For making an encounter, the most simple ones are where I have a creature type in mind and need to find creatures of that type that make sense for the narrative to be there. Sometimes I am trying to balance directly to the party, so knowing the encounter difficulty is key and what I could add to reach certain thresholds (Even if its just the CR I can add). Other times for random encounters, I need to know creatures which can be in that environment so I can decide what makes most sense and what might potentially be interesting.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
I either use a tool like Kobolds Encounter Builder, or use my own spreadsheet for cases where I know the enemies I want and just need to find our the CR combinations I could use. I also have my own C# tool for running the encounter, which also calculates the encounter difficulty, so sometimes I just add monsters in there and eye ball it.
Sometimes I need to create new monsters to make the encounter actually reach the difficulty I need. Doing this just requires buffing stats in line with the DMG recommended increases between CR levels.
Sometimes I have to go back and adjust planned encounters in areas, based on changes to the players levels or due to choices they have made.
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.
Whilst my games are totally in a homebrew campaign, I do sometimes go to an official book and look up interesting encounters and use them as a base. I then adjust the numbers to equal the same kind of encounter difficulty for my much larger party (My games typically have about 8 players)
Anything else you want to share with us about encounter building!
Not at this stage.
When creating an encounter, I like to use similar types, so either a filter by type or region would be handy, a suggestion list would be ideal, but might be reserved for later development. Also, a running tally of difficulty and xp earned is helpful for at a glance monster choices. I also like to roll individual hp’s to give it a little more natural feeling so being able to change or random roll those would be great.
Ideally, encounters could be split into groups or waves so that initiatives could be assigned to more than one enemy at a time. At a glance, AC and HP should be visible, with stat blocks shown when enemies are selected, including possible attacks and ideally a tracker or counter for spells and special abilities.
The ability so save NPC notes for recurring enemies would be great as well.
Let us know what you are looking for when making or running an encounter.
Let us know how you currently build encounters for your home game.
Let us know how you use / modify official encounters for your home games.