Are your players new to DnD, or do they have a mechanical knowledge of the game? A quick tip I gave to another semi experienced DM who has only worked with previous editions, not 5E so wasn't aware of how many monsters and what levels to include. Setup a few small combats (assuming you are starting at level 1), maybe 2 or 3 goblins, another would be a couple of bandits, but have another couple hiding in the trees or upstairs in a tavern, "off screen" for now. If they start steam rolling the combat, add in the extra guys, at the top of round 3, roll their initiative and the charge in from the side when it's their turn. To counter for the opposite, if you built the combat a bit too difficult, then let the monster die at what seems an appropriate moment, ignore how many hit points it has left in reality. If you're new, you're using these first couple of encounters to learn the balance of combats for the party your table is using.
Do a google search for a 5e encounter calculator (I'm not sure if i can add links here, but it's easy to find, it will let you enter the level and number of players, and then the number and level of each monster and will tell you whether it's easy, medium, hard, or "this is a potential TPK". That will give you a baseline at least for combats using what the DMG suggests an encounter should be. Bear in mind though, this is assuming that the party is following a standard adventuring day (typically 2 combats, short rest, 2 combats, short rest, last combat, long rest). It will at first seem like the combats coming out are a bit trivial, but as the players blast through their resources, that seem hard encounter that was really easy, starts to get very difficult over the adventuring day.
Some DMs here will probably disagree with me about killing off the monsters before their HP runs out, but I just look at it as the first 3 levels you get through quickly, and you use that time to learn how your table approaches combat and character building, and what power they are capable of handling. You start to learn the importance of action economy, adding that third bandit makes the fight not just a third tougher, but additional hit points soak, less concentrated attacks from the players etc.
Above is speaking from 2014 ruleset experience. Apparently the 2024 player handbook and monster manual has a much simpler method to calculate balance, which just works (you get an XP pool as a target, and add monsters adding up to that target). I'll see about that soon enough when we transition over to that in a couple of weeks.
If you are starting out, do quantity over quality. As mentioned above if the players are steamrolling, add more from the sidelines to join.
Realize a bunch of low level/CR monsters can overwhelm a party. But they are also the easiest to adjust. To increase quality, have some leaders added that are better quality. 1-2 to start, again adjust depending on the Party success/failure.
If the players are doing bad, have the monsters leave the battle. Same with having monster leaders, if the battle goes badly for the platers, retreat the monsters.
My advice, once your players are at least level 5, Encounter balance becomes a lot less cut and dry, and if anything, it's better not to think too much about balance at that point and just use whatever monsters you feel are most fitting for the story.
And if things start to go really wrong, you can always adjust things on the fly, for example, if your players are doing too well in a battle and their foe can't get a single hit in, bring in some minions (I recommend that minions that are brought in in this manner have only 1 HP). Or if your players are being overrun by smaller foes, you can start some infighting within the group.
Hope this helps
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Im a new DM, and this is my first time writing an adventure.
Are your players new to DnD, or do they have a mechanical knowledge of the game? A quick tip I gave to another semi experienced DM who has only worked with previous editions, not 5E so wasn't aware of how many monsters and what levels to include. Setup a few small combats (assuming you are starting at level 1), maybe 2 or 3 goblins, another would be a couple of bandits, but have another couple hiding in the trees or upstairs in a tavern, "off screen" for now. If they start steam rolling the combat, add in the extra guys, at the top of round 3, roll their initiative and the charge in from the side when it's their turn. To counter for the opposite, if you built the combat a bit too difficult, then let the monster die at what seems an appropriate moment, ignore how many hit points it has left in reality. If you're new, you're using these first couple of encounters to learn the balance of combats for the party your table is using.
Do a google search for a 5e encounter calculator (I'm not sure if i can add links here, but it's easy to find, it will let you enter the level and number of players, and then the number and level of each monster and will tell you whether it's easy, medium, hard, or "this is a potential TPK". That will give you a baseline at least for combats using what the DMG suggests an encounter should be. Bear in mind though, this is assuming that the party is following a standard adventuring day (typically 2 combats, short rest, 2 combats, short rest, last combat, long rest). It will at first seem like the combats coming out are a bit trivial, but as the players blast through their resources, that seem hard encounter that was really easy, starts to get very difficult over the adventuring day.
Some DMs here will probably disagree with me about killing off the monsters before their HP runs out, but I just look at it as the first 3 levels you get through quickly, and you use that time to learn how your table approaches combat and character building, and what power they are capable of handling. You start to learn the importance of action economy, adding that third bandit makes the fight not just a third tougher, but additional hit points soak, less concentrated attacks from the players etc.
Above is speaking from 2014 ruleset experience. Apparently the 2024 player handbook and monster manual has a much simpler method to calculate balance, which just works (you get an XP pool as a target, and add monsters adding up to that target). I'll see about that soon enough when we transition over to that in a couple of weeks.
If you are starting out, do quantity over quality. As mentioned above if the players are steamrolling, add more from the sidelines to join.
Realize a bunch of low level/CR monsters can overwhelm a party. But they are also the easiest to adjust. To increase quality, have some leaders added that are better quality. 1-2 to start, again adjust depending on the Party success/failure.
If the players are doing bad, have the monsters leave the battle. Same with having monster leaders, if the battle goes badly for the platers, retreat the monsters.
My advice, once your players are at least level 5, Encounter balance becomes a lot less cut and dry, and if anything, it's better not to think too much about balance at that point and just use whatever monsters you feel are most fitting for the story.
And if things start to go really wrong, you can always adjust things on the fly, for example, if your players are doing too well in a battle and their foe can't get a single hit in, bring in some minions (I recommend that minions that are brought in in this manner have only 1 HP).
Or if your players are being overrun by smaller foes, you can start some infighting within the group.
Hope this helps