I’m not that experienced in DnD. My DM asked me to start a campaign. I’ve written it from scratch. It’s all homebrew. Way in over my head, I know.
The main thing I need help with is creating balanced encounters. It’s a linier game with a time limit, they have only 4 hours. During this time they will explore the setting, try to solve a mystery, and fight 3 battles.
I have 4 level 5 PCs. They will need to fight three battles without the luxury of a rest to recover. I don’t expect all of them will survive the final encounter.
I thought it was as simple as CR rating but I realize there’s more to it than that.
The following monster choice may seem bizarre, and I realize that I will have to drop their CR. I chose them to suit the setting of the campaign, which is essentially a dark circus.
First battle will begin with some relatively easy skeleton soldiers followed by a Siren and three lesser sirens. Once the main siren is dead, the siren curse will be lifted from any lesser sirens that might still be alive. (This will occur in the Warlock’s chambers/lab)
Second encounter will be a necromancer, an undead unicorn, a rabbidevil, a displacer beast and several giant rats. (Children’s area/petting zoo)
Third battle will be another siren, a flesh jelly, an ettin and a warlock. Once these are defeated, they will have to face the spider queen and some giant spiders. (The circus)
The necromancer and warlock are working together to return the spider queen to power. Blood sacrifice makes her stronger, so the players will be encouraged to save as many lives as possible.
So a mystery (puzzle) and 3 battles in 4 hours might be difficult especially if you're not used to running a game. You probably don't want more than 2 unless you're expecting the party to defeat them really fast. The party makeup will also determine how hard the battles are. A wizard who can fireball a group of monsters is going to add a different dynamic than a bunch of melee fighters. Also, you probably want to make sure the party has a chance at survival. Tough fights are fine, but ending your one shot with a TPK is not fun. Have a plan to scale your battles for the state of the party. If round 1 knocked them around too much, consider giving them a break on round 2.
First encounter. They could fight as many as 8 skeletons as a warm up as an Easy encounter, follow that up with two normal Sirens and that would be a Medium encounter by the D&D Beyond Encounter Builder tool. You probably don't want anything more dangerous than that for the first fight, and I have no stats for a "lesser" Siren, so I can't judge that.
A single Necromancer would be Deadly, I have no stats on an Undead Unicorn or a Rabbidevil, or even a Rabbit. A single Displacer Beast and 6 Giant Rats would be a Medium encounter.
A Siren and an Ettin alone are a Medium encounter, and you will be pressed for time at that point more than likely. There is an Ice Spider Queen in Storm King's Thunder, and with one of those, a Hard fight would be as many as 6 Giant Spiders.
I'd have the Necromancer and the Warlock flee the moment the party arrived and if you felt the need, they could come back as villains when there party is higher level.
A Deadly encounter is one in which it is expected that at least one member of the party will die, and possibly all of them depending on the fight, and that would be a horrible way to end an adventure, just as Lathius said.
I'm thinking my math is off a bit here. Perhaps there are a goodly amount of homebrew stat blocks being thrown around, but if I just use the mundane stat blocks of everything you've named, it comes out to an adjusted daily encounter balance of around 86k xp. The daily budget for 4ea - LVL 5 PCs should be somewhere in the 14k ballpark. Several of the creatures that you name are Deadly encounters by themselves, without the consideration of the rest of the adventuring day. And when you mention the Spider Queen, are we referring to Lolth, the goddess of the Drow? This seems to be overly bloated.
I should have probably started with this question: what is the primary goal of the adventure? Solve a mystery, or have 3 combat encounters? In my experience, 3 combat encounters with a party of 4 players is almost enough to fill a 4 hour session alone. Add in the "Solve a Mystery" bit, and you may wind up with a multi-session rodeo. Which is another piece that I may have missed the plot with. Is the campaign going to span 4 hours of in-game time, or a single 4-hour session?
I feel like there may be more information that would help guide the advice that you are asking for.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
A typical, relatively uncomplicated and not too taxing fight in D&D usually takes around an hour. You don't have time for this many encounters, in particular because you are using multiple monster types in each fight.
Assuming that the game is almost entirely combat, I recommend to cut it down to 3 encounters:
Encounter 1: Vs. some fairly easy creatures (no more than CR2) that are all the same type. A large group of skeletons, for example.
Encounter 2: Vs. some moderate creatures (CR3), that are of up to 2 types. You could have Wights riding Skeletal Horses, for example.
Encounter 3: Vs. one powerful enemy (CR7) with 2-4 minions (CR1)
If you run these relatively simple encounters, they will consume all 4 hours of your game. It's unlikely you'll have time for much roleplay or exploration.
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Hello,
I’m not that experienced in DnD. My DM asked me to start a campaign. I’ve written it from scratch. It’s all homebrew. Way in over my head, I know.
The main thing I need help with is creating balanced encounters. It’s a linier game with a time limit, they have only 4 hours. During this time they will explore the setting, try to solve a mystery, and fight 3 battles.
I have 4 level 5 PCs. They will need to fight three battles without the luxury of a rest to recover. I don’t expect all of them will survive the final encounter.
I thought it was as simple as CR rating but I realize there’s more to it than that.
The following monster choice may seem bizarre, and I realize that I will have to drop their CR. I chose them to suit the setting of the campaign, which is essentially a dark circus.
First battle will begin with some relatively easy skeleton soldiers followed by a Siren and three lesser sirens. Once the main siren is dead, the siren curse will be lifted from any lesser sirens that might still be alive. (This will occur in the Warlock’s chambers/lab)
Second encounter will be a necromancer, an undead unicorn, a rabbidevil, a displacer beast and several giant rats. (Children’s area/petting zoo)
Third battle will be another siren, a flesh jelly, an ettin and a warlock. Once these are defeated, they will have to face the spider queen and some giant spiders. (The circus)
The necromancer and warlock are working together to return the spider queen to power. Blood sacrifice makes her stronger, so the players will be encouraged to save as many lives as possible.
So yeah. There’s that. Help?
I would say throw in a young white dragon just to give them a bit of a challenge, and leave the rest
So a mystery (puzzle) and 3 battles in 4 hours might be difficult especially if you're not used to running a game. You probably don't want more than 2 unless you're expecting the party to defeat them really fast. The party makeup will also determine how hard the battles are. A wizard who can fireball a group of monsters is going to add a different dynamic than a bunch of melee fighters. Also, you probably want to make sure the party has a chance at survival. Tough fights are fine, but ending your one shot with a TPK is not fun. Have a plan to scale your battles for the state of the party. If round 1 knocked them around too much, consider giving them a break on round 2.
First encounter. They could fight as many as 8 skeletons as a warm up as an Easy encounter, follow that up with two normal Sirens and that would be a Medium encounter by the D&D Beyond Encounter Builder tool. You probably don't want anything more dangerous than that for the first fight, and I have no stats for a "lesser" Siren, so I can't judge that.
A single Necromancer would be Deadly, I have no stats on an Undead Unicorn or a Rabbidevil, or even a Rabbit. A single Displacer Beast and 6 Giant Rats would be a Medium encounter.
A Siren and an Ettin alone are a Medium encounter, and you will be pressed for time at that point more than likely. There is an Ice Spider Queen in Storm King's Thunder, and with one of those, a Hard fight would be as many as 6 Giant Spiders.
I'd have the Necromancer and the Warlock flee the moment the party arrived and if you felt the need, they could come back as villains when there party is higher level.
A Deadly encounter is one in which it is expected that at least one member of the party will die, and possibly all of them depending on the fight, and that would be a horrible way to end an adventure, just as Lathius said.
<Insert clever signature here>
I'm thinking my math is off a bit here. Perhaps there are a goodly amount of homebrew stat blocks being thrown around, but if I just use the mundane stat blocks of everything you've named, it comes out to an adjusted daily encounter balance of around 86k xp. The daily budget for 4ea - LVL 5 PCs should be somewhere in the 14k ballpark. Several of the creatures that you name are Deadly encounters by themselves, without the consideration of the rest of the adventuring day. And when you mention the Spider Queen, are we referring to Lolth, the goddess of the Drow? This seems to be overly bloated.
I should have probably started with this question: what is the primary goal of the adventure? Solve a mystery, or have 3 combat encounters? In my experience, 3 combat encounters with a party of 4 players is almost enough to fill a 4 hour session alone. Add in the "Solve a Mystery" bit, and you may wind up with a multi-session rodeo. Which is another piece that I may have missed the plot with. Is the campaign going to span 4 hours of in-game time, or a single 4-hour session?
I feel like there may be more information that would help guide the advice that you are asking for.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
A typical, relatively uncomplicated and not too taxing fight in D&D usually takes around an hour. You don't have time for this many encounters, in particular because you are using multiple monster types in each fight.
Assuming that the game is almost entirely combat, I recommend to cut it down to 3 encounters:
Encounter 1: Vs. some fairly easy creatures (no more than CR2) that are all the same type. A large group of skeletons, for example.
Encounter 2: Vs. some moderate creatures (CR3), that are of up to 2 types. You could have Wights riding Skeletal Horses, for example.
Encounter 3: Vs. one powerful enemy (CR7) with 2-4 minions (CR1)
If you run these relatively simple encounters, they will consume all 4 hours of your game. It's unlikely you'll have time for much roleplay or exploration.