I am soon to be a first time DM and I have chosen to start with a published campaign rather than my own to make it easier on myself.
However, some of the campaign encounters will be far to easy for the players and I want to turn up the heat a little without just dumping 30 extra 25XP enemies in every fight.
so my questions are:
1. If I choose to beef up an existing creature do I just turn up the damage and health?
2. Is it better to make a new creature up whole cloth?
3. If I use a beefed up existing creature or create a creature. How do I calculate its XP/challenge rating?
Thanks for taking the time to read. Any help is appreciated.
1. If you choose to beef up an existing creature, save yourself some time by just replacing the monster with an existing one that is similar (for example: Replacing a zombie with a ghoul).
2. If your players are very experienced, try surprising them with a new monster.
3. If you do beef up an existing creature, the Dungeon Masters Guide has instructions for recalculating a creature's challenge rating.
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Devious serpent folk devoid of compassion, yuan-ti manipulate other creatures by arousing their doubts, evoking their fears, and elevating and crushing their hopes. From remote temples in jungles, swamps, and deserts, the yuan-ti plot to supplant and dominate all other races and to make themselves gods.
Since DungeonLord58 already answered your questions, here are some other ways to make combat more challenging:
Give your mobs poison arrows, debuff magic, terrain advantage (like knowing where traps are), and probably the most important: tactics. Don't make the mobs blindly hit the closest PC, make them coordinate and focus down one target at a time. Having 5 attacks directed at you in a single one round is pretty dangerous, and the party's combat power will drop by a lot as soon the first player falls.
Don't overdo it though, as it makes no sense for a ragtag group of thugs and delinquents to be well versed in military tactics, or for beast enemies to plan intricate schemes.
Giving the mobs better weapons/armor is also an option. Be careful with giving them magic items though, I once had a DM give some wraith-like enemies a lifedraining sword that took 25% of the target's current hp on a failed constitution save. He did not expect me to pick one up and swing it at a 200 HP basilisk when I was lvl 3. I went from nearly dead to full HP, and an encounter we were supposed to run away from turned to a slaughterfest for me.
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OK I'll try and make this quick,
I am soon to be a first time DM and I have chosen to start with a published campaign rather than my own to make it easier on myself.
However, some of the campaign encounters will be far to easy for the players and I want to turn up the heat a little without just dumping 30 extra 25XP enemies in every fight.
so my questions are:
1. If I choose to beef up an existing creature do I just turn up the damage and health?
2. Is it better to make a new creature up whole cloth?
3. If I use a beefed up existing creature or create a creature. How do I calculate its XP/challenge rating?
Thanks for taking the time to read. Any help is appreciated.
Here are my answers:
1. If you choose to beef up an existing creature, save yourself some time by just replacing the monster with an existing one that is similar (for example: Replacing a zombie with a ghoul).
2. If your players are very experienced, try surprising them with a new monster.
3. If you do beef up an existing creature, the Dungeon Masters Guide has instructions for recalculating a creature's challenge rating.
Devious serpent folk devoid of compassion, yuan-ti manipulate other creatures by arousing their doubts, evoking their fears, and elevating and crushing their hopes. From remote temples in jungles, swamps, and deserts, the yuan-ti plot to supplant and dominate all other races and to make themselves gods.
Since DungeonLord58 already answered your questions, here are some other ways to make combat more challenging:
Give your mobs poison arrows, debuff magic, terrain advantage (like knowing where traps are), and probably the most important: tactics. Don't make the mobs blindly hit the closest PC, make them coordinate and focus down one target at a time. Having 5 attacks directed at you in a single one round is pretty dangerous, and the party's combat power will drop by a lot as soon the first player falls.
Don't overdo it though, as it makes no sense for a ragtag group of thugs and delinquents to be well versed in military tactics, or for beast enemies to plan intricate schemes.
Giving the mobs better weapons/armor is also an option. Be careful with giving them magic items though, I once had a DM give some wraith-like enemies a lifedraining sword that took 25% of the target's current hp on a failed constitution save. He did not expect me to pick one up and swing it at a 200 HP basilisk when I was lvl 3. I went from nearly dead to full HP, and an encounter we were supposed to run away from turned to a slaughterfest for me.