So I am really brand new to the DM/GM world and I understand a lot of the information out there but I don't understand the challenge rating stuff for Building and encounter. My first campaign is going to consist of 5 players. My players are pretty versed in the mechanics of game play at this point and so the campaign will contain more role play than their previous campaigns. My goal is to throw semi challenging encounters at them that push them to the edge but don't kill them. As an example I plan for them to be at level 3 within the first two sessions at which point they will begin a mini dungeon crawl. I decided to throw 3 consecutive encounters at them with the final boss being a CR of 4 or 5. Would it be too high of a CR for them or should I be basing the challenge of the encounter on something else.
Use Chapter 13 of the Basic Rules to evaluate your encounters, it explains how. Baded on your desire for challenge, aim for a “hard” encounter as described in those rules
one note: single enemies tend to be less powerful than their CR/EXP amounts suggest unless they have legendary/lair actions.
You can deploy opponents in stages during combat, bring them in at the bottom of the order if you want to increase the challenge.
However avoid inserting multiple opponents into the initiative order, it slows down combat which is boring for players, and really unbalances the challenge.
Started off with basic encounters at the beginning. Since then I test players and learn from that. Knowing how strong players are is more valuable to me vs an app or whatever to bring mobs into the fold. So they have easy fights and some really hard ones now because I can bring in mobs more tuned to what they are capable of. But to each their own.
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So I am really brand new to the DM/GM world and I understand a lot of the information out there but I don't understand the challenge rating stuff for Building and encounter. My first campaign is going to consist of 5 players. My players are pretty versed in the mechanics of game play at this point and so the campaign will contain more role play than their previous campaigns. My goal is to throw semi challenging encounters at them that push them to the edge but don't kill them. As an example I plan for them to be at level 3 within the first two sessions at which point they will begin a mini dungeon crawl. I decided to throw 3 consecutive encounters at them with the final boss being a CR of 4 or 5. Would it be too high of a CR for them or should I be basing the challenge of the encounter on something else.
Use Chapter 13 of the Basic Rules to evaluate your encounters, it explains how. Baded on your desire for challenge, aim for a “hard” encounter as described in those rules
one note: single enemies tend to be less powerful than their CR/EXP amounts suggest unless they have legendary/lair actions.
Thank you for the input. This will be really helpful when writing campaign encounters.
You can deploy opponents in stages during combat, bring them in at the bottom of the order if you want to increase the challenge.
However avoid inserting multiple opponents into the initiative order, it slows down combat which is boring for players, and really unbalances the challenge.
Started off with basic encounters at the beginning. Since then I test players and learn from that. Knowing how strong players are is more valuable to me vs an app or whatever to bring mobs into the fold. So they have easy fights and some really hard ones now because I can bring in mobs more tuned to what they are capable of. But to each their own.