Hello! I'm a fairly new DM and I've been doing level 1 and 2 one shots to get my feet wet a bit. I have been using low level monsters so its easy to manage but now I want to do higher level one shots or even start a campaign.
How does one determine which CR monster to use for each level? Like for a level 7 party for an example, what would be the CR monster you use?
Hello! I'm a fairly new DM and I've been doing level 1 and 2 one shots to get my feet wet a bit. I have been using low level monsters so its easy to manage but now I want to do higher level one shots or even start a campaign.
How does one determine which CR monster to use for each level? Like for a level 7 party for an example, what would be the CR monster you use?
How many 7th level characters? If there are 3 PCs, the answer will be a lot different than if there are 5 PCs.
How many fights will they have that day? If there will be the 6-8 fights per adventuring day recommended in the books, the answer will be a lot different than if there will only be 1 fight that day. (As a note, nobody does the whole 6-8 fights, it’s boring and takes too long. Most DMs end up shooting for around 3-5.)
How hard do you want the fight to be? The answer will be a lot different if you want it to be an easy fight than if you want this to be the most deadly encounter that the party could possibly win.
The DMG has an entire section of Chapter 3 specifically all about creating encounters and how to balance them. I’ll include the link to the “Creating Encounters” section below, you will have to keep reading to see how the first part ties into the “Creating Combat Encounters” section right below it.
While the encounter builder is a good starting point, it's not always great at estimating encounter difficulty, so here are a couple of additional thoughts;
It can't account for terrain at all - cliffs, rivers, chokepoints can all make a difficult fight easy or an easy fight difficult depending on circumstances.
I think the encounter builder tends to underestimate how dangerous large numbers of lower CR monsters can be (within reason). If monsters have 20 actions in a round vs. players having (say) 4 actions, if your party doesn't have access to area of effect abilities they can struggle not to be overwhelmed.
Be wary of spectral undead (especially at low levels) - resistances to most damage types + life drain only needs a few failed saves from your players to send an encounter sideways.
One big tough thing is a lot easier to fight than a group of moderately challenging things. If you are using a single big tough thing as a boss monster, consider giving it some legendary actions - or use it as a Distraction Carnifex for some squishy but dangerous things.
This is also a question very dependent on how many encounters your players are dealing with per long rest - the suggestion is 5, but I find that I rarely get to that number except when doing a dungeon crawl. If you are averaging fewer encounters, consider upping the difficulty slightly. Conversely if you tend to have more encounters per long rest consider tuning the encounters down a bit.
While the encounter builder is a good starting point, it's not always great at estimating encounter difficulty, so here are a couple of additional thoughts;
I think the encounter builder tends to underestimate how dangerous large numbers of lower CR monsters can be (within reason).
The rules for modifying encounter difficulty based on the number of monsters have some unstated assumptions about terrain and area effects.
In general, the idea of the adjusted xp system is that it reflects the amount of damage or other resources the fight will cost. If you're using single target attacks to take out monsters, and all monsters can attack every turn, twice as many monsters do twice as much damage per round, and they also last twice as long, and thus the difficulty of twice as many monsters is actually about 4x higher. The actual adjusted xp for twice as many monsters is typically 2.5-3x higher. To account for this change, one or more of the following must be true
Not all monsters can attack every turn (in a narrow choke, 2x the monsters is only 2x harder).
2x as many monsters don't actually require 2x as long to defeat (usually because of area effects).
In an open field encounter where all monsters can attack and area effects are not significantly present, at any given budget the larger number is more dangerous.
I second (or third) using the Encounter builder, but as also stated, it's a base. I suggest making the encounters at a HARD difficulty, or the players likely won't even break a sweat. I also find that as the players level, balancing the encounters gets tougher. Putting in a foe resistant to non-magical damage, even if a couple party members don't have a magic weapon is sometimes good, to up the difficulty and force some resource use. Set up a few encounters and when playing them through, if the players "cake walk" the first, add a monster or 2 to the next or maybe bump the AC by one (you're the DM< so slight tweaks are your prerogative) Often a single additional monster can make a difference as they get higher level and 1 AC can be a BIG difference in a fight.
Good luck and happy DM-ing! It's tons of fun to set up a slew of foes and have the party work their way through them.
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Hello! I'm a fairly new DM and I've been doing level 1 and 2 one shots to get my feet wet a bit. I have been using low level monsters so its easy to manage but now I want to do higher level one shots or even start a campaign.
How does one determine which CR monster to use for each level? Like for a level 7 party for an example, what would be the CR monster you use?
You can use the encounter budget rules in the DMG (also available on the encounter builder) or the rules in Xanatar's.
That depends on a number of factors:
How many 7th level characters? If there are 3 PCs, the answer will be a lot different than if there are 5 PCs.
How many fights will they have that day? If there will be the 6-8 fights per adventuring day recommended in the books, the answer will be a lot different than if there will only be 1 fight that day. (As a note, nobody does the whole 6-8 fights, it’s boring and takes too long. Most DMs end up shooting for around 3-5.)
How hard do you want the fight to be? The answer will be a lot different if you want it to be an easy fight than if you want this to be the most deadly encounter that the party could possibly win.
The DMG has an entire section of Chapter 3 specifically all about creating encounters and how to balance them. I’ll include the link to the “Creating Encounters” section below, you will have to keep reading to see how the first part ties into the “Creating Combat Encounters” section right below it.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/creating-adventures#CreatingEncounters
I hope that helps.
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I need to do some more reading!!! Thank you both!!!
While the encounter builder is a good starting point, it's not always great at estimating encounter difficulty, so here are a couple of additional thoughts;
This is also a question very dependent on how many encounters your players are dealing with per long rest - the suggestion is 5, but I find that I rarely get to that number except when doing a dungeon crawl. If you are averaging fewer encounters, consider upping the difficulty slightly. Conversely if you tend to have more encounters per long rest consider tuning the encounters down a bit.
The rules for modifying encounter difficulty based on the number of monsters have some unstated assumptions about terrain and area effects.
In general, the idea of the adjusted xp system is that it reflects the amount of damage or other resources the fight will cost. If you're using single target attacks to take out monsters, and all monsters can attack every turn, twice as many monsters do twice as much damage per round, and they also last twice as long, and thus the difficulty of twice as many monsters is actually about 4x higher. The actual adjusted xp for twice as many monsters is typically 2.5-3x higher. To account for this change, one or more of the following must be true
In an open field encounter where all monsters can attack and area effects are not significantly present, at any given budget the larger number is more dangerous.
I second (or third) using the Encounter builder, but as also stated, it's a base. I suggest making the encounters at a HARD difficulty, or the players likely won't even break a sweat. I also find that as the players level, balancing the encounters gets tougher. Putting in a foe resistant to non-magical damage, even if a couple party members don't have a magic weapon is sometimes good, to up the difficulty and force some resource use. Set up a few encounters and when playing them through, if the players "cake walk" the first, add a monster or 2 to the next or maybe bump the AC by one (you're the DM< so slight tweaks are your prerogative) Often a single additional monster can make a difference as they get higher level and 1 AC can be a BIG difference in a fight.
Good luck and happy DM-ing! It's tons of fun to set up a slew of foes and have the party work their way through them.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.