As Kobold Fight Club doesn't work, I am looking for a new way of balancing combat encounters. Anyone know of a math formula or other easy to use tool.
I have found that I much prefer going with a gut feeling, if it feels like it is going to be a bit light then trust your gut with it.
Alternatively I use the Owl Bear Method.
When my players reached level 3 I gave them a random encounter involving owl bears, 2 in my parties case. I then gave them another one a little later with 4, and then 5. Narratively it made sense, and it gave me a sense of how many owl bears would cause a threat. At that point I could then roughly balance each encounter by working out how many owl bears I felt it was equal to.
Armorclass calulation for Bossmonsters. AC = 10 + (Average hit modifier of your party) + 1 OR +2
Actioneconomy: If your Monsters don't have control-abilities (Like the most monsters in 5th Edition) add Villain actions. There is a video on actionbased monsters from Mathew Colville that i can highly recommend. OR Give your Monsters some Control ablities. For Example give Monsters at will spellcasting (So you don't have to worry about Spellslot-management) of spells like Web, Dominate Person, Slow, Hypnotic Pattern or something like that. AND Give Monsters useful and flavorful bonusactions and reactions.
HP: Your Boss or Mainmonster should survive at least one Round of concentrated fire of your entire party. So consider ablities like GWM and Sharpshooter. For HP just look in the chapter "Creating a Monster" in the DMG. There are suggestions for HP for Monsters based on their CR. Look at the Monsters for the CR=Playerlevel and usualy you will be fine. (Side note: Most Monsters of the MM have way less HP).
And i apply these rules to any encounters i run, not only the boss battles.
An Example: Your Party has an average +6 to Hit modifier and an average damage per round of 60. They fight some Goblins in a kitchen, and there is a special Goblin, "The Cook". The cook wears a "Plate"-Armor with an AC of 18, wich gets reduced by one for every hit, because the plates and pans of his armor fall apart when taking damage. He has a Bonus-Action to thrust a spoon with Goblin Chili into the mouth of a goblin within 5 feet, granting this Goblin an extra-chilli-breath(Burning hands or something like that). He can parry with his pan as reaction. He has 80-100 HP because he is a well fed and healthy lad. in the first round, the cook spills the contents of his cooking pot on the floor, which has the same effect as Grease, but is also flammable. The Goblins stay behind and shoot the party with bows or throw with kitchen utensils. In the second round the chilli frenzy will set the party within the goblin soup on fire (hopefully).
Lazy DM Encounter Threshod - Levels 1-4 - Total monster CR >/= 1/4 Total PC levels = probably deadly. >Level 4 - Toral monster CR >/= 1/2 Total PC levels = probably deadly.
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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
As Kobold Fight Club doesn't work, I am looking for a new way of balancing combat encounters. Anyone know of a math formula or other easy to use tool.
I have found that I much prefer going with a gut feeling, if it feels like it is going to be a bit light then trust your gut with it.
Alternatively I use the Owl Bear Method.
When my players reached level 3 I gave them a random encounter involving owl bears, 2 in my parties case. I then gave them another one a little later with 4, and then 5. Narratively it made sense, and it gave me a sense of how many owl bears would cause a threat. At that point I could then roughly balance each encounter by working out how many owl bears I felt it was equal to.
Did your PCs ever question the Owlbears?
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Pronouns: She/her/her's
Currently playing as Titaani Leelathae in The Wild beyond the Witchlight
I'll third the DDB encounter tool. Just make sure you are not stacking the combat with ALL Deadly encounters if you are going by the DMG daily encounter rules.
I'll third the DDB encounter tool. Just make sure you are not stacking the combat with ALL Deadly encounters if you are going by the DMG daily encounter rules.
If you're going with DMG daily encounter rules and stack it with all deadly encounters, you'll wind up with 3 encounters per day. How is that a problem?
As Kobold Fight Club doesn't work, I am looking for a new way of balancing combat encounters. Anyone know of a math formula or other easy to use tool.
I have found that I much prefer going with a gut feeling, if it feels like it is going to be a bit light then trust your gut with it.
Alternatively I use the Owl Bear Method.
When my players reached level 3 I gave them a random encounter involving owl bears, 2 in my parties case. I then gave them another one a little later with 4, and then 5. Narratively it made sense, and it gave me a sense of how many owl bears would cause a threat. At that point I could then roughly balance each encounter by working out how many owl bears I felt it was equal to.
Did your PCs ever question the Owlbears?
Nope it made narriative sense, they where in a large owl ear territory (they had been warned they where around) and they where really bad at hiding during a long rest :). In addition things had upset the food chain so the owl bears where hungry.
I'll third the DDB encounter tool. Just make sure you are not stacking the combat with ALL Deadly encounters if you are going by the DMG daily encounter rules.
If you're going with DMG daily encounter rules and stack it with all deadly encounters, you'll wind up with 3 encounters per day. How is that a problem?
Looks like a domain squatter grabbed it (though it was apparently previously having problems because it was using google sheets in a way that google stopped permitting). A modified version seems to have been created at https://koboldplus.club (it lacks some of the bells and whistles of the old version).
As Kobold Fight Club doesn't work, I am looking for a new way of balancing combat encounters. Anyone know of a math formula or other easy to use tool.
Use the encounter building tools in Xanatar's Guide to Everything. If you want challenging fights, build two encounters and combine them.
I have found that I much prefer going with a gut feeling, if it feels like it is going to be a bit light then trust your gut with it.
Alternatively I use the Owl Bear Method.
When my players reached level 3 I gave them a random encounter involving owl bears, 2 in my parties case. I then gave them another one a little later with 4, and then 5. Narratively it made sense, and it gave me a sense of how many owl bears would cause a threat. At that point I could then roughly balance each encounter by working out how many owl bears I felt it was equal to.
I use the following base mechanics.
OR
Give your Monsters some Control ablities. For Example give Monsters at will spellcasting (So you don't have to worry about Spellslot-management) of spells like Web, Dominate Person, Slow, Hypnotic Pattern or something like that.
AND
Give Monsters useful and flavorful bonusactions and reactions.
(Side note: Most Monsters of the MM have way less HP).
And i apply these rules to any encounters i run, not only the boss battles.
An Example:
Your Party has an average +6 to Hit modifier and an average damage per round of 60. They fight some Goblins in a kitchen, and there is a special Goblin, "The Cook".
The cook wears a "Plate"-Armor with an AC of 18, wich gets reduced by one for every hit, because the plates and pans of his armor fall apart when taking damage.
He has a Bonus-Action to thrust a spoon with Goblin Chili into the mouth of a goblin within 5 feet, granting this Goblin an extra-chilli-breath(Burning hands or something like that).
He can parry with his pan as reaction.
He has 80-100 HP because he is a well fed and healthy lad.
in the first round, the cook spills the contents of his cooking pot on the floor, which has the same effect as Grease, but is also flammable. The Goblins stay behind and shoot the party with bows or throw with kitchen utensils. In the second round the chilli frenzy will set the party within the goblin soup on fire (hopefully).
Use the Encounter Builder on D&D Beyond!
DDB encounter builder mentioned above.
Good ole DMG.
Lazy DM Encounter Threshod - Levels 1-4 - Total monster CR >/= 1/4 Total PC levels = probably deadly. >Level 4 - Toral monster CR >/= 1/2 Total PC levels = probably deadly.
“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
Thanks for all the help guys. I'll test your suggestions and see which ones works for me.
Did your PCs ever question the Owlbears?
Pronouns: She/her/her's
Currently playing as Titaani Leelathae in The Wild beyond the Witchlight
I'll third the DDB encounter tool. Just make sure you are not stacking the combat with ALL Deadly encounters if you are going by the DMG daily encounter rules.
If you're going with DMG daily encounter rules and stack it with all deadly encounters, you'll wind up with 3 encounters per day. How is that a problem?
Nope it made narriative sense, they where in a large owl ear territory (they had been warned they where around) and they where really bad at hiding during a long rest :). In addition things had upset the food chain so the owl bears where hungry.
And they are owl bears, players love them :).
Nothing. Just my opinion
Do we know what happened with Kobold Fight Club?
Looks like a domain squatter grabbed it (though it was apparently previously having problems because it was using google sheets in a way that google stopped permitting). A modified version seems to have been created at https://koboldplus.club (it lacks some of the bells and whistles of the old version).