Oh heck, I haven't looked at a CR calculator to pre-generate fights in forever. I generally just grab a few creatures that seem right for the area they're in and go from there. It's not an easy feat to do since you'll need a fairly strong understanding of the monsters, players, and strategy. For me combat is part of the narrative, not something to put in for the sake of giving the players stuff to kill, so it's easier for me to have an idea of what the encounter should look like, dice influence notwithstanding.
CR calculators are, for me, a simple tool to check and balance my approach after a handful of sessions to see if my encounters are in the ranges suggested for the party level. Both to see if the party I'm working with is fairing better/worse than average or if my encounter designs are better/worse than average.
Agreed with that sentiment. I prefer to put opponents in areas that make sense. Even in dungeon crawley environments there are still only a handful of tough encounters. Not a fan of filling each room, because that slows down the game. Just as using random encounters don't really add anything. If an adventure I make has an area where random encounters would fit I'd just pre-roll before the game starts. Or often just replace those random encounters to make more environmental hazards that can happen while traversing the wilds. Makes stuff come to live without too much slow downs.
You dont HAVE to start at level 1 at all. If you want, you could skip to level 2, 3, 5.... really up to you. I know of campaigns that start on level 20, and are meant to be complete power trips with everyone trying out higher level stuff they likely wont reach otherwise.
You can also throw level 1 PCs at more powerful monsters individually, or by having them against weak monsters like goblins and having a slight numbers advantage so the fight is a little easier for them. Or you could give them a companion or guard of some sort to help them on early missions that is stronger than other party members, and then have that companion leave later on once the PCs start to get to higher levels.
My best advice is to start off on the low end of any calculated encounter. With characters at 1-2 level, you really need to consider the number of creatures in the encounter. One solid hit from even low CR creatures can incapacitate a first level character. If there are as many or more enemies as players, a downed character can very quickly lead to a TPK.
When you start your campaign or adventure, get a feel for how your group performs in combat. Start with lower numbers of creatures and scale up as needed. If the encounter calls for 5 spiders as the first combat, lower it to 2 or 3, and see how they do. Use those results to scale future combat in the adventure.
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Oh heck, I haven't looked at a CR calculator to pre-generate fights in forever. I generally just grab a few creatures that seem right for the area they're in and go from there. It's not an easy feat to do since you'll need a fairly strong understanding of the monsters, players, and strategy. For me combat is part of the narrative, not something to put in for the sake of giving the players stuff to kill, so it's easier for me to have an idea of what the encounter should look like, dice influence notwithstanding.
CR calculators are, for me, a simple tool to check and balance my approach after a handful of sessions to see if my encounters are in the ranges suggested for the party level. Both to see if the party I'm working with is fairing better/worse than average or if my encounter designs are better/worse than average.
Agreed with that sentiment. I prefer to put opponents in areas that make sense. Even in dungeon crawley environments there are still only a handful of tough encounters. Not a fan of filling each room, because that slows down the game. Just as using random encounters don't really add anything. If an adventure I make has an area where random encounters would fit I'd just pre-roll before the game starts. Or often just replace those random encounters to make more environmental hazards that can happen while traversing the wilds. Makes stuff come to live without too much slow downs.
You dont HAVE to start at level 1 at all. If you want, you could skip to level 2, 3, 5.... really up to you. I know of campaigns that start on level 20, and are meant to be complete power trips with everyone trying out higher level stuff they likely wont reach otherwise.
You can also throw level 1 PCs at more powerful monsters individually, or by having them against weak monsters like goblins and having a slight numbers advantage so the fight is a little easier for them. Or you could give them a companion or guard of some sort to help them on early missions that is stronger than other party members, and then have that companion leave later on once the PCs start to get to higher levels.
My best advice is to start off on the low end of any calculated encounter. With characters at 1-2 level, you really need to consider the number of creatures in the encounter. One solid hit from even low CR creatures can incapacitate a first level character. If there are as many or more enemies as players, a downed character can very quickly lead to a TPK.
When you start your campaign or adventure, get a feel for how your group performs in combat. Start with lower numbers of creatures and scale up as needed. If the encounter calls for 5 spiders as the first combat, lower it to 2 or 3, and see how they do. Use those results to scale future combat in the adventure.