Myself and a few friends started playing a few weeks ago and I put myself forward as DM as I basically knew the most. Everythings been going pretty well except combat. They've pretty much walked through every encounter I've thrown at them with barely a scratch. Any ideas on how to give them a proper challenge without accidentally wiping them out?
How many combats are they having in a day? If you can decrease the amount of time they have for short and or long rests (aka increase the number of fights in a day), that will make combats more difficult because it will force them to ration their resources a bit. Also, terrain can make a big difference. An archer/spellcaster they can't run up and melee, or some difficult terrain that makes it harder to position themselves can change an easy fight into a hard one. Also, don't be afraid to add a monster or two to a battle. Even one more can really amp up the difficulty.
And if you give them too much (that is, if it's your fault the fight is too hard) its OK to fudge a couple die rolls, or lower the monster hit points on the fly to compensate. Now, if its your players fault they're in a tough situation, because they made bad choices, and dove into a fight they weren't ready for, or made major tactical errors during the fight, they need to suffer the consequences. That's the big difference -- players should suffer for their mistakes, but not for yours.
First thought is have a big bad who wants them alive, then if you overtune it turns into an escape challenge instead of a roll new chars.
A trick I use with new players is to have them face some goblins that are as dumb or smart as they need to be. 3 goblins in a field are easy to overcome, if the call reenforcements it can get tough. If they scatter and lead any PC that gives chase into a pit trap things get interesting quick.
I think the number per day may be a lot to do with it. Should they be able to handle multiple large fights per day, or one bigger one and a few smaller ones?
Part of it comes down to the players and how they play. They may work very well together and tactically be very efficient, or they might all free-wheel. Not much of a helpful answer, but here is something I've learned to do. I track each fight on some scratch paper. I put each character name down and I put a tick every time they use a spell or ability that needs to recharge or is a one shot (potion, scroll, etc). It doesn't matter to me what it is, just if they "use" something for the fight. Then I note how hurt they all are and overall the difficutly of the fight. After a few weeks and a handful of encounters you can gauge them better. Two small fights might deplete their spells\abilities enough that a large fight becomes tough, while that same fight rested up. They might be great against a single big target, but struggle with groups.
The DM Guide suggest something like an average of 8 encounters per day, but unless you are giving them crazily easy encounters (which will get boring), this always seems very high to me. I usually think that about 5 encounters is a maximum (1 easy, 3 medium, maybe 1 hard) before players will essentially be down to having little left except making melee attacks, and when you don't have options, combat's a lot less fun. Players also get reluctant to push on once their spell slots and cooldown abilities are all used up.
If you aren't using it, use Kobold Fight Club to guage encounter levels.
An Easy encounter won't tax players at all, and they probably shouldn't use any abilities on it. Cantrips and standard attacks will do. Example: 5 x Level 4 players fight against 5 Orcs. They should annihilate them without much issue. For your party, this would be a CR of 3 or lower. A Medium encounter might use up a few spell slots, and use up some healing resources but probably won't take long cooldown abilities. Example: 5 x Level 5 players fight 10 Zombies. They come out of it having used a few spells, and the tanks take a bit of damage. For your party this would be a CR of 4-5. A Hard encounter will use up a lot of resources. Most players will throw their best abilities and high level spells at the enemies in the first rounds of combat. One or more players may get knocked unconscious, but player death is still quite unlikely. For your party this would be a CR of 6-7 A Deadly encounter has a good potential to kill one or more of your players. It may well be impossible. If the players don't have all of their abilities at the start of the fight, it's possibly a TPK.
I kind of have the opposite problem, i find myself having to hold back to make sure I don't down too many people too quickly.
I find the easiest way to go about encounters is to think like the monsters. Are they attacking or defending? What kind of defensive or offensive tactics would I attempt in their place?
If I'm in a band of hobgoblin marauders, perhaps I'd leave detachments of hobgoblins in the bushes next to a road, and goblins in the trees. Do we have wolves? Set up a concealed ditch futher up the path with a houndmaster, who can release the wolves after fighting has started to flank the opposition.
If I'm being defensive: traps. LOTS of traps and barricades. Give smaller creatures tunnels they can maneuver through, to spy on the enemy or use hit and run tactics. Set up spiked barriers, allowing the defenders to easily advance on the enemy, while making it harder for the players to advance. Have wounded units be smart, disengage and retreat, attack from a distance or get healed by an enemy mage.
Remember that battles have sound. Did the players just do some fighting in a room? Have the enemies in the next overhear the commotion, draw their ranged weapons. Action to prepare an attack on the first hostile to open the door, reaction to fire.
I ended up giving the characters in a previous campaign goblin-based phobias and ptsd.
*ahem*... "I've been DMing since the first Bush was a vice president!"
OK, in all seriousness. In all the years and all the games I've run, I have found that trying to balance a combat is nowhere near as important as learning how to adjust it on the fly. In all the editions, the easiest way I've found to attempt balance is make sure that team X can do the same attacks/damage as team O within a single round. That's what it has boiled down to. And then I adjust accordingly. If the party is kicking the hell out of my goblins, my goblins suddenly have twice the HP. I don't have to explain why this goblin had 30hp and that one had 7hp... it is what it is. I don't have to explain why the two archers suddenly have a +6 to hit... hell, they could have been fighting with one eye closed up until this point. Once again, no reason to explain it. If I drop two players on the first round, my kobolds will distract the rest of the party while one of them loots the two that are down and then they all run off. Or the bandit captain decides he'd rather talk it out after putting his dagger in your liver because "ye reminds me of me longs lost brother", or the Owl bear smells another one in heat and it's rut season..... anything can happen to change the tides.
I know, I'm not in the majority though. I don;t stick to the rules of encounter building, or follow the stat blocks. An encounter is as hard or difficult as it needs to be in order to fit the narrative.
The DM Guide suggest something like an average of 8 encounters per day, but unless you are giving them crazily easy encounters (which will get boring), this always seems very high to me. I usually think that about 5 encounters is a maximum (1 easy, 3 medium, maybe 1 hard) before players will essentially be down to having little left except making melee attacks, and when you don't have options, combat's a lot less fun. Players also get reluctant to push on once their spell slots and cooldown abilities are all used up.
A 'medium' encounter is designed to be an encounter sufficient to use up some resources, not a fight that actually challenges the PCs. At 5 encounters per day, you should spend about 1/5 of the daily budget on each one, with no more than 40% between opportunities for a short rest (this will average out at Hard). At 3 encounters, you should spend about 1/3 with opportunity to take a short rest after each one. At one encounter, probably don't go over half the daily budget since you can't take a short rest.
You can do this in a somewhat natural way: just note that if the PCs attack and then take a long rest, the monsters have eight hours to reorganize and start combining encounters that were previously separate (2 medium encounters added together will typically be about 50% of the daily budget).
I find that a monster with a CR that is around 3 levels higher than the group provides a good challenge. Just remove the highest levof spells if they have spells, and change the number of damage dice you roll for a single attack to follow these rules. Do not add modifiers for basic attacks, whatever is rolled on the dice is the damage done.
Party level - # of damage dice
Level 1 or 2 players - monsters attacks deal 1d(x). (1 roll of whichever damage dice is listed for that attack)
Level 3 or 4 players - monster attacks deal 2d(x)
Level 5-9 players - monster attacks deal 3d(x)
Level 10+ players - monsters do normal damage listed in statblocks.
Just remember, they don’t know how many HP an enemy starts with. You can always secretly add/subtract HP to the bad guys in the middle of the fight to suit your needs.
Also keep in mind that any time the party has more attacks per round than the bad guys the PCs will have an easier fight. Any time the bad guys have more attacks than the party the PCs are in for a fight. If there are 4 PCs, 3-5 goblins will be a walk in the park, but 12 goblins could be terrifying.
Just remember, they don’t know how many HP an enemy starts with. You can always secretly add/subtract HP to the bad guys in the middle of the fight to suit your needs.
Also keep in mind that any time the party has more attacks per round than the bad guys the PCs will have an easier fight. Any time the bad guys have more attacks than the party the PCs are in for a fight. If there are 4 PCs, 3-5 goblins will be a walk in the park, but 12 goblins could be terrifying.
13 goblins, 3 wolves vs 5 pcs and an npc in a cave.
half the party downed, and the ones who didn't almost did when I flushed them out of the cave.
ended up having a player trying to drown a wolf in a river thanks to a lack of a weapon.
Also new, but one bit of advice i got was to keep a random extra enemy/hurdle in your pocket. Fight going way too easy as they hike through a canyon against bandits? Boom, Mountain lion sneak attacks their squishy from behind.
First round end up being 4 of 8 cultists killed by lucky rolls? They suddenly have a poison bottles to throw and inflict disadvantage on a few party members so that it lasts 5 rounds instead of 2.
Crazy fireball spell wreck the enemy in a cave? Cave in time. Players gotta make dex saves followed by strength checks to get out when stuck on their next round. (Don't make this too realistic cuz ANY large rock would kill a humanoid. Just be like, your foot gets caught by a handful of smaller rocks. 6 pts of bludgeoning and you are restrained by the rocks)
I don't think easy is BAD, but my players seem way happier after they overcome the curveball.
I have written about 10 "this is a easy/boring fight" saves and I'll just pull them out when needed. So far I've used 2 and both times they loved it and even though only 2 people took ANY damage, they got nervous and thought it was hard.
I also like the change HP on the fly sorta thing. Sometimes though, if they have fought that enemy in the past, they may make decisions because they KNOW their strength. But, you could just simply go, "these are no normal kobolds, their eyes turn black, their gums start to bleed, and their veins pop. Okay they gain 8, 3, and 5 HP for their bonus action."
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Myself and a few friends started playing a few weeks ago and I put myself forward as DM as I basically knew the most. Everythings been going pretty well except combat. They've pretty much walked through every encounter I've thrown at them with barely a scratch. Any ideas on how to give them a proper challenge without accidentally wiping them out?
Edit: There's 5 players about lvl 4 now
How many combats are they having in a day? If you can decrease the amount of time they have for short and or long rests (aka increase the number of fights in a day), that will make combats more difficult because it will force them to ration their resources a bit. Also, terrain can make a big difference. An archer/spellcaster they can't run up and melee, or some difficult terrain that makes it harder to position themselves can change an easy fight into a hard one. Also, don't be afraid to add a monster or two to a battle. Even one more can really amp up the difficulty.
And if you give them too much (that is, if it's your fault the fight is too hard) its OK to fudge a couple die rolls, or lower the monster hit points on the fly to compensate. Now, if its your players fault they're in a tough situation, because they made bad choices, and dove into a fight they weren't ready for, or made major tactical errors during the fight, they need to suffer the consequences. That's the big difference -- players should suffer for their mistakes, but not for yours.
First thought is have a big bad who wants them alive, then if you overtune it turns into an escape challenge instead of a roll new chars.
A trick I use with new players is to have them face some goblins that are as dumb or smart as they need to be. 3 goblins in a field are easy to overcome, if the call reenforcements it can get tough. If they scatter and lead any PC that gives chase into a pit trap things get interesting quick.
I think the number per day may be a lot to do with it. Should they be able to handle multiple large fights per day, or one bigger one and a few smaller ones?
Part of it comes down to the players and how they play. They may work very well together and tactically be very efficient, or they might all free-wheel. Not much of a helpful answer, but here is something I've learned to do. I track each fight on some scratch paper. I put each character name down and I put a tick every time they use a spell or ability that needs to recharge or is a one shot (potion, scroll, etc). It doesn't matter to me what it is, just if they "use" something for the fight. Then I note how hurt they all are and overall the difficutly of the fight. After a few weeks and a handful of encounters you can gauge them better. Two small fights might deplete their spells\abilities enough that a large fight becomes tough, while that same fight rested up. They might be great against a single big target, but struggle with groups.
Everyone is the main character of their story
The DM Guide suggest something like an average of 8 encounters per day, but unless you are giving them crazily easy encounters (which will get boring), this always seems very high to me. I usually think that about 5 encounters is a maximum (1 easy, 3 medium, maybe 1 hard) before players will essentially be down to having little left except making melee attacks, and when you don't have options, combat's a lot less fun. Players also get reluctant to push on once their spell slots and cooldown abilities are all used up.
If you aren't using it, use Kobold Fight Club to guage encounter levels.
An Easy encounter won't tax players at all, and they probably shouldn't use any abilities on it. Cantrips and standard attacks will do. Example: 5 x Level 4 players fight against 5 Orcs. They should annihilate them without much issue. For your party, this would be a CR of 3 or lower.
A Medium encounter might use up a few spell slots, and use up some healing resources but probably won't take long cooldown abilities. Example: 5 x Level 5 players fight 10 Zombies. They come out of it having used a few spells, and the tanks take a bit of damage. For your party this would be a CR of 4-5.
A Hard encounter will use up a lot of resources. Most players will throw their best abilities and high level spells at the enemies in the first rounds of combat. One or more players may get knocked unconscious, but player death is still quite unlikely. For your party this would be a CR of 6-7
A Deadly encounter has a good potential to kill one or more of your players. It may well be impossible. If the players don't have all of their abilities at the start of the fight, it's possibly a TPK.
I kind of have the opposite problem, i find myself having to hold back to make sure I don't down too many people too quickly.
I find the easiest way to go about encounters is to think like the monsters. Are they attacking or defending? What kind of defensive or offensive tactics would I attempt in their place?
If I'm in a band of hobgoblin marauders, perhaps I'd leave detachments of hobgoblins in the bushes next to a road, and goblins in the trees. Do we have wolves? Set up a concealed ditch futher up the path with a houndmaster, who can release the wolves after fighting has started to flank the opposition.
If I'm being defensive: traps. LOTS of traps and barricades. Give smaller creatures tunnels they can maneuver through, to spy on the enemy or use hit and run tactics. Set up spiked barriers, allowing the defenders to easily advance on the enemy, while making it harder for the players to advance. Have wounded units be smart, disengage and retreat, attack from a distance or get healed by an enemy mage.
Remember that battles have sound. Did the players just do some fighting in a room? Have the enemies in the next overhear the commotion, draw their ranged weapons. Action to prepare an attack on the first hostile to open the door, reaction to fire.
I ended up giving the characters in a previous campaign goblin-based phobias and ptsd.
*ahem*... "I've been DMing since the first Bush was a vice president!"
OK, in all seriousness. In all the years and all the games I've run, I have found that trying to balance a combat is nowhere near as important as learning how to adjust it on the fly.
In all the editions, the easiest way I've found to attempt balance is make sure that team X can do the same attacks/damage as team O within a single round. That's what it has boiled down to. And then I adjust accordingly.
If the party is kicking the hell out of my goblins, my goblins suddenly have twice the HP. I don't have to explain why this goblin had 30hp and that one had 7hp... it is what it is. I don't have to explain why the two archers suddenly have a +6 to hit... hell, they could have been fighting with one eye closed up until this point. Once again, no reason to explain it.
If I drop two players on the first round, my kobolds will distract the rest of the party while one of them loots the two that are down and then they all run off. Or the bandit captain decides he'd rather talk it out after putting his dagger in your liver because "ye reminds me of me longs lost brother", or the Owl bear smells another one in heat and it's rut season..... anything can happen to change the tides.
I know, I'm not in the majority though. I don;t stick to the rules of encounter building, or follow the stat blocks. An encounter is as hard or difficult as it needs to be in order to fit the narrative.
...cryptographic randomness!
A 'medium' encounter is designed to be an encounter sufficient to use up some resources, not a fight that actually challenges the PCs. At 5 encounters per day, you should spend about 1/5 of the daily budget on each one, with no more than 40% between opportunities for a short rest (this will average out at Hard). At 3 encounters, you should spend about 1/3 with opportunity to take a short rest after each one. At one encounter, probably don't go over half the daily budget since you can't take a short rest.
You can do this in a somewhat natural way: just note that if the PCs attack and then take a long rest, the monsters have eight hours to reorganize and start combining encounters that were previously separate (2 medium encounters added together will typically be about 50% of the daily budget).
I find that a monster with a CR that is around 3 levels higher than the group provides a good challenge. Just remove the highest levof spells if they have spells, and change the number of damage dice you roll for a single attack to follow these rules. Do not add modifiers for basic attacks, whatever is rolled on the dice is the damage done.
Party level - # of damage dice
Level 1 or 2 players - monsters attacks deal 1d(x). (1 roll of whichever damage dice is listed for that attack)
Level 3 or 4 players - monster attacks deal 2d(x)
Level 5-9 players - monster attacks deal 3d(x)
Level 10+ players - monsters do normal damage listed in statblocks.
Just remember, they don’t know how many HP an enemy starts with. You can always secretly add/subtract HP to the bad guys in the middle of the fight to suit your needs.
Also keep in mind that any time the party has more attacks per round than the bad guys the PCs will have an easier fight. Any time the bad guys have more attacks than the party the PCs are in for a fight. If there are 4 PCs, 3-5 goblins will be a walk in the park, but 12 goblins could be terrifying.
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13 goblins, 3 wolves vs 5 pcs and an npc in a cave.
half the party downed, and the ones who didn't almost did when I flushed them out of the cave.
ended up having a player trying to drown a wolf in a river thanks to a lack of a weapon.
Also new, but one bit of advice i got was to keep a random extra enemy/hurdle in your pocket. Fight going way too easy as they hike through a canyon against bandits? Boom, Mountain lion sneak attacks their squishy from behind.
First round end up being 4 of 8 cultists killed by lucky rolls? They suddenly have a poison bottles to throw and inflict disadvantage on a few party members so that it lasts 5 rounds instead of 2.
Crazy fireball spell wreck the enemy in a cave? Cave in time. Players gotta make dex saves followed by strength checks to get out when stuck on their next round. (Don't make this too realistic cuz ANY large rock would kill a humanoid. Just be like, your foot gets caught by a handful of smaller rocks. 6 pts of bludgeoning and you are restrained by the rocks)
I don't think easy is BAD, but my players seem way happier after they overcome the curveball.
I have written about 10 "this is a easy/boring fight" saves and I'll just pull them out when needed. So far I've used 2 and both times they loved it and even though only 2 people took ANY damage, they got nervous and thought it was hard.
I also like the change HP on the fly sorta thing. Sometimes though, if they have fought that enemy in the past, they may make decisions because they KNOW their strength. But, you could just simply go, "these are no normal kobolds, their eyes turn black, their gums start to bleed, and their veins pop. Okay they gain 8, 3, and 5 HP for their bonus action."