Thought I'd ask the community at large about how they like to plan and build encounters for their campaigns. Personally I've been using the Goblinist site (link below), but I'm curious to hear other approaches...
For combat, I use kobold fight club to build and if the encounter is large or important, I would simulate how my party would perform using their character sheet information.
I also have a large pool of random encounters organized by setting that I can just pick up at random to throw at the party. I prepared a few of them on my downtime but most of them I shamelessly stole from dmsguild (I use Encounters in the Savage Frontier) These encounters also include complex traps with add a nice spice to things!
I think of what seems cool based on environment, circumstance, and story, and I put that in the mix.
I don't tailor encounters to be any specific difficulty, and use encounters that if faced as combat could range from the party being assured little to no harm to themselves while devastating the enemy in short order (i.e. standard goblins outnumbering the party 3 to 2, but the party is 10th level), to the party being unlikely to be victorious without serious casualties (i.e. a party of 5th level characters facing an adult dragon). It is up to the players to decide how their characters will approach whatever creatures they encounter, though I do help them make their decisions by making it clear what sort of threat they are facing.
The only mechanic I ever actually engage with while putting together encounters is CR, and even then it is only by choosing monsters with CR equal to or lower than the party level more often than not, and by choosing not to have multiple monsters involved when using a CR higher than the party level more often than not.
I don't tailor encounters to be any specific difficulty, and use encounters that if faced as combat could range from the party being assured little to no harm to themselves while devastating the enemy in short order (i.e. standard goblins outnumbering the party 3 to 2, but the party is 10th level), to the party being unlikely to be victorious without serious casualties (i.e. a party of 5th level characters facing an adult dragon). It is up to the players to decide how their characters will approach whatever creatures they encounter, though I do help them make their decisions by making it clear what sort of threat they are facing.
I'm going to start using that as I've just noticed how much I keep almost every encounter balanced to be toe to toe with the party. Going to make it Dynasty Warriors next session hehe
I try to balance encounters by looking at the average amount of damage done per round by players, average amount of damage done by the monsters per round, and maximum damage for a single hit. The goal is to give the collective monsters enough HP so that they can lost several rounds, the total amount of damage done by the monsters should allow the players to last a little longer, and no single hit should take the party down past half their total health.
I'm a math minor, so I relish in the calculations of it all. I totally understand if you don't want to do that level of math. Generally, the larger the party, the more you have to work to keep things balanced. It's really hard to find a single monster that will provide a sufficient challenge, while also not leading to a TPK.
Thanks for the tips on Kobold Fight Club. I'll probably use that in conjunction with Goblinist. The only thing I like better about Goblinist is that it creates monster groups that make sense being together. It's a little to strict in that regard, which is part of the reason I was looking for recommendations on something else to augment, but anyway... I definitely like that I can throw Tome of Beasts into the mix rather than just working with core.
Curious if anyone has any favorite tricks, especially tactical details, for making encounters more interesting and potentially more challenging as well. I've got a handful of my own that I'll share when I have a little more time, but always looking for more.
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PBP "Beregost Blues" - Dungeon Master of Gnome Slaying +5
I've tried various tools before, but lately a lot of my encounters have been created on the fly. I run a group of 7 players, so finding the right balance for so many players can be hard. I'm usually forced to incorporate some kind of AoE type attacks so they actually feel a sense of danger.
So right now, I'm just taking screen caps of monster stat blocks I think I'll use and pasting them in OneNote.
I get that. I've run a game for 7, even 8, and it can be really challenging.
I find mob combat (DMG p250) can work well for swarming a group and creating a sense of tension, especially if you can set it up so they can't be too certain just how many waves are coming. Also allows for some flexibility on your part as you can dynamically switch off the faucet once you've worn them down to your satisfaction. Takes a little finesse to pull that off without it being too obvious, but I use it occasionally with great results.
I'd also consider challenging the group at their weakest points... Not consistently, of course, lest they feel picked on, but now and again a group who's done some adventuring, gained some notoriety, and angered some evil people along the way has got to expect an encounter designed (by the evil NPC's, of course, never by you) specifically to pick at the gaps in their armor. If they're exceptionally strong in melee, assault them with archers firing from an elevated or somehow blocked off position. If they're exceptionally strong magically, lure them into a combat in a null or wild magic (Weird Locales, DMG p109). Stuff like that...
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PBP "Beregost Blues" - Dungeon Master of Gnome Slaying +5
I promised to post some of the ideas I use to make encounters a little more interesting than "tank and spank", and I have a minute or two to provide the ideas on the top of my head, so here goes: (Many ripped off from various publications and articles throughout the decades...)
Tiered combat environment with ranged combatants on a higher tier... (1) archers on a catwalk or suspended bridge, (2) groups goblins rolling boulders off of a cliff's edge, (3) small winged nuisances hiding and swooping down from ceiling rafters or other elevated features, (4) sappers or casters raining fire / acid vials / whatever down on party members from stacked crates or cages or...
Multi-"room" combat environment... (1) central chamber populated with melee combatants and surrounded with murder holes through which archers fire forces the group to decide if / how to split up and deal with archers while also dealing with brutes in the middle, (2) platforms connected by walkways with a combo of ranged and melee combatants on each, causing similar dilemma to previous, (3) cavern with porous roof from which winged combatants swoop down, then disappear back up into maze-like network of tunnels above...
Combine traps or hazardous environment with combat... (1) rogue or group of rogues who knows which tiles in a room to step on and which to not, striking and retreating while the group tries to notice / remember exactly what tiles he stepped on, levers he pulled, etc, while in pursuit, (2) flying creatures assaulting a group while they're in an area with an exceptionally slippery or treacherous floor, (3) creatures who do not rely on sight attacking in an area of magical darkness, (4) creatures who can move through walls attacking in a maze-like area and ignoring obstacles that the group has to circumvent
Monster synergy... (1) combine strong melee combatants with rogues dealing sneak attack damage because they have allies within 5', (2) combine creatures with special powers (such as dust mephits who cause blindness) with creatures who can capitalize on the resultant conditions
Combat chains... (1) the noise of combat has a % chance to draw additional combatants, (2) scripted chain of combats that happen more or less back to back (best for suspense of disbelief if there's SOME overlap)
Mix and match, combining any / all of these concepts in any way you want, but keeping in mind that you're effectively increasing the CR of the encounter by introducing complications
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PBP "Beregost Blues" - Dungeon Master of Gnome Slaying +5
For what it's worth, I've become more comfortable with Kobold Fight Club and used it extensively for last weekend's sessions. My only complaint is that it stores data on a per-machine (per-browser) basis (assuming cookies), so I had to re-create all of my encounters on my DM'ing machine after I had created them all on my primary desktop up in my office.
In the end, I recommend it. It's solid.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PBP "Beregost Blues" - Dungeon Master of Gnome Slaying +5
Thought I'd ask the community at large about how they like to plan and build encounters for their campaigns. Personally I've been using the Goblinist site (link below), but I'm curious to hear other approaches...
Goblinist RPG Tools: D&D 5th Edition Random Encounter Generator
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D&D Beyond StaffThere's Kobold Fight Club: http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder
Or if you're more interested in doing it yourself, WoTC released a different way of doing encounters via Unearthed Arcana. https://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/Encounter_Building.pdf
For combat, I use kobold fight club to build and if the encounter is large or important, I would simulate how my party would perform using their character sheet information.
I also have a large pool of random encounters organized by setting that I can just pick up at random to throw at the party. I prepared a few of them on my downtime but most of them I shamelessly stole from dmsguild (I use Encounters in the Savage Frontier) These encounters also include complex traps with add a nice spice to things!
I think of what seems cool based on environment, circumstance, and story, and I put that in the mix.
I don't tailor encounters to be any specific difficulty, and use encounters that if faced as combat could range from the party being assured little to no harm to themselves while devastating the enemy in short order (i.e. standard goblins outnumbering the party 3 to 2, but the party is 10th level), to the party being unlikely to be victorious without serious casualties (i.e. a party of 5th level characters facing an adult dragon). It is up to the players to decide how their characters will approach whatever creatures they encounter, though I do help them make their decisions by making it clear what sort of threat they are facing.
The only mechanic I ever actually engage with while putting together encounters is CR, and even then it is only by choosing monsters with CR equal to or lower than the party level more often than not, and by choosing not to have multiple monsters involved when using a CR higher than the party level more often than not.
I try to balance encounters by looking at the average amount of damage done per round by players, average amount of damage done by the monsters per round, and maximum damage for a single hit. The goal is to give the collective monsters enough HP so that they can lost several rounds, the total amount of damage done by the monsters should allow the players to last a little longer, and no single hit should take the party down past half their total health.
I'm a math minor, so I relish in the calculations of it all. I totally understand if you don't want to do that level of math. Generally, the larger the party, the more you have to work to keep things balanced. It's really hard to find a single monster that will provide a sufficient challenge, while also not leading to a TPK.
PBP: DM of Titans of Tomorrow
PBP: Lera Zahuv in Whispers of Dissent
PBP: Evaine Brae in Innistrad: Dark Ascension
PBP: Cor'avin in Tomb of Annihilation
Thanks for the tips on Kobold Fight Club. I'll probably use that in conjunction with Goblinist. The only thing I like better about Goblinist is that it creates monster groups that make sense being together. It's a little to strict in that regard, which is part of the reason I was looking for recommendations on something else to augment, but anyway... I definitely like that I can throw Tome of Beasts into the mix rather than just working with core.
Curious if anyone has any favorite tricks, especially tactical details, for making encounters more interesting and potentially more challenging as well. I've got a handful of my own that I'll share when I have a little more time, but always looking for more.
I've tried various tools before, but lately a lot of my encounters have been created on the fly. I run a group of 7 players, so finding the right balance for so many players can be hard. I'm usually forced to incorporate some kind of AoE type attacks so they actually feel a sense of danger.
So right now, I'm just taking screen caps of monster stat blocks I think I'll use and pasting them in OneNote.
Usually I'll use kobold fight club to determine how much of a threat each encounter would be, and use Orcpub to track initiative/rounds/enemy health
"Roll for kink."
My homebrews - Naturalcrit
I get that. I've run a game for 7, even 8, and it can be really challenging.
I find mob combat (DMG p250) can work well for swarming a group and creating a sense of tension, especially if you can set it up so they can't be too certain just how many waves are coming. Also allows for some flexibility on your part as you can dynamically switch off the faucet once you've worn them down to your satisfaction. Takes a little finesse to pull that off without it being too obvious, but I use it occasionally with great results.
I'd also consider challenging the group at their weakest points... Not consistently, of course, lest they feel picked on, but now and again a group who's done some adventuring, gained some notoriety, and angered some evil people along the way has got to expect an encounter designed (by the evil NPC's, of course, never by you) specifically to pick at the gaps in their armor. If they're exceptionally strong in melee, assault them with archers firing from an elevated or somehow blocked off position. If they're exceptionally strong magically, lure them into a combat in a null or wild magic (Weird Locales, DMG p109). Stuff like that...
I promised to post some of the ideas I use to make encounters a little more interesting than "tank and spank", and I have a minute or two to provide the ideas on the top of my head, so here goes: (Many ripped off from various publications and articles throughout the decades...)
For what it's worth, I've become more comfortable with Kobold Fight Club and used it extensively for last weekend's sessions. My only complaint is that it stores data on a per-machine (per-browser) basis (assuming cookies), so I had to re-create all of my encounters on my DM'ing machine after I had created them all on my primary desktop up in my office.
In the end, I recommend it. It's solid.