I have just started using the Encounter Builder and am somehow completely confused now but the behavior seems to align with the rules in Xanathar's.
I have a party of 5 10th level characters and want to build an encounter using Kuo-Toa and maybe an Aboleth.
Example1: Aboleth alone is 5900xp. Aboleth plus ONE CR1/4 Kuo-Toa is already 8925xp and if I add one of each kuo toa type (CR 1/4, 1/4,1 and 6) I end up with 17k xp. (so mighty monster + some spare HP running around equals beyond deadly fight? I don't think so)
Example2: Okay I thought maybe the builder wants to tell me that the Aboleth is too much so I took it out. Now I have an encounter of 4 cr1/4 two cr1 and 2 cr6 monsters and this is meant to be a deadly encounter? My party will wipe this out in the blink of an eye?
Am I missing something or doing something wrong or am I just bad at playing monsters? :D
Thanks in advance!
PS: My ppl killed twice that a few level back without taking too much damage by casting a fireball or two
Encounter Builder as well as the DMG table for encounter difficulty are just rough guesses. Every party is slightly different. Party composition, experience of the players, optimized or non-optimized builds, etc. You pretty much need to base de facto challenge rating on your own experience as DM.
The Aboleth can mentally enslave someone 3 times per day. The Kuo-Toa Archpriest has hold person, spirit guardians, sanctuary, and mass cure wounds available. If I was running them I'd try to enslave the biggest, baddest PC, throw hold person on anyone else I can see, and then go to town. If they get too close? Sanctuary on the Aboleth. Spirit guardians blasting everyone in sight. And that's just from two of the baddies. The rest just work on chewing down HP.
One thing the Encounter builder does not take into account very well are creatures of significantly lower CR than the party’s level. It applies the multipliers for multiple monsters the same regardless of the CR of the monsters, which can throw off true difficulty if your Aboleths XP is being doubled or tripled because of a number of super weak minions that really have no effect on the party in traditional combat.
I used the encounter builder to do a large scale fight for the group I DM for. Six level 5 players against a CR 4 spellcaster, CR 3 fighter, ten CR 1 dragon claws, eight CR 1/2 bullywugs, and four CR 1/8 cultists. Encounter builder indicated this was a deadly level encounter...they won with two party members dropping to 0 and being quickly revived, so that was more of a medium/hard fight. All of that to say that huge numbers mean a lot less if their CRs are really low
There is a bit of multiplication of CR when it comes to enemy group size. When it comes to a boss and their much weaker minions, it might be better to make the boss and minions calculated separately then added together. That way the boss's CR does not get multiplied for the minions' numbers.
Also remember that hit and run tactics and coordination of abilities make larger enemy numbers much harder than the individual enemies.
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Hi Guys,
I have just started using the Encounter Builder and am somehow completely confused now but the behavior seems to align with the rules in Xanathar's.
I have a party of 5 10th level characters and want to build an encounter using Kuo-Toa and maybe an Aboleth.
Example1:
Aboleth alone is 5900xp. Aboleth plus ONE CR1/4 Kuo-Toa is already 8925xp and if I add one of each kuo toa type (CR 1/4, 1/4,1 and 6) I end up with 17k xp. (so mighty monster + some spare HP running around equals beyond deadly fight? I don't think so)
Example2:
Okay I thought maybe the builder wants to tell me that the Aboleth is too much so I took it out. Now I have an encounter of 4 cr1/4 two cr1 and 2 cr6 monsters and this is meant to be a deadly encounter? My party will wipe this out in the blink of an eye?
Am I missing something or doing something wrong or am I just bad at playing monsters? :D
Thanks in advance!
PS: My ppl killed twice that a few level back without taking too much damage by casting a fireball or two
Encounter Builder as well as the DMG table for encounter difficulty are just rough guesses. Every party is slightly different. Party composition, experience of the players, optimized or non-optimized builds, etc. You pretty much need to base de facto challenge rating on your own experience as DM.
The Aboleth can mentally enslave someone 3 times per day. The Kuo-Toa Archpriest has hold person, spirit guardians, sanctuary, and mass cure wounds available. If I was running them I'd try to enslave the biggest, baddest PC, throw hold person on anyone else I can see, and then go to town. If they get too close? Sanctuary on the Aboleth. Spirit guardians blasting everyone in sight. And that's just from two of the baddies. The rest just work on chewing down HP.
One thing the Encounter builder does not take into account very well are creatures of significantly lower CR than the party’s level. It applies the multipliers for multiple monsters the same regardless of the CR of the monsters, which can throw off true difficulty if your Aboleths XP is being doubled or tripled because of a number of super weak minions that really have no effect on the party in traditional combat.
I used the encounter builder to do a large scale fight for the group I DM for. Six level 5 players against a CR 4 spellcaster, CR 3 fighter, ten CR 1 dragon claws, eight CR 1/2 bullywugs, and four CR 1/8 cultists. Encounter builder indicated this was a deadly level encounter...they won with two party members dropping to 0 and being quickly revived, so that was more of a medium/hard fight. All of that to say that huge numbers mean a lot less if their CRs are really low
There is a bit of multiplication of CR when it comes to enemy group size. When it comes to a boss and their much weaker minions, it might be better to make the boss and minions calculated separately then added together. That way the boss's CR does not get multiplied for the minions' numbers.
Also remember that hit and run tactics and coordination of abilities make larger enemy numbers much harder than the individual enemies.