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General Tabletop Discussion
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)
My 4 level 9 PCs took out the CR 17 Emerald Dragon!
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<blockquote data-quote="dave2008" data-source="post: 9006454" data-attributes="member: 83242"><p>I will disagree with the bolded part and leave it at that.</p><p></p><p>Encounter difficulty is not a monster tag and I never suggested it was. Where are you getting that idea from? "Deadly" is one of the encounter difficulties in the DMG. It is not a monster tag. Is there something you are misunderstand? You keep seeming to think I have applied some "tag" to monsters. I have not.</p><p></p><p>I don't think you are understanding the "solution" at all. It has nothing to do with monsters other than selecting the correct one.</p><p></p><p>4e had elites (and solos). Level Up has Elites as well which are the Level Up equivalent of 5e "Mythic" monsters. Here is a Level Up Elite Monster: <a href="https://a5e.tools/node/1541" target="_blank">Great Wyrm Red Dragon</a> You will notice the tags are: "Elite" & "Legendary"</p><p></p><p>I don't think any one table or encounter building guidelines are a failsafe way to design an encounter. It is simply a tool that can help. I find in 5e and LevelUp I don't need to worry about balancing encounters at all, so I don't really understand why people make such a fuss over it. However, I have found this table to be quite good a predicting a challenging solo monster encounter.</p><p></p><p>The link is in the first paragraph (after DM Dave - which is not me by the way):</p><p></p><p>This probably old news to some, but today I stumbled across this article from DMDave: <a href="https://dmdave.com/epic-encounters-for-5e/?" target="_blank">How to Create Epic Encounters</a> </p><p></p><p>Again, it is not a monster tag. I have clarified that several times, but you still seem to ignore it. Epic was 3PP made term to describe an encounter more challenging than "deadly." The author used the daily XP budget from the DMG to develop the table. It uses the RAW numbers from the DMG, just not the DMG encounter builder. It is explained in the link.</p><p></p><p>It is not something that can be right or wrong. It uses the DMG XP numbers in a different way, that is all. However, you seem to not understand what I am talking about, so I can't really put a lot of value in your analysis of its accuracy.</p><p></p><p>Well you never said how many PCs, so that is big red flag.</p><p></p><p>However, a simple encounter difficulty system (5e or LevelUP) cannot account for everything a DM can do with a monster(s) or players can do with their PCs. That is not the purpose of such a table. Like I said, it is a tool a DM can use. I don't remember what DM Dave say about it, but how I have used it is as follows:</p><p></p><p>For a solo monster I simply check its CR against the level and number of PCs it is facing. </p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">f the PCs are at the threshold, I know it will be a difficult battle. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">IF the PCs are below the threshold I know it could be a TPC</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If the PCs are above the threshold I know it is likely not a TPC</li> </ul><p>That is it, and that is all I need. I find it works really well for that. But everyone's group and DM style are different. You should tweak any encounter balancing guidelines in accordance with your DM style and your PCs style as well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dave2008, post: 9006454, member: 83242"] I will disagree with the bolded part and leave it at that. Encounter difficulty is not a monster tag and I never suggested it was. Where are you getting that idea from? "Deadly" is one of the encounter difficulties in the DMG. It is not a monster tag. Is there something you are misunderstand? You keep seeming to think I have applied some "tag" to monsters. I have not. I don't think you are understanding the "solution" at all. It has nothing to do with monsters other than selecting the correct one. 4e had elites (and solos). Level Up has Elites as well which are the Level Up equivalent of 5e "Mythic" monsters. Here is a Level Up Elite Monster: [URL='https://a5e.tools/node/1541']Great Wyrm Red Dragon[/URL] You will notice the tags are: "Elite" & "Legendary" I don't think any one table or encounter building guidelines are a failsafe way to design an encounter. It is simply a tool that can help. I find in 5e and LevelUp I don't need to worry about balancing encounters at all, so I don't really understand why people make such a fuss over it. However, I have found this table to be quite good a predicting a challenging solo monster encounter. The link is in the first paragraph (after DM Dave - which is not me by the way): This probably old news to some, but today I stumbled across this article from DMDave: [URL='https://dmdave.com/epic-encounters-for-5e/?']How to Create Epic Encounters[/URL] Again, it is not a monster tag. I have clarified that several times, but you still seem to ignore it. Epic was 3PP made term to describe an encounter more challenging than "deadly." The author used the daily XP budget from the DMG to develop the table. It uses the RAW numbers from the DMG, just not the DMG encounter builder. It is explained in the link. It is not something that can be right or wrong. It uses the DMG XP numbers in a different way, that is all. However, you seem to not understand what I am talking about, so I can't really put a lot of value in your analysis of its accuracy. Well you never said how many PCs, so that is big red flag. However, a simple encounter difficulty system (5e or LevelUP) cannot account for everything a DM can do with a monster(s) or players can do with their PCs. That is not the purpose of such a table. Like I said, it is a tool a DM can use. I don't remember what DM Dave say about it, but how I have used it is as follows: For a solo monster I simply check its CR against the level and number of PCs it is facing. [LIST] [*]f the PCs are at the threshold, I know it will be a difficult battle. [*]IF the PCs are below the threshold I know it could be a TPC [*]If the PCs are above the threshold I know it is likely not a TPC [/LIST] That is it, and that is all I need. I find it works really well for that. But everyone's group and DM style are different. You should tweak any encounter balancing guidelines in accordance with your DM style and your PCs style as well. [/QUOTE]
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My 4 level 9 PCs took out the CR 17 Emerald Dragon!
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