Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Tension in combat
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="NewJeffCT" data-source="post: 5416577" data-attributes="member: 10784"><p>Agreed - you can't just fill out the XP budget and consider it a good encounter. A DM needs to know his players and adjust any encounters based on the party. A party of five that is a leader, controller, striker and 2 defenders is a lot different than a party that has 2 strikers & one defender or 2 controllers and one defender, etc. </p><p></p><p>The current makeup of my group is the second combo above - one of each role, plus an additional striker. So, they can dish out a lot of damage in round 1, and then continue to dish it out via the two strikers (especially when the rogue has flanking). So, I've already found that a Solo monster needs some support in order to be a realistic threat: I had one Solo supported by a Swarm, and another by two "pet" shadow hounds to provide the Solo their own flanking. However, they also bought the Solo some time to hopefully recharge their big bang power. (That certainly added tension, as the players were pretty spent in terms of dailies & encounters, and if the bad guy was able to recharge, they easily might have lost the combat...) If my group had two defenders instead of two strikers, they could suck up a lot of damage, but not dish out quite as much. Or, if they had two controllers, they'd be great against the ravening hordes of goblins, zombies, orcs, etc. However, not quite as good against solos.</p><p></p><p>It is really is something of an "art" in terms of encounter building, as <strong>chzbro</strong> says </p><p></p><p>I think you need to ask, "What is a good & interesting challenge to my party?" I got to be very good at it by the end of my two and a half year long 3.5E campaign that ended a year ago. I'm still developing things for 4E, but I'm getting better at it. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NewJeffCT, post: 5416577, member: 10784"] Agreed - you can't just fill out the XP budget and consider it a good encounter. A DM needs to know his players and adjust any encounters based on the party. A party of five that is a leader, controller, striker and 2 defenders is a lot different than a party that has 2 strikers & one defender or 2 controllers and one defender, etc. The current makeup of my group is the second combo above - one of each role, plus an additional striker. So, they can dish out a lot of damage in round 1, and then continue to dish it out via the two strikers (especially when the rogue has flanking). So, I've already found that a Solo monster needs some support in order to be a realistic threat: I had one Solo supported by a Swarm, and another by two "pet" shadow hounds to provide the Solo their own flanking. However, they also bought the Solo some time to hopefully recharge their big bang power. (That certainly added tension, as the players were pretty spent in terms of dailies & encounters, and if the bad guy was able to recharge, they easily might have lost the combat...) If my group had two defenders instead of two strikers, they could suck up a lot of damage, but not dish out quite as much. Or, if they had two controllers, they'd be great against the ravening hordes of goblins, zombies, orcs, etc. However, not quite as good against solos. It is really is something of an "art" in terms of encounter building, as [B]chzbro[/B] says I think you need to ask, "What is a good & interesting challenge to my party?" I got to be very good at it by the end of my two and a half year long 3.5E campaign that ended a year ago. I'm still developing things for 4E, but I'm getting better at it. :D [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Tension in combat
Top