D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 dnd encounters
- Thread starter wormfood
- Start date
Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
Even though 3E is carefully constructed and has excellent tools for building encounters that older D&D versions don't have it must be remembered that creating encounters is NOT just a mathematical formula into which you can plug numbers and have constantly predictable results.
The first variable is the party of PC's themselves. What mix of classes are they? Is there a wide range of levels? Are they over-equipped, or under-equipped? Are the characters heavily optimized? Are the players highly organized and agressive in their tactics?
Then there's the actual monsters/NPC's. Encounter Level calculation is a great tool but one CR4 monster is NOT the same as every other. Some are more dangerous to a given mix of PC's than others. Then there's the question of how the DM runs the monsters. Some he can run very effectively, very aggressively and others he might treat less threateningly. Are there more than one kind of monster? If so, some combinations will work more effectively and be more dangerous than others and that's going to happen in ways that aren't broken down into simple number values.
Then there's the area of the encounter. Does the terrain funnel opponents into a controllable space or it is open with enemies approaching from everywhere at once?
Finally there is the simple luck of the the dice which can EASILY render all manner of careful calculation meaningless. Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't try but that we should accept that even reasonably predictable outcomes aren't guaranteed outcomes.
Putting together encounters is as much art and experience as it is math.
The first variable is the party of PC's themselves. What mix of classes are they? Is there a wide range of levels? Are they over-equipped, or under-equipped? Are the characters heavily optimized? Are the players highly organized and agressive in their tactics?
Then there's the actual monsters/NPC's. Encounter Level calculation is a great tool but one CR4 monster is NOT the same as every other. Some are more dangerous to a given mix of PC's than others. Then there's the question of how the DM runs the monsters. Some he can run very effectively, very aggressively and others he might treat less threateningly. Are there more than one kind of monster? If so, some combinations will work more effectively and be more dangerous than others and that's going to happen in ways that aren't broken down into simple number values.
Then there's the area of the encounter. Does the terrain funnel opponents into a controllable space or it is open with enemies approaching from everywhere at once?
Finally there is the simple luck of the the dice which can EASILY render all manner of careful calculation meaningless. Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't try but that we should accept that even reasonably predictable outcomes aren't guaranteed outcomes.
Putting together encounters is as much art and experience as it is math.
