Level Up (A5E) Any experienced DM's that have tried the A5E MM combat encounter rules?

[PQuix]

I've yet to get these rules to the table due to life being life, but one of the things that I'm the most interested in is the MM book, and more specifically their mathematical approach to building encounters. I've tried using the rules from the original O5E DM Guide, but I was never quite able to stick the landing in terms of encounter difficulty.

So, I wanted to check in with those of you that have gotten to actually use this at your tables, and that have long struggled with WotC's way of building encounters - do you feel that the A5E MM's rules for building balanced combat encounters work well? Why/why not?

Would love to hear from you!

 

[Reynard]

I've yet to get these rules to the table due to life being life, but one of the things that I'm the most interested in is the MM book, and more specifically their mathematical approach to building encounters. I've tried using the rules from the original O5E DM Guide, but I was never quite able to stick the landing in terms of encounter difficulty.

So, I wanted to check in with those of you that have gotten to actually use this at your tables, and that have long struggled with WotC's way of building encounters - do you feel that the A5E MM's rules for building balanced combat encounters work well? Why/why not?

Would love to hear from you!

I am converting Iron Gods to 5E and have been using the encounter building rules to rebuild the encounters. It's worked pretty well thus far but we just started a few weeks ago. Note that I haven't been rebalancing monsters if they exist in 5E so that might impact usefulness. If I have to convert a PF monster, though, I use the A5E rules based on CR to set up, damage, etc.

 

[Stalker0]

I actually used the new rules in my game just last night, as my normal group of 5 players got dropped to 3 for the evening, and I wanted to update the encounters to not be overloading. The goal was to have two "hard" encounters for 3 6th level characters. I also created a custom mob that I used their rules to set an appropriate CR.

Ultimately my party trashed through the encounters pretty handedly, so once again I think the CRs might still be too low for my group, but I did get one of them down a fair amount and it seemed they had a good fight, so ultimately it worked out all right.

 

[Xethreau]

I love that encounter building with this system is balanced and intuitive. In my experience, they are very firm predictors of the exact types of difficulty mentioned. My problem is that I have dyslexia, and juggling three different charts/lists simultaneously to design my encounters is a little much. I am very optimistic about the upcoming encounter design tool.

 

[tetrasodium]

I've been using them for several months now. They seem to work quite well but. Ii they csn be a but on the lower side with cr & monsters can definitely use a few points of ac. I've got 5players(one a marshal) and add several points of ac plus often add some 3.x style Dr.
Adding proficiency bonus or double prof to ac seems about common if I'm remembering right

 

[Stalker0]

also one question, how is resistance/immunity to weapon damage handled in the custom monster rules? I haven't found any notes about it.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Adding proficiency bonus or double prof to ac seems about common if I'm remembering right

monster's or player's?

 

[tetrasodium]

monster's or player's?

Monsters. There is a line in there about how it's cool to add a point or two but 5e is still tuned so players hit the majority of their attacks & it's still similar but players can get an expertise die just from flanking . The sweet spot seems to be players needing a 12 or so in the d20 to hit without flanking since flanking & such add on.

I also changed +1 weapons to give an expertise die on the first attack the player makes each round then nothing on later ones & will probably* be doing +2 as 2 then 1 expertise dice on the first & second then nothing on later ones. Doing that helps put a ceiling on how long a fight can run if players have trouble with bad luck

*PCs are only like level 5-6, +2 weapons are a bit out of their weight class still

 

[dave2008]

I actually used the new rules in my game just last night, as my normal group of 5 players got dropped to 3 for the evening, and I wanted to update the encounters to not be overloading. The goal was to have two "hard" encounters for 3 6th level characters. I also created a custom mob that I used their rules to set an appropriate CR.

Ultimately my party trashed through the encounters pretty handedly, so once again I think the CRs might still be too low for my group, but I did get one of them down a fair amount and it seemed they had a good fight, so ultimately it worked out all right.

I don't remember the A5e encounter rules, but if your only having 3 encounters in the night and 2 of them are only hard, then the group should trash them. It would take 3 deadly encounters to start to challenge a group (by RAW) and those are not even severe (to use a PF2 term) fights.

That being said, I know your groups don't tend to be normal and I would expect them to seriously trash a "hard" encounter.

 

[dave2008]

also one question, how is resistance/immunity to weapon damage handled in the custom monster rules? I haven't found any notes about it.

IIRC, resistance and immunities don't do anything to CR in A5e.