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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 3741546" data-attributes="member: 3854">There is no exact notation in the AD&D1 DMG on what a balanced encounter is, to my knowledge. There is advice on balanced games and dungeons, and looking at the charts we can see how that would break down into an encounter.Yes.Mostly, yes. There are guidelines/hints in the form of the charts for random dungeon generation. The Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II expand these charts. This is all an unfortunate, and poorly executed way of telling/helping DMs create balanced encounters.When I go back and read some of my old Dragon magazines, I find the designers (EGG, Mentzer, etc.) warning DMs not to screw up game balance by fiddling too much with the RAW. Gygax also gives this warning in the DMG. Unfortunately, I only find these articles and paragraphs later, after these kinds of threads.In Dragon #101, September 1985, Frank Mentzer has an charticle titled, "Plan it by the numbers, a system for tailoring challenges to the characters". In this he charts out, in detail, how to judge the challenge level of an encounter compared to the party of PCs. One small table in the article looks eerily similar to the chart in the D&D3 DMG.Let's look at the encounters in The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.It should be noted, though, that the cover of the module says, "An adventure for character levels 6-10."Now, the encounters in the Lost Caverns:First LevelRoom 2: 20 stirges - Monster Level II says 5-15 stirgesRoom 3: 1 clay golem - Monster Level VIII says 1 clay golemRoom 4: 8 mobats - Monster Level III says 1-8 mobatsRoom 5: 1 lurker above - Monster Level VII says 1 lurker aboveRoom 6: 7 pech - Monster Level IV says 5-20 pechsRoom 7: 5 giant cave crickets - Monster Level I says 1-8 giant cave cricketsRoom 8: 6 green slime - Monster Level VI says --- green slimes (?? what does "---" mean on the chart?)Room 9: 4 trolls - Monster Level VI says 1-3 trollsRoom 10: 1,000 normal bats - Monster Level I says 10-100 normal bats - this is kind of a weird encounter - more of an environment than monsterRoom 11: 16 cave morays - Monster Level III says 4-16 cave moraysRoom 12: 2 formorian giants - Monster Level VII says 1-4 formorian giantsRoomo 14: 6 piercers - Monster Level II says 1-4 piercersRoom 14: giant snapping turtle - Monster Level ?? - can't find this (is 10 HD)-- Geez, this is getting much longer than I expected -- nearly *every* room has a monster encounter.Room 15: 2 cockatrices - Monster Level V says 1-2 cockatricesRoom 16: gorgimera - Monster Level VII says 1 gorgimeraRoom 18: 4 dao - Monster Level VIII says 1 (10% chance of 2-5)Room 20: 6 lacedon-ghasts - Monster Level IV says 1-4 ghastsRoom 21: 3 xorn - Monster Level VII says 1-3 xornRoom 22: 1 marid - Monster Level IX says 1 marid (Note: this is not a combat encounter, it can be a non-encounter [the marid is in an enchanged sleep] or can help the PCs [if they dispel the magic and ask for aid])I might do the second level of the dungeon at a later time.So, on this first level of a dungeon for characters level 6-8/10, there are encounters:Level I x1Level II x2Level III x2Level IV x2Level V x5Level VI x1Level VII x4Level VIII x2Some of these encounters are at the upper end of their numbers, but still, that's how the level system was designed.Quasqueton</blockquote>

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