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<blockquote data-quote="dave2008" data-source="post: 9019249" data-attributes="member: 83242">As I have said before, not my experience.&nbsp; Not sure what the problem is, but sorry you're having trouble.No, they said their formula of calculating CR was more involved than what is in the DMG.&nbsp; The DMG was an attempt to &quot;reverse engineer&quot; their spreadsheet, but it wasn't 100% accurate.&nbsp; They plan to improve that for 2024.IMO, there are two mistakes in your line of thought here. And the 3rd is strongly recommend.<ol>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">You shouldn't grab monsters that &quot;looked cool.&quot; You should&nbsp; specifically grab monsters that fit the story, setting, and other intangibles. So those don't suffer at all. Either the encounter is to easy, just right, or to hard.&nbsp; 5e PCs can handle all of those, and with the improvisor mindset you can adjust the encounter as needed on the fly.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">You don't have to use the MM at all. You can completely improvise a monster / NPC with the tables in the DMG. The only limit is your imagination.&nbsp; If you don't want to go that far, use a monster from the MM and then improv some of its attacks with the DMG.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ol">As an improvisor you can't be beholden to what is in the stat block. The monster can do what makes sense for the setting, story, genre, etc.&nbsp; You just improvise those effects with the DMG tables.</li>
</ol>Improvising takes work. I didn't do it well at first and it took some time to get the hang of it.&nbsp; It was rough sometimes. However, in the end it was well worth the effort.&nbsp; I am a much better DM now and I am less stress too.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="dave2008, post: 9019249, member: 83242"] As I have said before, not my experience. Not sure what the problem is, but sorry you're having trouble. No, they said their formula of calculating CR was more involved than what is in the DMG. The DMG was an attempt to "reverse engineer" their spreadsheet, but it wasn't 100% accurate. They plan to improve that for 2024. IMO, there are two mistakes in your line of thought here. And the 3rd is strongly recommend. [LIST=1] [*]You shouldn't grab monsters that "looked cool." You should specifically grab monsters that fit the story, setting, and other intangibles. So those don't suffer at all. Either the encounter is to easy, just right, or to hard. 5e PCs can handle all of those, and with the improvisor mindset you can adjust the encounter as needed on the fly. [*]You don't have to use the MM at all. You can completely improvise a monster / NPC with the tables in the DMG. The only limit is your imagination. If you don't want to go that far, use a monster from the MM and then improv some of its attacks with the DMG. [*]As an improvisor you can't be beholden to what is in the stat block. The monster can do what makes sense for the setting, story, genre, etc. You just improvise those effects with the DMG tables. [/LIST] Improvising takes work. I didn't do it well at first and it took some time to get the hang of it. It was rough sometimes. However, in the end it was well worth the effort. I am a much better DM now and I am less stress too. [/QUOTE]

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