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Message: <blockquote data-quote="schnee" data-source="post: 1544554" data-attributes="member: 16728">I'm a new DM, running a high-level game.  (Yeah, I know, but I'm a glutton for punishment.) I'd like some advice on how to balance encounters.It's a party of five characters (Level 14) and one cohort (Level 11) built for a one-shot. Core and Forgotten Realms books. 32-point buy. ~120,000gp in personal wealth; max cost for any single item was ~50,000gp. I let them buy what they wanted, so there are a lot of Cloaks of Protection, Amulets of Natural Armor and stat buffs... so, saves and AC are very, very high. (It's OK, they're about to enter the Tomb of Horrors, so they're gonna die anyway. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />)So, here's my quandry. I threw an ECL 16 at 'em (one 14th level power-attacking greatsword Fighter + five 7ECL Dark Nagas buffed to the gills, attacking from surprise) and the combat was over in two rounds. I chalk a lot of it up to the Red Wizard blowing his wad (Simbul's Spell Matrix + two 7th level spells is an impressive thing) but... still... wow. It was much less of a challenge than I thought it would be.This has repeated with several other encounters. One notable one was two Iron Golems... it took a while, but it was a foregone conclusion. They were never in any real danger.I want to have at least one big battle challenge 'em, but not kill 'em. The mechanic of 'bigger parties get the XP divided differently so that balances it' leaves me a bit empty-handed... I want some more solid guidelines or rules of thumb, rather than 'oh bump it up a few more ECL - whoops, TPK!'Any suggestions on how to appropriately crank up the ECL to match their power level? Also, if an enemy is prepared for them (has several rounds to buff, attack with surprise) how much would that up the ECL at this level? Any and all advice is welcomed. I'm prepping for a Friday game tomorrow, so... help? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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