Li Shenron
Legend
DMs and adventure writers, when you've got to make a combat encounter, what is your process to do so? If you've used different tools, which do you find most helpful?
I mostly run older editions adventures converting them to 5e.
I start by simply assuming I will use whatever monsters are in the original encounter, in their 5e MM/VGtM form obviously.
I check their 5e CR first, and if it feels too high compared to the PCs then I make a choice: either I design a favorable situation for the PCs (e.g. the monsters are easy to surprise or bypass, weaker versions with less HP, more friendly than expected, something in the environment can be used to great advantage...) or I use different monsters.
Then I calculate the XP-based encounter difficulty level as per DMG, and adjust the number of monsters up or down. However, I don't really want to fully control encounter difficulty, so in many cases I only check the CR and leave the rest be.
I don't care if I end up with some pushover, and the occasional unbeatable encounter, I value variety and unpredictability more than having a "perfectly balanced" adventuring day which feels like babysitting to me. The players decide how to manage their resources accordingly and when to rest, and it is fine for an adventure to be easy on the combat side while maybe hard on the plot, and another being the opposite. I am also willing to openly tell the players what is the difficulty level of an encounter before it's too late.