D&D 5E How do you create your encounters?

[Oofta]

I design encounters based around goals of the competing parties, who or what will be likely opponents and if there's anything that I can throw in that will move the story along. Then I take into consideration what the goals are, how to implement those and so on.

As far as what monsters to use, I start by figuring out what would be thematically appropriate, including reskinning existing monsters or creating custom ones. Finally I use a spreadsheet that calculates PEL. I generally calculate medium and hard levels, occasionally deadly (depending on goal). That means that I can easily adjust based on story demands or based on how things are going. I also take into consideration the group - some groups are just far more effective than others.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I also take into consideration the group - some groups are just far more effective than others.

This is very true and always worth considering - but I think often overlooked in this kind of discussion. I mean, you've got:

1) The stats of the PCs - generous rolling can be dramatically more powerful than stat-array or point-buy.

2) The subclass choices of the PCs on an individual level - are the PCs picking highly mechanically effective subclasses, or just cool ones?

3) The synergy between the classes/subclasses in the group or lack thereof. If the party is all-melee or light on casters generally that can make a huge difference to what they can cope well with.

4) The type and amount of magic items the PCs have - a party with even a handful of the charge-based items can be significantly stronger than one without, and if you have a ton of items but they don't work with what the PCs are doing, or the PCs just don't use them, then that can matter.

5) The tactical acumen of the players themselves, and how well they work together.

All of which can combine to make Deadly encounters pretty doable, or alternatively, in the other direction can make Hard encounters, well, definitely hard.

 

[Fenris-77]

This is very true and always worth considering - but I think often overlooked in this kind of discussion.

I agree. Not everyone builds optimized characters, and not every party has the standard mix of melee and control. Also, sometimes there's a Gnome Paladin.

 

[Oofta]

This is very true and always worth considering - but I think often overlooked in this kind of discussion.

A little while back I was running two groups at the same time. Same number of people, almost all with no experience, similar opponents, same rules and so on.

I had to throw far more at one group than the other to challenge them. What was a medium encounter for one would have been deadly for the other.

 

[Oofta]

I agree. Not everyone builds optimized characters, and not every party has the standard mix of melee and control. Also, sometimes there's a Gnome Paladin.

Well, there is no fighting awesome, so sometimes you just have to be like water going around a rock. If it's an entire party of gnome paladins, just throw up your hands and surrender. It will be less painful.

 

[Xenonnonex]

Why assume similar encounters would play the same for different groups. These are free thinking people. Yes. Different people play in different ways.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

A little while back I was running two groups at the same time. Same number of people, almost all with no experience, similar opponents, same rules and so on.

I had to throw far more at one group than the other to challenge them. What was a medium encounter for one would have been deadly for the other.

Yeah I've seen similar myself. Even with the same players, so similar tactical acumen and level of individual optimization, synergy can make a huge difference. I'm in two groups with largely the same players atm (as a player), and one of them just works drastically better mechanically, because the characters/abilities synergize with each other so much better, and because even the personalities of the PCs result in far fewer situations where the group is somewhat split up or the like.

 

[MarkB]

I start with what sort of encounter, featuring what types of opponent, I want to create, and come up with a base composition. Then I run that through Kobold Fight Club as a sanity check, tweaking the composition if it looks like it'll be too overwhelming or too trivial. I also check over individual monster abilities - what @Oofta mentioned above about groups of PCs also applies to groups of monsters, and sometimes you can find that what seemed like just a cool-sounding selection of critters turns out to actually synergise really well, tipping a balanced encounter towards being really deadly.

And, conversely, the opposite can be true - what seemed like a cool set of monsters may actually have capabilities and preferred tactics that step on each others' toes.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I also check over individual monster abilities - what @Oofta mentioned above about groups of PCs also applies to groups of monsters, and sometimes you can find that what seemed like just a cool-sounding selection of critters turns out to actually synergise really well, tipping a balanced encounter towards being really deadly.

And, conversely, the opposite can be true - what seemed like a cool set of monsters may actually have capabilities and preferred tactics that step on each others' toes.

Yeah this is also true - I'm particularly leery of grouping monsters with strong snare/root/restrain/slow-type abilities with even decent ranged attacker enemies, because unless the group has some way to break out of that, or shut the enemies down completely at range, that can be extraordinarily deadly.

 

[MarkB]

Yeah this is also true - I'm particularly leery of grouping monsters with strong snare/root/restrain/slow-type abilities with even decent ranged attacker enemies, because unless the group has some way to break out of that, or shut the enemies down completely at range, that can be extraordinarily deadly.

Indeed - and that's another factor. Beyond some parties being just more capable than others, different parties will have different specialisations and vulnerabilities. Some will be really good at focusing damage on a single target, but may get overwhelmed by more numerous, weaker opponents - or vice versa. Some may have excellent ranged capabilities but be unable to tank heavy damage dealers, while others may be so melee-focused that they can be flummoxed by even a relatively weak flying opponent.