Quickleaf
Legend
I know a lot of these answers depend on the type of gaming group (home vs. organized play, rotating vs. stable), how well the DM knows the players, the influence instigator-type players have with the rest of the group, etc, etc. IOW it's a personal question, and there's no "one right answer for everyone."
That makes sense!
So, a few followup questions:
The party's negotiations with a [insert monster] king break down, how many [monsters] do you throw at them? Make whatever assumptions you want about the [monster], party level, and number of PCs.
Imagine a party of 3rd level adventurers in 5e (or whatever level you prefer for the purposes of the example). According to your DM intuition/experience, you must have a sense for how challenging a combat you are setting them up for, right? Generally, how do you make that discernment?
See, I don't design different types of encounters. I've found that ANY encounter can become a combat encounter based solely on the actions of the PCs. I've also found that any combat encounter can become a social encounter or exploration encounter with smart actions by PCs.
I don't design for specific types, but try to be flexible to the player's potential actions. To be fair, I put more effort into what I assume will be the type of encounter, but I try to keep open possibilities. An example of this would be from an Encounters season during the playtest, where one of the PCs tried to convince the other players to kill and loot their employer, a renowned sage. This (almost) turned a social encounter into a combat encounter due to the actions of a single player.
That makes sense!
So, a few followup questions:
The party's negotiations with a [insert monster] king break down, how many [monsters] do you throw at them? Make whatever assumptions you want about the [monster], party level, and number of PCs.
Imagine a party of 3rd level adventurers in 5e (or whatever level you prefer for the purposes of the example). According to your DM intuition/experience, you must have a sense for how challenging a combat you are setting them up for, right? Generally, how do you make that discernment?