D&D 5E How do you prepare/build encounters in 5e? (Poll)

[Quickleaf]

Lots of answers for "intuition and feel."

For those folks, are there ANY encounter guidelines/rules that you would find helpful on a DM screen/cheat sheet, or do you enjoy the freewheeling nature of your approach without any guidelines?

 

[KarinsDad]

Though I will "check my work" with the DM guidelines after the fact just to see where the encounter difficulty has fallen, I chose "through some combo of DM intuition and feel."

I use:

http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder

to double check. Way faster.

 

[KarinsDad]

Lots of answers for "intuition and feel."

For those folks, are there ANY encounter guidelines/rules that you would find helpful on a DM screen/cheat sheet, or do you enjoy the freewheeling nature of your approach without any guidelines?

I answered "intuition and feel", but I really do follow the DMG guidelines (checking against the guidelines after I have designed the encounter). Too weak of an encounter is a waste of gaming time. Too strong of one will often result in at least one PC death (regardless of popular opinion here on the forums, running away is not always an option, especially if a monster is faster), which in turn will result in one or more players having to create a new PC which in turn is a waste of gaming time.

So in answer to your question, the best answer is the DMG guidelines which have so far, always kept me in the basic ballpark.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I answered "intuition and feel", but I really do follow the DMG guidelines (checking against the guidelines after I have designed the encounter). Too weak of an encounter is a waste of gaming time. Too strong of one will often result in at least one PC death (regardless of popular opinion here on the forums, running away is not always an option, especially if a monster is faster), which in turn will result in one or more players having to create a new PC which in turn is a waste of gaming time.

The responsibility for enabling "run away" rests on the players, not the DM. If someone decides to play a dwarf, he knows that a major drawback is "can't run away easily unless someone Longstriders me."

 

[Quickleaf]

I design what is appropriate for the world. The PCs are not meant to fight their way through everything, nor is the world built around their current level. If it makes sense for there to be 150 bandits in an area, then there are 150 bandits.

Yep, I design the same way.

I also foreshadow if a scenario would be particularly deadly or challenging. So there might be 150 bandits in Finnigan's Cove, but it's highly unlikely the PCs are going to stumble in there without knowing what they're getting themselves in for.

Too many players have taken the "kill it" mentality in recent years, forgetting that running, sneaking past, and negotiating are all viable options.

Disclaimer: I use the "encounter" lingo since that's what the D&D books use, but what this thread is really asking about is combat encounters. Just wanted to clarify.

 

[iserith]

Lots of answers for "intuition and feel."

For those folks, are there ANY encounter guidelines/rules that you would find helpful on a DM screen/cheat sheet, or do you enjoy the freewheeling nature of your approach without any guidelines?

I wouldn't find the encounter guidelines useful on a cheat sheet. (I don't use a DM screen.)

I use:

http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder

to double check. Way faster.

Yes, that's what I use.

 

[KarinsDad]

The responsibility for enabling "run away" rests on the players, not the DM. If someone decides to play a dwarf, he knows that a major drawback is "can't run away easily unless someone Longstriders me."

No it doesn't. The fastest Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger in the party with mobility and Longstrider and bonus action Dash (max distance 165 feet) is still going to be caught by an Ancient Red Dragon that can fly 80 feet and breath 90 feet and can also cast Longstrider or Dimension Door or other movement improving spells (obviously an infrequent example, but most PCs at most tables do not have great mobility).


The first casualty of any battle is the plan, even if the plan is for the DM to put in a super deadly encounter that the PCs should run away from, because the players do not necessarily do that at first.


Rolling up new PCs, IMO, is a waste of precious gaming time, and sitting out the game without a PC is even worse. My job as DM is to encourage fun, not to go out of my way to discourage it. That doesn't mean that PC death cannot happen, it can, but as DM, I'm not going to set the odds so great against the PCs that it's practically guaranteed to happen.

Responsibility for what happens in a game is based on all of the players and the DM, not just one or the other. Every person at the table makes decisions that hinder or help the party and each person is responsible for a portion of the outcome.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

No it doesn't. The fastest Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger in the party with mobility and Longstrider and bonus action Dash (max distance 165 feet) is still going to be caught by an Ancient Red Dragon that can fly 80 feet and breath 90 feet and can also cast Longstrider or Dimension Door or other movement improving spells (obviously an infrequent example, but most PCs at most tables do not have great mobility).

So when you said, "contrary to popular opinion, running away is not always an option" you were just straw manning? Because nobody in "popular opinion" thinks that running away from dragons is "always an option."

 

[KarinsDad]

So when you said, "contrary to popular opinion, running away is not always an option" you were just straw manning? Because nobody in "popular opinion" thinks that running away from dragons is "always an option."

Always? No. The vast majority of the time? Yeah if the party has a Wizard who can teleport.

And I was actually referring to the concept of a TPK encounter where the players are expected by the DM to run instead of actually engaging. I'm not a big fan of such encounters since like I said, the first casualty of any encounter is the plan.

 

[iserith]

DMG, page 252: "Strict application of the movement rules can turn a potentially exciting chase into a dull, predictable affair. Faster creatures always catch up to slower ones, while creatures with the same speed never close the distance between each other." It then goes on to provide some guidelines for running chase scenes. I take this as the designers saying that boiling down a chase to comparing speeds is not the way they intend for the rules regarding speed to be used. Therefore, I use either the chase rules or improvise a chase scene using ability checks as necessary. In short, don't use combat rules to resolve a chase.

As far as characters dying, it can and will happen. It is therefore a good idea in my view to always have backup characters already created and ready to go so that players can get back into the primary mode of participation with the game as quickly as they like. It also helps if you've taken the time as a group to fictionally introduce the backup characters so that bringing them into the spotlight is as seamless as possible. (Henchmen following the party around on adventures is an easy method of establishing the backup characters.) If the group is caught off-guard by a character death, that's just poor planning in a game where death can and will happen.