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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7222241" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I don't know if it has to be an increase over what would be considered a Deadly Encounter. But, I admit I don't know all the numbers. So instead of worrying about the CR and assocoated math, I think what you should do is examine what is making encounters so easy for your PC party. Are they optimized for ranged combat, so they wind up killing things from afar? Do they dominate in melee? Do the party casters shut down opponents with save or suck spells? Once you know why your party is dominating, then you adjust encounters accordingly. If the PCs are ranged experts, have the bad guys be good at range, too. Some sharpshooting enemies with a couple of waves of mooks (who have some access to cover) to charge the party should work better. Or provide the bad guys with the means of countering the party's ranged dominance. Such changes shouldn't really affect the CR or encounter difficulty at all. Beyond that, if you find some of the monsters to be weaker than you'd like, adjust them. There is nothing at all wrong with that. The Marilith often comes up, and was mentioned earlier in the thread. Make her Teleport ability a move action or a bonus action, and give her a quiver of javelins, or the ability to cast Lightning Bolt 3/day. Again, nothing drastic to radically alter her CR, but it makes her more capable of dealing with a variety of PC parties. And of course she needs underlings....she's not intended to be a solo monster, not unless it's against a significantly lower level party. If you want her to be a solo monster against a high level party, then you have to give her Legendary Actions and Resistance. Another way to bolster the bad guys is by giving them consummable magic items like potions and scrolls. This gives them a boost without impacting the Difficulty, and also incorporates some treasure for the PCs. Treasure that's not too powerful. Then you can always go the route of adding monsters, or increasing HP for monsters and other such adjustments, as have been mentioned before. I don't design my encounters with XP budget and Difficulty Rating and all of that, so I can't answer your question about how much of an increase in CR is needed. I think you're better off making adjustments based on what you observe in the encounters and what you know of the PCs and the players, and only worrying about the math afterward.</blockquote>

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