Flamestrike
Legend
1. I don't know what that means, but. .
2. Saying "if they don't significantly contribute to the difficulty of the encounter" is absurd. Of course they do. At least they did they way I run these encounters.![]()
Step 4 for determining encounter difficulty:
4. Modify Total XP for Multiple Monsters. If the encounter includes more than one monster, apply a multiplier to the monsters’ total XP.... when making this calculation, don’t count any monsters whose challenge rating is significantly below the average challenge rating of the other monsters in the group unless you think the weak monsters significantly contribute to the difficulty of the encounter.
Building Combat Encounters
So, for 5th level PCs+, CR 1/2 creatures likely do not significantly contribute to the difficulty of the encounter. You don't count them when determining how many monsters are present in the encounter when multiplying for encounter difficulty at step 4.
It looks to me like you're tallying up all monsters in the encounter at step 4 (regardless of challenge rating or if they pose a significant threat) and this is giving you a higher Difficulty than what the encounter really is.