D&D 5E Monsters and Encounter Guidelines

[fjw70]

My group and I have done very little play testing so far. We are interested in 5e but with limited play time and a current 4e campaign there just hasn’t been much time. The little we have done had been low level stuff.

However, we are play testing later this week and I want to put combat through its paces at higher levels so I am putting together a couple encounter series’. The first series is for 6th level and consists of two average and one tough encounter for that “day” (i.e. no extended rest between these encounters). Then I also want to do the same for 8th level. Each of these is for 6 PCs.

At 6th level I have the following encounters:

Orc Leader (1)
Ogres (2)
Orog (1)
Orcs (18)

Hill Giants (2)
Ogres (3)

Chimera (2)


For 8th level I only have 2 average encounters so far:

Trolls (9)

Dragon, Huge White (2)


Did I do this right? If I did, what do I use for a tough 8th level encounter? What about at 10th level?

 

[fjw70]

60 views and no comments so i will assume I did the math right. I will run the group through these on Friday night and see what happens.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Looks alright. Keep in mind that monsters tend to run easy in the current doc. Good luck.

Tough 8th level (average 10th level): 2 green dragons

Tough 10th level: 29 Medusae, 186 Imps as familiars (suggestion: "open your eyes")

 

[fjw70]

125 Dryads and 186 Imp.

Looking closely at the encounter building guidelines and monsters 10th level is pretty dang powerful. A 10th level character can solo a huge white or black dragon. There seem to be significant jumps at 4th and 7th level. The power curve here reminds me of the 13th Age RPG, which stops at 10th level. I am still wondering what 15th and 20th level is going look like.

This reinforces my opinion that the martial classes should have a lot more maneuvers at low level and the ED should progress much faster. If the bulk of the adventuring is going to be over by level 10 then the character should not just be coming into his own by then.

 

[Rhenny]

Sometimes it is hard to plan encounters with the monsters in this playtest package because they don't hit often enough, but when you throw more monsters at the PCs it can get dangerous really quickly.

So far, my basic rule of thumb is avoid larger mobs if you want to reduce chance of TPK. Your first encounter....and your Troll encounter have more of a potential to turn ugly if the monsters roll well. Also...remember that Trolls have 3 attacks each...so 9 trolls nets 18 attacks.

Have fun.

 

[MortalPlague]

Tough 10th level: 29 Medusae, 186 Imps as familiars (suggestion: "open your eyes")

Very funny... I actually laughed out loud.

As for a 'tough' 10th level encounter, Here's my suggestion.

18660 xp

2 Green Dragons (4850 each)
1 Black Dragon (2740 each)
2 Mind Flayers (1630 each)
5 Minotaurs (380 each)
11 Carnivorous Monkeys (30 each)
1 Roper (720 each)
1 Kobold (10 each)

It's a meeting in the Underdark. Two greens, the fearsome Argondaxilis and his mate, Sarfaendrelle have journeyed to neutral ground to meet with a pair of mind flayer slave traders. Scizzrin and Methael have a stable of five minotaurs, and eleven carnivorous monkeys. They have also brought their own dragon, a black named Hephaelastraximus, to make sure the greens stay honest. The cavern itself has a roper lurking off to one side, though the mind flayers are its ally; it will attack anyone who attacks them, or their business partners. And finally, just as the PCs emerge from one side, a poor lost kobold shows up on the far side of the cavern. He immediately falls in love with Sarfaendrelle, the most majestic dragon he has ever seen, and will fight to the death to defend her!

 

[fjw70]

That's not an enounter that is an army.

 

[MortalPlague]

That's not an enounter that is an army.

Lol... and 125 dryads isn't?

 

[fjw70]

Lol... and 125 dryads isn't?

It is.

 

[Teacher Man]

Lol... and 125 dryads isn't?

Could you imagine what would happen if a torch got a bit too close to one of those 125 trees? And you thought Treebeard got mad...


And don't forget about things like ambushing the party, traps, things like that to make life more interesting...