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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Should DnDBeyond include an Encounter Simulator?
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9286769" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>The issue with an encounter calculator (or CR calculations for that matter) is assumptions. I have a group I've only DMed a couple of times and set up an encounter that gave them every opportunity to have a surprise attack, which I assumed they would take advantage of. But ... to make a long story short they didn't. Then the raging barbarian that was attacking recklessly kept rolling duplicate 2's and 3's (they needed a 6 to hit), everyone in a cone failed their saves and I practically maxed damage, I rolled more 20s than you could shake a stick attacking with rogues and at one point there was 1 person standing. Even that was only because I roll death saves secretly (everything else is out in the open) and I rolled 20s on their death saves more than once.</p><p></p><p>In any case, they all survived but it was a die roll away from a TPK. I thought they'd use the surprise attack I handed them, their dice were cold and mine were hot. It happens. That and I haven't DMed them enough to know how to balance things out better. It happens.</p><p></p><p>I don't think an encounter simulator would have changed much, there was likely a 5-10% chance the fight would go this badly, but every once in a while everyone rolls a 1. Or in my case, a 20. Lots of them. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 9286769, member: 6801845"] The issue with an encounter calculator (or CR calculations for that matter) is assumptions. I have a group I've only DMed a couple of times and set up an encounter that gave them every opportunity to have a surprise attack, which I assumed they would take advantage of. But ... to make a long story short they didn't. Then the raging barbarian that was attacking recklessly kept rolling duplicate 2's and 3's (they needed a 6 to hit), everyone in a cone failed their saves and I practically maxed damage, I rolled more 20s than you could shake a stick attacking with rogues and at one point there was 1 person standing. Even that was only because I roll death saves secretly (everything else is out in the open) and I rolled 20s on their death saves more than once. In any case, they all survived but it was a die roll away from a TPK. I thought they'd use the surprise attack I handed them, their dice were cold and mine were hot. It happens. That and I haven't DMed them enough to know how to balance things out better. It happens. I don't think an encounter simulator would have changed much, there was likely a 5-10% chance the fight would go this badly, but every once in a while everyone rolls a 1. Or in my case, a 20. Lots of them. :) [/QUOTE]
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Should DnDBeyond include an Encounter Simulator?
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