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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 1868362" data-attributes="member: 3424">This is what I do to make sure it's not 100% guesswork:1. Know your player's characters. Know what they are capable of and what they are likely to do.2. Have a look at your creature's best attacks. If it makes average rolls, how quickly will it kill the entire party? Be extra careful of save-or-die effects and area effects that can damage the entire party at once.3. Have a look at the party's best attacks. Which party member is likely to do the most damage against it? If the monster has low AC, spell resistance or energy resistance, it is probably the fighter-type. If the monster has high AC or damage reduction, it is probably the wizard. How quickly will he take it down? Be very careful if it looks like the creature will defeat the party before the party defeats it.[You could run a simulated combat in place of steps 2 and 3, but that may be time-consuming.]4. How much warning and clues will you give the party about the creature's attacks and defences? If the creature has abilities the party is unaware of or unprepared for, it could result in a TPK.It sounds rather complicated on paper, but after DMing for a while, you'll get an intuitive feel of a party's capabilities against the various monsters. While doing so, my personal advice is to err on the side of less dangerous creatures. You can always increase the tension by adding another creature if the party defeats one easily. It is more difficult to work around a character death or a TPK.</blockquote>

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