WBruce
Explorer
I've being playing D&D for more than 30 years now. During all this time never once I played an official adventure. Me and my pals always created everything from scratch, so now after 25 years playing together I though - Hell, why not dive into those pre-made adventures and see what it really is about. So I picked up some of them within FG and I started with Strongholds & Followers, but since it is designed for 5 lvl5 characters I am struggling to adjust encounters to my current party size. Bear in mind I do know how to adjust things, what to tweak here and there, but I was used to do those things on the go, no pre-planning needed.
Now, if I change the damage, the AC, the resistances or a simple change on HP, it's almost impossible to reflect those changes in the CR/XP.
I found this amazing site (CR Calculator - 5etools,) which helps me with that. I also use other two homebrew monster generators ( 1.https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html and 2.https://giffyglyph.com/monstermaker/ ) and so I get by. The only thing is that it takes a lot of time to run all this, than go into FG and remake everything. Sounds Like I am complaining on the burdens of being a DM, I am not. I am just trying to figure out if there is an easy way to adjust encounter levels.
All my players have the same level - I use thresholds so everyone lvls up together.
This is not a big deal - I' ve being using FG for a while now and usually I just do things as I would if I was on a table, I just don't let them see that I am changing things on the go, but I was wondering that for the next adventures - those official pre-made adventures like ToEE, Ywaning Portal and so on, it would be better to try to stick to them as close as I can ( My Strongholds & Followers although a very fun adventure doesn't resemble it for a moment. Aside from the general idea I could not hold on to myself to create so many things around that everything went their own way).
Personal Disclaimer: One of the best things I read in my D&D years was the book The Lazy Dungeon Master - solid work both for newcomers and veterans alike, I consider it to be a hidden gem. So I am down to take the lazy path and make things simple, I just don't know how to make it better. I am looking for a way to streamline the prrocess.
I have 3 players in this adventure, all lvl 5. The encounter is almost 3x harder (using DMG encounter build rules), but if I take out enough monsters (they are just 4 Knights, a cleric, a mage and the main enemy) to adjust the battle I end up with only 2 enemies. What I did is tailor each one of them to make them nerfed. It works, but it's a lot of work, considering everything else.
Can someone share any insights on that?
Thanks
Now, if I change the damage, the AC, the resistances or a simple change on HP, it's almost impossible to reflect those changes in the CR/XP.
I found this amazing site (CR Calculator - 5etools,) which helps me with that. I also use other two homebrew monster generators ( 1.https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html and 2.https://giffyglyph.com/monstermaker/ ) and so I get by. The only thing is that it takes a lot of time to run all this, than go into FG and remake everything. Sounds Like I am complaining on the burdens of being a DM, I am not. I am just trying to figure out if there is an easy way to adjust encounter levels.
All my players have the same level - I use thresholds so everyone lvls up together.
This is not a big deal - I' ve being using FG for a while now and usually I just do things as I would if I was on a table, I just don't let them see that I am changing things on the go, but I was wondering that for the next adventures - those official pre-made adventures like ToEE, Ywaning Portal and so on, it would be better to try to stick to them as close as I can ( My Strongholds & Followers although a very fun adventure doesn't resemble it for a moment. Aside from the general idea I could not hold on to myself to create so many things around that everything went their own way).
Personal Disclaimer: One of the best things I read in my D&D years was the book The Lazy Dungeon Master - solid work both for newcomers and veterans alike, I consider it to be a hidden gem. So I am down to take the lazy path and make things simple, I just don't know how to make it better. I am looking for a way to streamline the prrocess.
I have 3 players in this adventure, all lvl 5. The encounter is almost 3x harder (using DMG encounter build rules), but if I take out enough monsters (they are just 4 Knights, a cleric, a mage and the main enemy) to adjust the battle I end up with only 2 enemies. What I did is tailor each one of them to make them nerfed. It works, but it's a lot of work, considering everything else.
Can someone share any insights on that?
Thanks