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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 8007460" data-attributes="member: 20323">My approach is much more holistic, but I'll start by explaining the maths/metrics first...When it's a single big encounter – for example, the only encounter of that day – then the Easy/Hard/Medium/Deadly designations don't really apply. Those designations assume 6-8 encounters in a day, so resource attrition is built into those Easy/Hard/Medium/Deadly designations. With one big encounter, you don't have any resource attrition. Therefor, it's much better to use the Daily Adventuring Budget table (also in the DMG, but many overlook it). My experience is that this is a more accurate value than CR or the Easy/Hard/Medium/Deadly encounter designations. For example, your three-person 5th level party would have a Daily Adventuring Budget of 10,500 XP.You might be looking at the "Deadly" value which is 3,300, and triple that is 9,900 which is just within the Daily Adventuring Budget. So could be a pretty good one big encounter.However, there's a few other things to consider if you have the time and inclination:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you're using monsters with a CR significantly higher than the party (at level 5 that would be +4 to +7 CR, roughly), you need to look out for their ability to either (a) kill a PC with max hit points outright in one turn (i.e. can deal 2x average HP), or (b) knock out the entire party in one turn. If either of those is true, you may be dealing with an overpowered encounter because the players can lose without being given a fair recourse. However, there are still ways to pull this off, but require more DM effort.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you're using monsters that circumvent HP entirely, such as a basilisk or shadows or intellect devourers, you need to look at what defenses/cures the PCs have immediate access to. Generally, these are monsters that merit more foreshadowing.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you're using monsters that have a movement mode or environmental adaptation that gives them a huge advantage in the encounter over the PCs, then you need to dig into the guts of the encounter design a bit more to find a good way to handle that.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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