Tips and Advice for Flexible Encounters

[Davedamon]

In the near future, I'm going to be running a campaign, but I'm unsure as to how many players, and also what level they are going to start at, but I still want to get the nitty gritty (encounters, monsters etc) penned down.

Additionally, I would like to give the players the option to approach the various arcs of the story in whatever order they wish.

As such, I'm an interested to hear how DM's here plan encounters and monsters and their levels with flexibility in mind, as I don't think my current method is very efficient.

Currently, I'm writting monster 'packs', where each pack is tailored to a specific level range (say, 1 to 3, 4 to 6) for 3 players, with a 'booster' for each additional player. So for example, if it ends up being 4 players and they're level 5 when they reach the encounter, they get Pack 4-6 plus 1 booster monster.

The problem I've found with this is that sometimes you end up flooding the players with many weaker monsters if they're a much higher level than I expected, rather than tailoring a whole new set of monsters more suitable for their level.

I gladly appreciate any advice on the subject.

 

[McTreble]

I like the idea of packets; it seems like it is infinetly modular. IF you're worried about weaker enemies, try to modify them on the fly. Never underestimate the power of a permanent +1 or +2 to hit or an increase in AC. If it gets too tough from that, make on-the-fly decisions as you see fit.

 

[Davedamon]

Could you explain how you design your 'packets'? Are they grouped by type; say a minion packet, a brute packet etc?

 

[OnlineDM]

Hmm. Well, if I were in your shoes, I would say, "I'm the dungeon master here, and I've decided that this will be a campaign for X-level characters." Pick a starting level and go with it.

Having to make encounters flexible for parties of varying level is much harder than flexibility in party size. If you ever look at a Living Forgotten Realms adventure, you'll see that they're for characters in a four-level band (1-4, 4-7, etc.). Within those adventures, players are given the option of playing at low-level (generally if the characters are at the low end of the band) or high-level.

The main difference between the low and high versions is the level of the monsters. For most encounters, the high-level monsters are just leveled-up versions of the low-level monsters. So, their hit points are higher, their defenses are all 2 better, damage is 1 better, attack bonuses are 2 better, initiative and skills are 1 better.

These adventures also include scaling instructions. Each encounter is written for 5 PC party, but there are instructions for scaling the encounter for 4 or 6 PCs (remove one Monster X, add two Monster Y, etc.).

The approach I would take, if it were my own campaign, would be to pick a level, pick monsters appropriate for that level, and scale the number of monsters to the number of PCs. Write the encounters with a certain party size in mind, and make notes about which monsters you would add or remove for different sizes of party.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

It's up to you of course, but my impression is that you are trying to do too much planning without enough information. You are probably thinking that you want a rich campaign setting and that you need to have as much ready as possible. What is likely to happen, instead, is that you will end up with a lot of material you never actually use. Borrowing from the software development field, I quote the acronym YAGNI: "You ain't gonna need it".

I'd say try to get the players and their interests nailed down before you go much farther.

 

[the Jester]

In the near future, I'm going to be running a campaign, but I'm unsure as to how many players, and also what level they are going to start at, but I still want to get the nitty gritty (encounters, monsters etc) penned down.

I highly recommend that you pick a starting level before you do anything.

I also strongly prefer starting at 1st level.

That said, without a level that you will be playing at it's really hard to design much of anything.

 

[Goonalan]

Same advice, and recommendations- start at Level 1, if you can.

Then all I do is figure out the encounters, plan for the expected number of players, and make notes as to what monsters to add in if there are more or less players (using the XP tables).

I figure out a flow chart with my preferred order of encounters, but obviously this is in pencil and easily rejected and/or corrected. With my VTT game I have to very prepared, it's harder (although no way impossible) to make encounters on the fly- therefore prep is everything.

In game I adjust, either adding bonuses (plusses to Defences/To Hits et al) as I adjust to the PCs play (although there's not a lot of this). I more often (in the VTT) add in a batch of Minions to thicken out the bad guys numbers, I always have a batch of Minions (and others) already tokened up and ready to copy over from a 'holding map' on the VTT.

You really need to know what you're going to be playing (Level etc.) to get this right, and you obviously want the bad guys to support your story line/narrative- provide info or drop clues (whatever).

My players are as adept at 'interviewing' prisoners as they are at fighting- you need to make some decisions soon...

Cheers and good luck Goonalan

 

[aco175]

I always tried to be more prepared in my games and for the most part I feel I am, but generally I'm only a few weeks worth of encounters in front of the party. I have a few ideas of where the campaign is going and where the party wants to take things and I tweak some of the things from what I drafted earlier.

One of the current campaigns this week decided to split off from where They had planned to go and go on a side trek to stop the 5 bands of gnolls from uniting under a single ruler. They were to go into the Demon Forge and recover the Talisman of Al- something. Now I have 4 encounters planned already for the Forge, but may need to up an encounter or two if the party gains a level in the gnoll side trek. By the way, it takes a bit of work to challenge a group with gnolls. I ended up having a gage being bought by the gnolls from the outpost 'BarterTown' for an summoning spell. The party promptly killed these gnolls and their 'summoned' demons and managed to bully a gnoll guard to bring the wagon through the encampment and to the old ruins. I thought the powergamer assassin would try and walk through the whole valley to get them to miss with opportunity attacks and take 6 points of damage, but thet did not happen.

I found a level 16 elite gnoll leader in the Wizards Compendium sits and made some gnoll minions and champions by upping a few level8 gnoll champoins. They ended up saving more of the sacrifices than I thought, so I'm lowering the challenge of the aspect of Yeego-whoever. At the same time I'm adding another obsidian golem hyenna that I modifies and lowered the stats from the Compendium as well.

Another thing that I like in the world is having areas of exploration open to the party to explore without prodding from the DM. While it is nice to have choices, I find that too many becomes overwhelming as well. If the group has 2 maybe 3 choices to follow that should be enough. I also try and have areas on the map marked out for future levels, something like Fire Gaint Mountain will most likely kill heroic parties. While I try to steer away from these areas until the group is ready, I usually allow for an excape if they decide to go there, which they may want to go there if I do not give them other interesting choices that are more suited for them.