D&D Next - 5e Discussion

2396 readers

1 users here now

A place to discuss the latest version of Dungeons & Dragons, the fifth edition, known during the playtest as D&D Next.

Join our discord! https://discord.gg/dndnext

-- Rules --

Be Civil. Unacceptable behavior includes name calling, taunting, baiting, flaming, etc. Please respect the opinions of people who play differently than you do.
Use Clear, Concise Titles.
Limit Self-Promotional Links. External links to blogs, kickstarters, storefronts, YouTube channels, etc, must be related to DnD and posted no more than once every 14 days. Affiliate links are never allowed.

This is a new community and the rules are in flux. Please bear with us (and give your feedback!) as we navigate building this new community. Thank you!

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

eerongal@ttrpg.network

SkyyHigh@ttrpg.network

Balance in extremely creative combat encounters (ttrpg.network)

submitted 1 year ago by Di4mond4rr3l@ttrpg.network to c/dndnext@ttrpg.network

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi guys,

I'll start by saying that I'm not posting this to ask for basic balancing tips, as I've that down already. I can create encounters that are mathematically aimed towards a specific difficulty level, as long as they are creative but not insanely complex. Big action oriented guy, minions, multiple medium guys, spicy terrain, simple lair actions, sure.

Now, I love actual plays (D20 veteran), but how dahell do DMs like Brennan and Matt balance their insanely creative final bosses? This fights have VERY swingy terrain features that can straight up murder you, powerful lair actions, powerful spellcasters (a personal bane to balance i have no idea) AND change something basically every turn.

I really wouldn't know where to start to put down the actual numbers for anything here, there are so many variables opposed to a couple damage variables you can average to make a very educated guess on the actual difficulty it will pose. These fights come up very swingy thanks to all these impediments, without really giving you the chance to average down any expected DPS by the party, and that's just to decide the enemies' HP...

How do you put the numbers down on sheets here?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] tissek@ttrpg.network 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The more creative the encounter is the more ways you have to adjust on the fly and the less CR is accurate. Sure it gives you an idea on which ballpark you are in.

For example you have multiple lair actions and a selection of those activate each round. If the PCs are hurting then you can choose a few soft ones to give then a chance to regroup and recover. If reinforcements are coming perhaps there are a few less. Similarly if the PCs are cruising, hit 'em hard.

Whether or not this crosses the border into DM fiat/fudging I'll leave up to you.

Also remember you don't have to use the highest DPR actions in general.

[–] jake_eric@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is a good answer. DMs have a lot of dials to turn to adjust the difficulty of an encounter even just with how they play the enemies. Really I think there are few DMs who play enemies as deadly as possible all the time.

I know I'll sometimes play enemies more aggressively if the PCs are doing better in the fight, like attacking downed PCs or counterspelling healing. Whereas if they're struggling, I might find other things for the enemies to do that'll be a little less mean.

[–] GrenadeSalad@ttrpg.network 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, if there are downed PCs, they're struggling already, IMO.

[–] jake_eric@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well, somewhat. With the way healing works in 5E it's pretty easy to get people back up, and you can often have one PC be downed and still have the rest of the party doing pretty well. If I'm running an enemy that wants to kill the entire party, and the party is trying to kill the enemy, having one at least person go unconscious is pretty common to make it actually feel challenging. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the party is actually in danger of losing the fight.