(DnD 5e) Scaling Encounters

[[tG]Wynd]

Hello all,

I bought the Mines of Phandelver adventure with the intent of using it to familiarize myself and my players with fantasy grounds.

The adventure was designed for four players, but now my player count has jumped from an expected 3 to what is now 6.

Now I'm wondering how to best scale up the challenges and encounters; should I throw more npcs into the encounters or go in and mess with their stats so they prove more difficult to handle?

As an additional question, what are some tips and tricks you use to make encounters feel challenging but not insurmountable?

[kylania]

You can use the Kobold Fight Club to find a good encounter for a specific party: http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder

5E is very Hit Point balanced, so to beef up an encounter just add more HP or more monsters.

I'm running through Horde of the Dragon Queen and started with level 6 characters and all I've had to do was boost HP for all the mobs by like 30 points and it's a fine challenge for my party. Might sometimes add some extra damage.

[Smiteworks]

For lower level play, it doesn't take too many hits from NPCs to decimate someone in the front line. You might add a few new NPCs, but I wouldn't necessarily double it. One of the preferences that is available is to set the HP as max instead of taking the average. It's in the campaign preferences. The only downside to adjusting HP but not the quantity appearing is that the XP is based on the total # appearing. So... maybe add more NPCs but try not to have them all attack the same character each round and beef up the HP of any special NPCs so they can survive an alpha strike by the players. Have the extra NPCs square off against individual players more-so than fighting as a finely orchestrated team and all attacking one or two characters.

If you increase the # appearing when you open the encounter, you will also see new tokens added. The tokens that are preplaced will be shown as check marks and the new tokens will look like the regular tokens. Remember that you will need to manually place the extra tokens on your map, but it is generally easier to do this from the Combat Tracker after they've been added (if you adjust it in-game). If you do it as part of your GM prep, you can unlock the encounter, adjust it and then place the tokens in advance, test and then clear the Combat Tracker and then during game it will remember the placement. Experiment with it a few times to get the hang of it before your game session.

[Sparrow]

With less XP available per player, the module will probably auto-balance because the players will be of lower level

[Black Hammer]

I would suggest adjusting enemy behavior first based on how effective the party is. Three aggressive twinks are far more effective at murdering your monsters than five beginners. Mirroring that with your monster behavior might help. Having enemies alpha strike a focused target is going to scare them more than another couple of goblins lolling about the backfield chucking rocks at whoever has the highest HP.

[Smiteworks]

As long as every combat doesn't start out with the DM alpha striking the party. I played in a campaign like that (recently) and it has greatly changed the play experience for the worse.

Every combat doesn't have to be life and death. You just want to have a series of connected combats that over time begin to wear down the parties resources.

[damned]

I do like to sometimes have the first or second encounter be the really tough one - everyone survives but they are now wounded and low on spell points and this makes all the following - easier - encounters that much more challenging :) it doesnt kill them but it makes them think more!

[Smiteworks]

Good strategy

[Black Hammer]

Цитата допису Smiteworks:

As long as every combat doesn't start out with the DM alpha striking the party. I played in a campaign like that (recently) and it has greatly changed the play experience for the worse.

Every combat doesn't have to be life and death. You just want to have a series of connected combats that over time begin to wear down the parties resources.

Oh, I absolutely agree. When you're mid-session and the party just chewed through an encounter you thought would be hard like a walk in the park, it's a handy way to shake them up a bit without stalling the game by pulling out books and padding the encounter with more bodies.

One arrow in the quiver, but not something to load an entire magazine with.

[Smiteworks]

Another technique I've used in the past is to have the party fight multiple encounters at once. If they are chewing through the enemies ahead of them, then maybe they've drawn the attention of the enemies in the adjacent room. Suddenly the fighters are up engaging one set of bad guys and the squishies in the back are not feeling quite so safe anymore.