Why Your Encounters Don’t Need To Be Balanced

Many feel that trying to use the CR system effectively is fruitless. Let’s see what we can do about that and why you may not need to worry about it at all.

If you’ve read through my post about long rests then you might be familiar with experience budget already. This idea is a part of the CR system in Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons. CR means challenge rating, and is a number listed with monsters to roughly gauge how dangerous they are. Many gamers have stated that they dislike the CR presented in the books. Some wish for the entire system of CR to be removed entirely and replaced with something easier to calculate and use for games. If you are unsure how complex the system might be take to mind that there is an entire site dedicated to doing the work for you.

So if you would prefer not to use “Kobold Fight Club” what options do you have? Various creators, publishers, and game masters, have discussed the numerous ways you can gauge difficulty. A common one to hear is the idea of “Action Economy” which is the comparison of how many things each side can do at once. I believe there are four major factors to consider when examining a combat encounter and action economy is just one of them.

1. Action Economy.

As mentioned above this is the act of examining the number of actions each side of the combat can perform. If you have a party of four adventurers their standard action economy is going to be four. One action by each player on their turn. This becomes more complicated as you consider additional factors. For example, the sorcerer metamagic Quickened Spell allows you to use a bonus action to cast a spell. This ability leaves your main action available, and if following the rules for bonus action spells you may still cast a cantrip with your main action. For that turn the sorcerer effectively added an action to their side, meaning their action economy was five instead of four.

If your head is already spinning you might see why this topic is so widely discussed. There are countless ways the number of actions for a side of combat can be affected, the most common is by removal from that combat. Whenever an enemy or a player is downed in battle their abilities and turn are unavailable for use. This is why focusing fire is such an effective strategy in combat, especially if you target impactful enemies on the field.

When considering action economy in your encounters think about how many members are on each side. Usually, on the side of the adventurers, it is equal to the number of players, barring sidekicks or hired help. For monsters, it will generally equal the number of creatures as they often do not have bonus actions or similar features. However, there are exceptions, legendary creatures or the feature multi-attack will increase the number of things the enemies can do on their turns. Examine as well if either side might have effects like the aforementioned metamagic or spells like haste which will further skew your numbers of actions.

2. Average Damage.

It is unlikely anyone is surprised by that heading. Damage is one of the most discussed topics across TTRPGs and for good reason. The amount of damage being sent to the enemy for each action is going to decide how long the combat could last. If you deal half of the enemy’s total health pool on your first round then you will only need one more to end the encounter. Alternatively, if you cannot even manage one-tenth of the enemy’s health pool, well you might need to run.

Though people may think otherwise damage alone is not the most significant factor. But, when compared alongside the other parts of combat it helps tell which side is favored in a given encounter. Damage is part of the larger story here, and the length of that story often speaks to the difficulty of a fight. If the creatures you wish to pit against your players have enough damage to eliminate their entire health pool then that will be a quick and unsavory tale. Alternatively, if you ensure that both sides have only a fraction of the damage required your battle will be long fought.

Typically a highly dangerous fight where the players could die quickly, or a very long and difficult fight will both be bad news for a party. Even if a long fight might have less risk on a given turn, the chance for things to go poorly only ever rises. A player could be dealt a highly impactful critical hit in a long combat. That might tip the balance of actions and other factors to lead into a TPK, or total party kill, yikes.

3. Creature defenses.

Some of this section will seem familiar as health totals and pools were mentioned above. Although, there are other elements to this factor of combat than health. The main one is armor class. Armor class or AC, is the number that must be met or exceeded to hit a creature with an attack. If the enemy monster has an AC of 15 you must have an attack roll of 15 or higher to hit them. If you can’t hit the monsters you are fighting it will be difficult to deal any damage. A party could face a creature with a health pool they could deplete in one round, but if that creature has an exceptional armor class there will be pain. Even if the damage is technically enough if the enemy’s AC is such that only a critical hit can strike them it is likely the party will fall before they even come close to defeating their enemy.

Other considerations when it comes to defense are resistance, immunity, and mitigating factors. A mitigating factor might be that the enemy creature can fly and the players cannot. In a circumstance like that many methods of dealing damage could lose some of their effectiveness. Additional abilities can create situations where the players could damage the creature, but cannot effectively target or find it. Certain monster features turn what could have been an easy encounter into something completely impossible, which brings us to the final factor of combat.

4. Battle influence.

This might sound like an abstract concept but it should become clear in a moment. This fourth factor represents the highly impactful or specific abilities that can control a battlefield on their own. A classic example is the mighty spell, Fireball. As soon as a party wizard learns this spell a group of small monsters becomes little more than an inconvenience. The widespread damage from an AOE, area of effect, spell changes the game entirely. Although a huge group of kobolds could have a high combined damage and hit point total if they are close enough together a single Fireball will always destroy the entire group. Highly damaging spells which are AOE can negate the effectiveness of low-health enemies. Even if the creatures pass their save taking half the damage will still eliminate them from the fight.

On the side of the foes, these abilities often come across in examples like a dragon’s breath weapon. Other highly impactful monster abilities are stun and control effects, which can keep players from acting or turn them against one another. Any feature or action that can be performed that has an incredibly powerful effect can land in this category. A lich with the spell Power Word: Kill could completely destroy one of the player characters in a single action. abilities like this need to be factored into the expected difficulty of your combats.

Unfortunately, this most decisive aspect of combat can be the most difficult to gauge. Certain abilities or spells, like the previously mentioned Fireball, have pretty clear-cut effects on encounters. When your party has access to damaging AOE spells you need to space your enemies and ignore the contribution of those who will be instantly eliminated. With the example of kobolds if you know most will die in the following encounter ignore their actions and damage when considering difficulty. In that encounter you might have a second wave of kobolds who take cover and prepare to fight against AOE effects, only taking into account what that second wave might accomplish.

So why does it not matter?

When it comes to “balance” you have to determine what level of accuracy you wish to reach. There will never be a perfect balance, as part of the game relies on random outcomes due to dice being rolled. Your encounter which reads as easy might end up with the first goblin throwing a knife and rolling a 20. Now, in this scenario, you have got a dead party member for what was meant to be a simple level 1 fight. Reaching higher levels of balance accuracy takes progressively more work the closer you get to the ideal. But what if we had more tools at our disposal?

Strategy. Monster strategy is one of the most important factors in determining the outcome of combat. Like a secret overarching and all-powerful category strategy can make something easy or difficult. The group of kobolds we keep referring to might be insurmountable if they are appropriately prepared and armed. Contrary, a dragon who lands directly in front of the party and refuses to use its breath weapon might fall like a wilted flower. This is where your true power as a GM comes alive.

Encounters can change.

Even while you are running the combat you have planned you are still preparing. As the players take one response, you might ready another. If the party is suddenly being torn asunder you can underplay your hand. I am not suggesting that you fudge your rolls, a topic deserving of posts all its own. Instead, use roleplay and adjust your encounter through the actions of the combat. Monsters that down a player immediately when not meant to might stop fighting to laugh and taunt the party, asking for their surrender. That brief respite is likely all the party will need to avoid a certain TPK. If the party is dropping the enemies like flies, then they might retreat and regroup with other monsters in a dungeon.

When you are preparing your encounters you can account for these possibilities and through gaining experience you will not need to reference CR or similar systems at all. You may find as your GM experience advances further that you begin to use a world-based system for building encounters rather than one based on CR. That will have to be a topic for another time, but I will attempt to explain it briefly. When preparing encounters based on the world at large you consider what is appropriate for that area or time rather than the CR. Some encounters can be meant for the party to avoid entirely until they have advanced in power. Running games this way you design your world so that the party discovers what they can face currently and steers clear of that which they cannot handle.

A problem that can arise with this type of play is often players are, stubborn. Rarely will a group run from an encounter that is going poorly. Many gamers have been trained that anything they come up against is meant to be overcome, right then and there. Be sure that you communicate that some areas or creatures will simply be out of their league if you are going to run your table in this fashion.

Wrapping up.

Topics will need to be expanded on CR, world-based encounter design, and other topics mentioned today. For now, take note of just a few things. First, your encounters are neither likely nor required to be perfectly balanced. Consider the factors at play and judge accordingly how difficult a combat may be based on the information you have. Second, the variety of easy and difficult encounters can add to your play experience. As long as you are close to the guidelines for players you ought to be just fine. The Fifth Edition of D&D is known for having characters that can take on a lot of weight in terms of danger.

Finally, the balance of your encounters does not matter nearly as much as something else. The enjoyment of both you and your players. If your party loves smashing in the heads of enemies and you are having a great time as well then the balance really doesn’t matter at all. And if your group rather a tale of grit and danger behind every corner then the spare lost character is simply part of the expected play. Even death can many answers in this wonderous game.

For now, I have held this topic for long enough. Check back for further posts on character death, balancing monsters, and handling the strength of your players. Carry on and adventure often.