DM Tip: Encounters

What is an Encounter?

In the simplest terms, an encounter is a fight or some other conflict meant to test or demonstrate the players’ capabilities. DMs use encounters to reward experience, insert dramatic plot hooks into the narrative, and/or force the players’ characters to react spontaneously in high-intensity situations.

Building a proper encounter is a fundamental skill for all DMs across all roleplaying games. Even in games where combat isn’t a priority, or a function at all, encounters are essential tools in the DM’s wheelhouse.

How Do I Make the Best Combat Encounter?

Lo and behold, this question has an infinite number of responses to an infinite number of scenarios. For all of our sakes, I’m going to speak broadly and trust you to apply it best to your individual circumstances.

For Dungeons&Dragons or Pathfinder, you’re going to use a value called the Challenge Rating (CR) to determine the difficulty of a combat encounter. When the CR total matches the Average Party Level (APL) of your players’ group, the encounter is deemed to be Average difficulty. Lowering the CR makes the encounter easier, while raising it makes the encounter harder, epic, or damn near impossible. If you couldn’t guess, knowing an encounter’s CR value will help you immensely. In these two systems, all pre-made enemies have an innate CR value assigned to them, making it easy to determine how they’ll fare against your players. The more enemies of that CR you add, however, the higher the total CR value becomes. For a better explanation of these rules, I recommend reading the D&D Dungeon’s Master Guide or the Pathfinder Reference Document (PRD).

For the two systems I mentioned above, I also recommend using the Juneberry Journal CR Calculator to double-check your encounter. Once the calculator determines your APL, it’ll match it against the CR values you enter to determine the overall difficulty of your encounter. Please note, the calculator does not account for home-brewed shenanigans like altered hit points, attack scores, spells, etc. Much like the Pirate’s Code, consider this more of a guideline.

Other systems have their own ways of determining an opponent’s difficulty, so always refer to the official materials for the system. For specific questions, you can also research online via Google or Reddit.

For the Best Results, Do I Always Match the CR to the APL?

Short answer? No. The CR should match the intent of the encounter at hand. If your players’ characters just leveled up and you want them to demonstrate their newfound powers, kick the CR down a few pegs. You simultaneously let your players have a sense of accomplishment while also determining how to best balance future encounters against them. Lowering the CR also comes in handy when you know the party will fight multiple waves of enemies before they can rest again. Each wave slowly whittles their resources, raising the stakes progressively without making the enemies stupid tough.

If you want the party to gauge their abilities against peers, keep the CR at the same level. This accurately determines their current potential without overwhelming them. They may have a sense of accomplishment after the victory, but it may also give the party a chance to reflect on their strategies. Average encounters are great for short bursts of combat where you know the party will have a chance to rest before anything greater comes along.

Higher CRs are meant to press the party to the limit of their abilities and typically denote an enemy on par with the Big Bad (BB) or of similar importance. Parties typically only fare well against Higher CRs when they’re fully buffed and have all their abilities available. Swinging an encounter of this magnitude after a series of lower CR fights can easily end with a party wipe and some pretty agitated players. Unless such an act fits into the narrative, this is highly discouraged.

What about Non-Combat Encounters?

Non-Combat encounters can include puzzles, difficult actions like scaling a mountainside, intense conversations, and more. These encounters rely more on the party’s non-combative abilities or skills to overcome, but can be just as intense. Unfortunately, these encounters don’t usually have an easily referenced value like the CR. Instead, you’re going to have to go with your gut, do some research, and a lot of trial and error.

Most game systems are nice enough to assign a typical difficulty level for certain actions (in D&D this is called a Difficulty Check (DC)). For example, climbing the aforementioned mountainside could have a DC of 25. This means each party must use one or more of their skills or equipment to overcome that value.

As a DM, you can lower or raise the difficulty of these encounters however you want, much like the combat encounters. You could have the mountainside climb start easier by containing many clear footholds and ledges. As the party climbs, however, pieces start to fall and make it harder to press forward. You can slowly (or quickly) raise the tension of the encounter through your storytelling. Be advised, however, that you don’t want to raise the difficulty to impossible without a clear, plausible reason AND possible workaround. No one likes empty failure.

My Party Defeated My Carefully-Planned Encounter in No Time at All! What Do I Do Now?

First, reward them! DMs by their nature work cooperatively with the players to create a compelling and exciting story. If they overcame a seemingly impossible challenge with ease by using wit, brawn, or guile, the players clearly know their characters well. Toss them some extra equipment, some more spending money, or perhaps a story detail they would not have received before. It could be another plot hook or some background information they may tuck away for a later time.

Next, identify what went well and what went wrong. If a character’s magic item or other equipment is too strong, maybe it’s time to tweak it a bit (I have a full article about magic items here). If the opponent’s Armor Class (AC) or HP was too low, give those an extra bump next time.

Don’t go from one extreme (incredibly easy) to another (impossibly hard) out of spite. This betrays the players’ confidence in your abilities and creates friction in your storyteller/audience relationship. Instead, make it a positive experience you all may talk about for years to come.

In Summary

Encounters are simultaneously one of the DM’s greatest assets and pain points. They’re almost always a case-by-case situation and can set the tone for the rest of the campaign, intentionally or not. I strongly recommend you double or triple-check your encounters using any resources you have available, including the ones I listed above. Encounters drive player interaction, character development, and plot advancement. An incredible encounter can become (in)famous for years to come. If you want proof, read this story.

Blessed be,

Matthew Wulf

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