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View Full Version : Balancing encounters in 3.5e



TheNifty
2009-10-19, 04:40 AM
I'm a bit of a noob DM, and I've been having trouble balancing encounters in 3.5e that are challanging for the whole group and not simply something for the caster classes to magic away with a couple of spells. My players are all level 10-12 (I asked the wizard to play a drow so he'd get a -2 to CL, and he and the cleric are STILL utterly outclassing everyone).

Is there any tricks to balancing campaigns better? Any particular monsters that do better against casters?

Tyrmatt
2009-10-19, 05:01 AM
Anything with an overpowering spell resistance or the ability to generate an Anti-Magic Field. It's a real "No, **** You" approach but it's pretty much the only way now.
Oh, one thing that occurs is to spin up the Malconvokers' Guide of Monsters to Summon. Use them yourself as if they're evil in the hands of PCs, they can be just as diabolical in the hands of the DM. Bone Devils come to mind first but I'm sure there's a tonne of stuff in there to use.

PhoenixRivers
2009-10-19, 05:06 AM
Creatures that misdirect are good. I've used an aboleth with clever illusion use to create a friendly fire situation.

Disguised dragons are good, as well. Solid saves, and, with the right spells, effective.

Outsiders are solid, as they usually have SR and good saves.

Multi monster fights are good, as are extremely stealthy opponents.

The whole idea is to get the casters to wrongly assess the situation, or make it not a sure thing to get them to do so.

Make the encounters ones that favor spells like Haste over spells like Hold person.

EDIT: Oh, and Feeblemind makes wizards cry.

Chrono22
2009-10-19, 05:24 AM
This was mentioned somewhat in the above post, but keeping the battleground and the enemies faced varied will go a long way to balancing encounters.

Incorporate creatures with special forms of movement (burrow, swim, shadowwalk, ethereal jaunt). Incorporate creatures with extraordinary or supernatural senses (blindsense, scent, blindsight, darkvision, lowlight vision, mindsight, ghostsight).
Use creatures that have a strategic advantage- or groups of monsters whose abilities accent eachother. For example, having a group of goblins riding an ogre and wielding longspears will help protect the ogre from charge attacks and being flanked.

Use terrain that has a mix of features- walls, doors, different elevations, natural terrain hazards, etc.

Use multiple encounters/day- lots of small ones, a few mid-powered ones, and one or two dangerous ones. Force spellcasters to do resource management with their spells.
If you have problems with the 15 minute workday, ban Rope Trick (or other similar spells), and enforce artificial time constraints. Such as- the location has many enemies that will coordinate against the party if the party stays there long. Or success of the mission depends on committing an objective in a limited amount of time.

TheNifty
2009-10-19, 06:06 AM
If you have problems with the 15 minute workday, ban Rope Trick (or other similar spells), and enforce artificial time constraints. Such as- the location has many enemies that will coordinate against the party if the party stays there long. Or success of the mission depends on committing an objective in a limited amount of time.

Actually, that's not a bad idea; the current campaign has the players trying to rescue a captured princess (hey, it's a cliche plot for a reason), so I can easily just give them a time constraint.

Chrono22
2009-10-19, 06:15 AM
Actually, that's not a bad idea; the current campaign has the players trying to rescue a captured princess (hey, it's a cliche plot for a reason), so I can easily just give them a time constraint.
Here are some ideas that could work for that:
The kidnappers constantly shift her from location to location. Once the kidnappers become aware that the party is trying to break in to retrieve her, or attempting to find her location, they move her. "Your princess is in another castle".
If the kidnappers' listed demands are not met within a certain frame of time, they will kill/give up the princess to foreign powers.
They have fake princesses- they know that the party is seeking the princess due to a previous encounter.. and so lay an ambush whereby they willingly lose a fight and give up the false princess.. who remains with the party as a spy, and eventually a traitor against them.

PhoenixRivers
2009-10-19, 06:16 AM
The princess's whereabouts are only known for the next 48 hours. After that, she's reached a major crossroads, and there are too many locations to predict the path of travel. Further, the enemy is studiously using Nondetection effects.

Sounds good to me.

Alternately:

Guards aren't faceless. When patrols don't check in, they're sought. When they're sought, there are clues that lead them to someone attacking their troops professionally. At that point, the ransom demand is doubled, and the message is sent that if any further attempts are made, her life is forfeit. In addition, the enemies hide the princess, by temporarily polymorphing her into something else (via PaO), and using a nondetection spell on her. Now, even if the party catches up, they'll have a hard time knowing where she is to rescue her if she's her captor's saddle.

There's the penalty for going slow.