Rule of the thumb for increasing encounter difficulty

[Balor01]

So I am currently looking at Pool of radiance - Attack on myth Drannor module that is supposedly a module, made for lvl 6-8 PCs.

I playtested it with a friend who took four tier 3 (level Four!) characters and just wrecked everything. Wrecked.

I would still like to run this with level level six PCs but I am wondering how to make encounters more challenging. I mean ... even at middle of the adventure they still encounter out-of-MM bugbears!

So for an Example I took one of the early encounters - a bandit ambush.

We have 3 lvl 3 fighters, one lvl 3 rogue and a lvl 6 sorcerer. By CR calculator this is very difficult encounter but in praxis those lvl 4 playtesters demolished everything. So. How shoud I ramp up things? My Killer DM strak always nudges me in a direction of leveling up casters. But ...

I dunno. I am here to listen and learn. How would you approach this?

Thanks.

[heavyfuel]

More critters. Instead of 3 fighters and only one rogue. Make them 3 rogues so that each of them gets a flanking buddy for that sweet sneak attack dice.

Giving the caster access to a new spell level also works wonders, but you have to be careful to not one-shot the group. In general, I think more enemies make for more balanced fights than fewer stronger enemies.

Also, play smart. These guys are lv3 bandits, they aren't mindless undead. If they aren't flanking, focusing on the party's caster they shouldn't have lived to see this 3rd level. The sorcerer should also know that crowd controlling while your minions deal damage is better than dealing damage directly, so give him grease and solid fog (if you give 4th lv spells).

Giving them better stats will also bump the difficulty, though I'd argue not giving them better stat array than your PCs

[Stuvius]

I am a new DM so if these suggestions are silly or have already been considered please forgive me.

I have found in ambush encounters the terrain can be a very useful tool. Concealed positions, different elevations, and natural impediments can level the playing field quite a bit between your strong PCs and the baddies.

Also, staggering the attacks has been very helpful. Your PCs may be more challenged if they encounter the fighters and rogue first and then the caster joins in after the battle has started to play out, throwing a wrench in their strategy.
I have often turned to upping caster levels as you mentioned to increase encounter difficulty and the above tips were provided to me as an alternative and were very helpful.

[heavyfuel]

I am a new DM so if these suggestions are silly or have already been considered please forgive me.

I have found in ambush encounters the terrain can be a very useful tool. Concealed positions, different elevations, and natural impediments can level the playing field quite a bit between your strong PCs and the baddies.

Also, staggering the attacks has been very helpful. Your PCs may be more challenged if they encounter the fighters and rogue first and then the caster joins in after the battle has started to play out, throwing a wrench in their strategy.
I have often turned to upping caster levels as you mentioned to increase encounter difficulty and the above tips were provided to me as an alternative and were very helpful.

That actually makes a lot of sense. If it's an ambush, then the bandits should make said ambush in a place where the terrain favors them. I'm not familiar with the module, but maybe there are patches of quicksand or swamp that makes chargers useless.

The only issue I see with making the caster appear later is that you run the risk of them decimating the minions because of lack of magical support.

[prufock]

1 Combining two encounters of EL X = EL X+2, if I remember correctly. Therefore, creating identical twins of all creatures in your encounter should increase the EL by 2. Might be more, considering the action economy (facing 10 enemies now). Obviously I don't mean actual carbon copies, but double up on your EL adds 2 to the actual EL by the books.

2 "Champion" Template. Just give all your baddies +2 to all ability scores and max HP. I might be off but that sounds about right for a +2 LA? If not, just apply +4 next time, then +6 until you find the sweet spot of difficulty you desire.

3 Apply actual +2 LA templates to all enemies.

Celestial Creature (MM 31) LA +2 – Any corporeal animal, aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, plant, or vermin of good or neutral alignment Type Changes: Unchanged; Animal/Vermin become Magical Beast
Dustform (Sa 161) LA +2 – any living creature TC: Construct
Entropic Creature (PlH 122) LA +2 – any corporeal aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, outsider, plant, undead, or vermin TC: Outsider unless the base creature was undead
Fiendish Creature (MM 108) LA +2 -- any corporeal aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant, or vermin of nongood alignment Type Changes: Unchanged; Animal/Vermin become Magical Beast
Gravetouched Ghoul (LM 103) LA +2 – any corporeal abberation, fey, giant, humanoid or monstrous humanoid, with Int and Cha greater than 3 TC: Undead; gains augmented subtype
Half– Vampire (LM 106) LA +2 – any humanoid or monstrous humanoid TC: Unchanged
Half-Fey (FF 89) LA +2 – Any corporeal living creature Type Changes: Fey
Lycanthrope (MM 170) LA +2/+3 – any humanoid or giant Type Changes: Unchanged; Add [Shapechanger]
Monstrous Beast (SS 122) LA +2 – Any animal or vermin Type Changes: Magical Beast
Phrenic Creature (XPH 205) LA +2 – any nonmindless creature that does not already have the psionic subtype Type Changes: Unchanged; Animals become Magical Beast [augmented animl]; gain psionic subtype
Reptilian Creature (SS 128) LA +2 – Any humanoid, monstrous humanoid, or giant Type Changes: Unchanged; add reptilian subtype
Saint (BoED 184) LA +2 – Any living creature of good alignment that is not an outsider or an elemental Type Changes: Outsider (Native)
Sanctified Creature (BoED 186) LA +2 – any evil creature except for outsiders with the evil subtype Type Changes: Unchanged; Outsiders gain the Good subtype
Shadow Creature (LoM 167) LA +2 - any corporeal abberation, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, plant, undead or vermin TC: Unchanged; animals or vermin become magical beasts
Shadow Creature (MP 190) LA +2 – any corporeal creature TC: Magical Beast
Telthor (Una 74) LA +2 – Any animal or humanoid Type Changes: Fey & Incorporeal Subtype
Winged Creature (SS 137) LA +2 – Any animal, giant, humanoid, monstrous humanoid, or vermin that does not already have a fly speed Type Changes: Unchanged; Animals and vermin become magical beasts; Humanoids become monstrous humanoids
Xorvintaal Exarch (MM5 47) LA +2 – any humanoid, living construct, monstrous humanoid, fey, giant, or undead TC: Unchanged

4 Give all enemies 2 extra levels.

[jedipotter]

I dunno. I am here to listen and learn. How would you approach this?


Going by the book can be tricky, the whole encounter system is just too vague. What you want to do is figure out the power level of your group.

You can start with the groups level, if the fights are too easy, give them a +1, or +2. And go up until you get a difficult fight. Then stay right there or a level or two less. So if your group is ''4th level'', add in two bonus levels and make that ''6th''. Important: stay on the mundane side when you do this, epically with monsters. You can very easily go over the groups magic combat level, like using flying monsters that would fit the encounter math.

If your running an by the book adventure, they have combat encounters written about as bland as can be done. Did the bandits have hide armor and clubs? Wow, exciting stuff. So if you spice things up a bit, it can balance an encounter. Give the bandits even one class level. Give each bandit two potions. Give the bandits equipment. They can all make ''simple bandits'' not so simple.

A single level in fighter gets them a bit of a combat boost, and a feat. A nice defense feat, like dodge or improved reflexes works, or an attack feat like weapon focus or even just toughness.

And even two potions can make things interesting. Bull's strength is a good one. So is barkskin.


You just need to tweak everything for your group.

[Kazudo]

It's also important that sometimes adding a slight tactical advantage helps. Even using "by the book" thugs can still net you some pretty neat stuff if you give them a fighting chance. The high ground which lets them use ranged weapons, for example. Any of them who have big shields and pikes get to phalanx. That kind of thing. Give them all Combat Reflexes and abuse AoOs.