Encounter building problem

[sunnylht]

I have 7 PCs of lv 5
If I put them with a CR6 chimera and a CR6 Wyvern
Will the fight go challenging and fun, or the PCs gonna be whooped fast?

As far as I observe in 5e PCs are able to tackle higher CR mobs with ease.

Note that the PC will have full resources available and no fights before or after this encounter.
It is a fight in the arena, if you would like to know.

Ps PCs are a champion, a battle master, an illusion wizard, an assassin, a bard, a barbarian (not totem), and a bow ranger.

[CantigThimble]

Quick question, how much will the flight ability of these monsters be used?

[BW022]

You have seven PCs which takes you out of the range of the CR system which is based on around 4 PCs and expects several combat encounters per day.

My best advice is to forget about the CR system and adjust encounters via trial and error. If you find the PCs are able to handle two CR 6 creatures easily... then put in three next time, or give the PCs some difficulty to overcome (rough terrain, high winds, fighting on a narrow crevasse, time restrictions before a prisoner gets killed, you have to capture an NPC rather than kill them, etc.) Don't knock yourself out trying to make every encounter 'balanced'. Players will enjoy some easy fights and these do tend to make the difficult battles more memorable and fun when they get through them.

If you must, you can adjust combats 'on the fly'. If PCs look like they are slaughtering the two CR 6 creatures, have two more show up. Again, this isn't necessary. Better to adjust the next combat.

[sunnylht]

This time I wish to demonstrate the use of environment and moves, so I'll be using the flight ability quiet a lot. I think they'll keep taking flight, swooping down when need to attack, using the sun as cover, etc.

[Flashy]

The encounter building guidelines on DMG page 82 rate two CR 6 creatures as a hard shading to deadly encounter for seven 5th level PCs. The DMG leans way on the lenient side when calculating exp totals for combat so I'm sure it'll be fine, especially as the only encounter of an adventuring day. Among other things the action economy is so overwhelmingly on the party's side that no one is at all likely to die. It's not until the party is in the deadly encounter range that the DMG considers they face any risk of genuine defeat.

Are the players going to be aware this will be their only encounter of the day? If so, they'll probably steamroll the monsters in three or four rounds simply because they can pull out every single burst option they have.

[EggKookoo]

Just to add my 2¢, I ran my first 5e combat last weekend. I built the encounter using the rules in the DMG. The PCs handily defeated their opponents, and could have easily gone through three or four more similar encounters before needing to rest. I'll be upping my CRs for the future.

[mephnick]

So far my experience has been that if the players have the action economy you might as well halve the CR of the enemies because they'll get steamrolled, and that for most encounters "Deadly" means "might get hit" and "Medium" means "why did you bother making this?".

A deadly encounter with equal-ish combatants on each side seems to be the sweet spot. 5 vs 2 it almost doesn't matter what the enemies are.

[Demonic Spoon]

I have 7 PCs of lv 5
If I put them with a CR6 chimera and a CR6 Wyvern
Will the fight go challenging and fun, or the PCs gonna be whooped fast?

As far as I observe in 5e PCs are able to tackle higher CR mobs with ease.

Note that the PC will have full resources available and no fights before or after this encounter.
It is a fight in the arena, if you would like to know.

Ps PCs are a champion, a battle master, an illusion wizard, an assassin, a bard, a barbarian (not totem), and a bow ranger.

Per the encounter balancing rules in the DMG and DM basic rules:

That's 4600 XP of monsters with no modifier for number of creatures.

The Hard threshold for 7 level 5 PCs is 5250 XP, so that's a Medium encounter.

Consider that a party is supposed to be able to stretch their resources through 6-8 medium to hard encounters per day, your PCs will likely mop the floor with this encounter with little risk to themselves. To make it a credible threat when the party has full resources, you're going to want to push the encounter to at least the Deadly threshold.



Just to add my 2¢, I ran my first 5e combat last weekend. I built the encounter using the rules in the DMG. The PCs handily defeated their opponents, and could have easily gone through three or four more similar encounters before needing to rest. I'll be upping my CRs for the future.

What difficulty did you balance the encounter to? The DMG does not tell you what difficulty you are supposed to be building your encounters at.

[EggKookoo]

What difficulty did you balance the encounter to? The DMG does not tell you what difficulty you are supposed to be building your encounters at.

Hard. It played out much more like a Medium or even an Easy.

[Demonic Spoon]

Hard. It played out much more like a Medium or even an Easy.

Randomness and environmental factors can change things quite a bit. Also, again, the guidelines assume 6-8 medium to hard encounters per day. If they blow all their resources on a Hard encounter, it's not going to be tough.

[sunnylht]

If I buff it up to 1 chimera and 2 wyvern
Will that be better?

I think the wyvern can 1 shot the assassin and Mage in one hit with its sting. So as the breath of chimera.

Those mob will try to take flight if possible, so the melee can't reach them easily. Does that changed the situation?

[CantigThimble]

Instead of imagining your party here, try imagining a standard issue fighter, cleric, rogue, ranger, wizard party here. What would they do? How would the monsters respond?

[Brendanicus]

Instead of imagining your party here, try imagining a standard issue fighter, cleric, rogue, ranger, wizard party here. What would they do? How would the monsters respond?On that note, read The Angry GM. He's full of great encounter advice.