How to calculate adjusted encounter XP with an allied force.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Hey everybody, I'm hoping for some advice on how many skeleton's to have my player's encounter and if there are any rules on how to adjust the xp for encounters like this i.e. where you're adding allies.

I'm planning on having my players encounter a town gate that is under assault from a group of skeletons. However I'm not sure how many skeletons to have compared to the guards at the gate. I was planning on having 6 guards (using 1d6 dmg crossbows) on top of the wall with half cover. Then having 8-10 Skeleton's (some of them damaged) firing up at them from about 50' away.

It will be 4 or 5 Level 1 PC's and this should be their third encounter of the day

Party Composition:

Paladin
Hexblade
Cleric (war)
Barbarian
and possibly a druid.



A reskinned orc and 2 reskinned Blink dogs
2 skeleton's and 2 zombies (1 skeleton if it's only 4 players.)


Edit: I forgot to mention that this will be the first time playing for everyone but myself.

[MaxWilson]

Edit: I forgot to mention that this will be the first time playing for everyone but myself.

With new players, keeping the complexity manageable will probably be more important than the technical difficulty.

8-10 skeletons sounds fine. Each PC will have the chance to take down one or two skeletons and really participate in the fight. You could go as high as 12 skeletons and it would probably still be okay, since the PCs + guards are still almost as numerous as the skeletons, but if you want to make it harder I would actually recommend sticking to 8-10 skeletons and just reducing the number of guards to 3-4.

Also, it matters quite a lot whether the skeletons are going to keep shooting at the guards (behind half cover) for a while, or switch targets immediately to the PCs as soon as they show themselves. The longer the skeletons keep shooting at the guards, the easier the fight is.

[Unoriginal]

If you fight with allies, each allies is supposed to get a share of XPs equal to the PCs' ones.

As in, if 3 PCs and 2 Thug NPCs beat a troll, everyone get 1/5 of the XPs.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

With new players, keeping the complexity manageable will probably be more important than the technical difficulty.

8-10 skeletons sounds fine. Each PC will have the chance to take down one or two skeletons and really participate in the fight. You could go as high as 12 skeletons and it would probably still be okay, since the PCs + guards are still almost as numerous as the skeletons, but if you want to make it harder I would actually recommend sticking to 8-10 skeletons and just reducing the number of guards to 3-4.

Also, it matters quite a lot whether the skeletons are going to keep shooting at the guards (behind half cover) for a while, or switch targets immediately to the PCs as soon as they show themselves. The longer the skeletons keep shooting at the guards, the easier the fight is.

I feel like having a harder fight would be better. I could have two of the guards go down as they come out of the tree line to create a sense of danger as well.


If you fight with allies, each allies is supposed to get a share of XPs equal to the PCs' ones.

As in, if 3 PCs and 2 Thug NPCs beat a troll, everyone get 1/5 of the XPs.

This rule I'm aware of, my question is more how to avoid a tpk or an underwhelming fight. I guess technically the dmg does say that if circumstances are favorable to step the difficulty down one step. So do allies turn this from 2x deadly to just deadly? Or am I supposed to treat the guards as additional PC's when calculating the adjusted xp?

[Unoriginal]

Substract the guards's combined XPs from the enemies's XPs, maybe?

It should give you an idea of how much the enemies are going to be affected by the guards's presence.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Substract the guards's combined XPs from the enemies's XPs, maybe?

It should give you an idea of how much the enemies are going to be affected by the guards's presence.

Okay so if I'm understanding what you're saying it would be.

10 1/4 cr=500 xp
4 1/8 cr= 100 xp
total=400 xp
adjusted for number of enemies= 1000 xp?

[Unoriginal]

Okay so if I'm understanding what you're saying it would be.

10 1/4 cr=500 xp
4 1/8 cr= 100 xp
total=400 xp
adjusted for number of enemies= 1000 xp?

No, I meant you have to use the adjusted XPs for both the number of enemies and allies, and substract the second from the first.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

No, I meant you have to use the adjusted XPs for both the number of enemies and allies, and substract the second from the first.

Okay, I think I get what you're saying though I may be thinking about the guard group wrong, The way I did this was 4 pcs vs. 10 skeletons minus 4 pcs vs 4 guards.

1250-
200
-------
1050 adjusted encounter xp which is still 2x deadly.

I'm thinking i need more guards or less skeleton's or just have a decent amount of them having been damaged.

[Unoriginal]

I'd add a few guards.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Thanks for all the advice Unoriginal and maxwilson, I've decided to do both cut some of their HP to start and keep the 6 guards up instead of four. It went okayish on my test run.

[MaxWilson]

Thanks for all the advice Unoriginal and maxwilson, I've decided to do both cut some of their HP to start and keep the 6 guards up instead of four. It went okayish on my test run.

Awesome! Good job on doing a test run. That's the best way to get a feel, and it also helps you memorize the monster stats and think about tactics in advance, so the real thing goes smoother. Good hunting!