Is this fair? (One-shot difficulty check)

[Burley]

Our group has skipped the last couple sessions because our DM likes to have the entire party present. Tonight, I'm running a one-shot for the incomplete group because I need to play or I'll shrivel up.

Anyway, it's a capture-the-flag sort of encounter where coral golems will come from the water and try to get to the village center and steal their totem. Then, they'll attack again, using the totem, this time trying to kill the village elder.

Going against a party of four 4th level characters:
Encounter 1: 6x Coral Soldiers (Warforged Soldiers stats) - some of them will engage while 2-3 attempt to break through to the village, steal their totem and take it back to the sea, and the remaining soldiers will disengage/retreat

Encounter 2: 1x Coral Golem (Flesh Golem stats) - players will see coral soldiers bonding together to create the larger golem creature. [If the coral soldiers succeeded in stealing the totem, they'll bond together around the totem, giving a few bonus abilities to the golem.] [If the party defends the totem, they may use it during this encounter, if they gain the village elder's approval.]

When I put this into the Encounter Builder on DDB, it shows a glowing red bar and "DEADLY" and a (888) number for Player Protective Services. Are 6 CR1s too many? Since I intend to have some of them not engage, should I actually add more CR1s? Is the CR5 Flesh Golem too strong? Does it make sense for coral to also eat lightning damage? Should I swap the fire/lightning aversion/absorption?

[Kurt Kurageous]

The encounter building rules in the DMG do not mean what we think they do, and any software incarnations based on them will share the misunderstanding. I gave up on it years ago.

Your deadly encounter is supposed to be perhaps one of up to eight encounters in an adventuring day. So if one is deadly, the others should be less so, and average below or at hard.

What I do now is use total HP of party vs total HP of foes. If these numbers are equal, the party will likely use up resources not replenished by a short rest. If the monsters have twice as many, the party is going to be in a fight for their life.

It matters only a little how many opponents there are, especially when the party plays tactically smart. What matters is the total amount of hurt they can give, and the total amount of hurt they can take. As long as you aren't seriously overmatching CRs with a monster that is relatively low in HP but has abilities that make them tougher to drop, you will be fine.

For your scenario, you need to make sure there's more than enough to do the job in wave one in order to have a wave two. The opponents aren't interested in a decisive engagement in wave one like they will be in wave two. And your party will get a short rest between waves to expend HD and heal, recover some resources, etc. and are expected to be at or near full HP when wave two shows up. So have the monsters in wave one that engage the party take the dodge action to occupy the party instead of trying to kill the party. They will last longer and probably still drain resources from the party. HP is only one such resource.

I don't care what any 5e encounter builder says, deadly does not equal certain risk of TPK. It does equal use of significant resources.

[Mud Puppy]

Kurt your rule for total HP of the party vs HP of the monster is the kind of simple rule I've been looking for as a new DM. I'm definitely going to try that out.

Thanks!

[da newt]

Deadly is very relative, and it's very dependent on the skill of your Players and the PCs they build. A fairly optimized party of four level 4 PCs played by 4 savvy players, will have no problem with your proposed encounter - a party of 4 lvl newbies using pregenerated AL PCs will struggle to survive the encounter.

My advice - start the encounters in increments (number of bad guys, or a sliding scale of HP and Damage), and then adjust as you go. IF the party is struggling, throttle back - IF they are curb stomping folks, turn it up to 11. It's all about finding the right balance - feel free to adjust as you go.

[Burley]

Ran it last night. They did ~okay~ fighting 4 small guys, while two others snuck into the village and successfully made off with the totem. We started late so we're gonna do the second encounter with the Big Guy some other time.

I think they'll be okay, but they're gonna have to work out some sick combos or something. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Kurt your rule for total HP of the party vs HP of the monster is the kind of simple rule I've been looking for as a new DM. I'm definitely going to try that out.

Thanks!

You are most totally welcome. It frees you up greatly in combat encounter creation. You have a list of monsters you want to use? pile on HP until you hit a balance point.

I didn't include in my response that anything less than half party's HP is often a walkover.