A general rule for scaling combat encounters depending on the number of heroes

Asked Nov 21 '16 at 16:22

Active Nov 21 '16 at 18:42

Viewed 84 times

Let's say I have an adventure, involving four 4-level heroes.

From the CR description I can assume that one CR 4 monster would be a decent challenge for them, in terms of a combat encounter. Can one CR 4 monster be replaced with four CR 1 monsters or two CR 2 monsters? (I guess it doesn't work like that, it is just an example)

And what if my party has only 3 players (and 3 heroes), how can I scale down the encounter? Should it be a CR 3 monster, or (respectively) three CR 1 monsters?

edited Nov 21 '16 at 16:38

asked Nov 21 '16 at 16:22

enkryptor

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Can you quote the part of the DMG that explains encounter difficulty which is giving you trouble? We'll be able to help better if we're all looking at the same words that are causing the problem. – SevenSidedDie Nov 21 '16 at 16:42
@SevenSidedDie it is not the DMG that giving me trouble, but an attempt to adapt a third-part adventure. The DMG provide a guide for constructing a combat encounter, depends on how many player there are and what levels do they have. I have a bunch of pre-constructed encounters and want to scale down them (from 5 to 3 party size). – enkryptor Nov 21 '16 at 16:46
In that case, does this question about scaling down a published advebture answer your question? – SevenSidedDie Nov 21 '16 at 17:51
@SevenSidedDie yes it does. Sorry, couldn't find it :\ – enkryptor Nov 21 '16 at 18:41
No trouble at all! That's what we're here for. :) I'll link them up then. Cheers! – SevenSidedDie Nov 21 '16 at 18:42

A general rule for scaling combat encounters depending on the number of heroes

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