Of Monsters and Encounter Design

For those wondering, this is a follow-up my earlier post on the subject of lethality in DnD Next.

This time I’m discussing how to bring a little more of 4E into in 5E for those who are still new DMs and not used to tweaking full encounters or wanting to ramp up the “badassness” of the PCs.

If, for instance, we take the entry for an NPC “Bandit” from the Basic DMG pdf.  A Bandit has an AC of 12, 11 HP (2d8+2), has a +3 To Hit, and deals either 4 damage (1d6+1) in close combat or 5 damage (1d8+1) in ranged. They have no skill proficiencies by default.

Experienced DMs will immediately notice that three of our five main stats have an average number to use while also giving us a range. Some simulationists will want to roll each bandit’s HP and their damage, while making sure they wisely use both of their weapons.

That method, however, isn’t the subject of our discussion.  Let’s instead take a moment to refresh our memories concerning the stat blocks of 4E.  Each monster was labeled with a role (Skirmisher, Lurker, Artillery, Brute, Soldier, et al), as well as a possible classification such as Minion, Elite, or Solo.  These roles help DMs organize and plan for the proper creatures for their encounters.

Now, with 5E, determining a monster’s role as Lurker, Artillery, etc. is a little trickier than previous.  Each monster, by default, will have a limited number of useful roles given its stat block.  For now, we’ll leave our HP at 11.  Our Bandit could fulfill a Skirmisher or Artillery role easiest. We could simply denote each Bandit (Sk) or (Ar) as we design our encounter. Think of this as programming instructions. Our (Sk) Bandits will choose to fire a volley at foes before engaging in melee combat. Meanwhile, our (Ar) Bandits will choose to only fire from a distance until directly engaged or out of ammo (if you’re playing that way.)  We can make a Bandit into a Soldier by swapping their crossbow out for a shield. This increases their AC by 2 and increases their lifespan a bit further.  To create a better Lurker, we’ll note that our Bandit has a +3 to Stealth (They come equipped with a +1 Dex bonus). Now, to make our Brute we have a couple options. We can give the (Br) Bandit a more dangerous weapon, increasing their damage to (1d8+1) or (1d10+1) while dropping their ranged weapon.  Or, rather than changing their inventory at all, we can simply adjust our (Br) Bandit’s damage average to 5 or 6 instead of 4.  This will depend on your style of play and whether you prefer to roll all damage or use fixed damage for monsters to speed up combat.

Now, we’ve covered the main basic roles that our Bandits can easily play. (Controller and Leader are both technically doable but sort reaching for a Challenge 1/8 NPC.)  Now to address Minionizing, Elitifying, and (gasp) turning a Bandit into a Solo Boss Monster.

Minionizing is the easiest by far. Our Minion Bandit has minimum HP and should only hit for the average damage.  If you care to have your minions roll damage, cap their damage at the average. They should weaken your PCs while letting your players feel like badasses. If your Minion Bandit can kill a PC by accident, you’re doing it wrong.  Now, that being said, if you want your players terrified by a neverending swarm of bandits or kobolds, by all means, Minions are great for that option.  Dropping a dozen enemies and still having countless eyes shining in the darkness can absolutely spook a player. (Note: This works even better when using full narrative play as opposed to grid play for these moments. If a player asks why they can’t use the grid, simply tell them that you don’t have enough minis for what’s coming. Works like a charm.)  So, to recap, minimum HP for Minions, cap damage at average.  (Optionally, you can drop their HP to 1 and make them take no damage on a miss. That’s 100% 4E for you. I prefer the first method to keep the 3E/5E feel but YMMV.)

Moving on to Elites.  These foes are also quite easy to build.  Take your Bandit, give her maximum HP, a +2 to AC, and either raise her constant damage to 3/4 of the max damage or make the average her minimum damage if you roll damage. Now, your Bandit is hitting in a much more lethal range for many characters, is harder to hit, and takes more time to bring down.

Finally, the Solo.  Sounds easy right? Just keep pumping up the numbers, right? No. Absolutely not. Our real task here isn’t to just keep throwing higher numbers at the players. That increases the likelihood that someone will fall in combat, certainly. However, that does not help us create a more interesting opponent.  Instead, we’ll take the Elite template and do the following: increase HP to 1.5x normal maximum, and then find a monster (or monsters) of high enough Challenge and XP that it would be appropriate for your party. Steal two abilities from their stat block and graft onto your creature. In our instance, I’m stealing two abilities. One from the NPC Berserker (Reckless - Gain Melee Advantage for the turn, but all attacks against you have Advantage as well), and Multi-Attack (giving our Bandit two attacks per turn.) This raises our Bandit from being fairly dangerous to being downright lethal and hard to kill. Perfect for a Solo fight.

Now, the last question is concerning the quantity of XP to give for each enemy.  Our Bandits with roles will give standard 25 XP. Minions I recommend giving 1/2 XP for (13 XP in this case) because of their squishiness.  Elites should give x1.5 XP (38 XP) as they are significantly more potent than normal.  Solos should give 4x the normal XP rate (100 XP here) as they are intended with this method to challenges to parties of opponents.

Now, a word of warning.  Before you start trying to make Elite or Solo versions of creatures READ ALL THE MONSTER ENTRIES.  5E operates on “bounded accuracy” so that monsters that are Solos at level 2 will become Minion material at higher levels.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t make a pair of Solo Ogres (with a magical artifact or two even!) to teach your Level 6 or 8 PCs some humility, but these shenanigans will be harder to manage the higher in level you go.  Pay attention to abilities and how they interact with other monsters in your encounter. Few things are less fun than accidentally killing your PCs in an ambush meant to move the story along.

I hope this has been helpful. Good gaming, and remember, go have fun. That’s the point of a game.