Question for monsters and treasures book

dualj · Post by **dualj** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 1:33 am

Where does it mention how to gauge monster HD vs player level?

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 3:23 am

I don't uderstand the question. Why would a monster's HD need to be gauged against a party's level, unless you're asking: "how do I tell if a certain monster is a good challenge for my party, based on HD?" To that, the answer is: its not always HD, but that is a good indicator, generally on a direct 1:1, but the number appearing also makes a very important distinction... if 6 PCs go against 1 monster with equal HD, the monster is probably dead, unless it has multiple attacks, a high AC, or whatever else... so, I say, and have always said, the XP value for the encounter should determine if the monster is too tough, or too weak, based on non-circumstantial modifiers (that is, all things being equal, in a toe-to-toe fight.) There is no hard-and-fast rule for this... but if a monster has an advantage over the party in every aspect (number of attacks, number appearing, damage, AC, and whatnot) then it is not a good challenge, even if it has 1 (d4) HD!

Otherwise, and in general, a range of +/- 6 HD is a "good challenge" with -6 typically being very easy, and +6 being damn hard-and-better-run.

dualj · Post by **dualj** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:21 am

Yeah, i was wondering how to tell whether a monster is a good challenge for my party.

Dristram · Post by **Dristram** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 8:30 am

There is no table or rule like in 3e D&D, which is flawed anyway. It's up to the DM to just gauge it from experience and knowing what the party is capable of. It's the "old school way".

gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:13 pm

dualj wrote:
Yeah, i was wondering how to tell whether a monster is a good challenge for my party.

Experimentation. Honestly, Ive never seen a system that can accurately gauge party strength vs monster. One can't measure creativity or intuition empirically. A challenge for one group oftimes is a walk in the park for another.

If characters are dying too quickly, then the encounter is too hard.
_________________
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:35 pm

I just play things out in my mind. I take a look at the BtH's versus AC's, caster level versus Prime/nonPrime saves.

I find that the PC's should be able to hit the monter's AC's about 50% of the time, and the monsters hit the PC's about 25% of the time.

Spell saves are essentially the same, but harder to do because of the Prime/non-Prime differences. DEX saves are easy for me because all 4 of the PC's took DEX as a Prime, no one took STR as a Prime, so that is easy too.

Even so its still easy, I just figure out who has the worse saves versus the spells I want to use and then make sure they have at least 50% chance to make the save. Then everyone else is just as bad or 30% better, or more with items of spell protection.

I actually give my bad guys at least a 25% chance of saving against the parties favorite spells, and often 50%.

So how do i get these percentages? each number on a d20 equals 5%, right? So just have the spellcaster's TN be 5 lower than the best save roll in the party for 25%, or 10 lower for a 50% chance to save.

Thats what I consider when I try to figure out encounter balance.