>Beginner GM. >All encounter are either too strong or too

What system are you using, Pepe?

>>45779328
Shadow of the demon lord

>>45779316
Can't really solve this problem except to try more. Eventually you'll get the hang of it.


In general though, I recommend starting with an encounter whatever system you're in ranks as easy, then work your way up, as it's worse to unexpectedly massacre your players than to give them one easy fight.


Also keep in mind that the challenge of the monsters has to be tuned to each individual party, as each time they will have a different combination of strengths, weaknesses, etc.

Keep hp secret. Keep the pcs' hp written down too. Keep track of their hp. If you're hitting too hard, lower the monster's damage or mix it up*. If the fight is taking too long, just have it die at a good moment.

*- for example if the big Minotaur is punching people for half health, have it focus the fighter or something. Or say it's enraged and have it start stomping (causing much less damage than the punches did). Maybe have it snatch someone up (which barely hurts) and try to run off, then let the players trip it to stop this. Don't let a character miss too many turns tho that's lame, give them something to do too.

Just ideas.

>>45779316
DO THE FUCKING MATH!

Calculate the average damage of the monsters and the players. Scale monsters accordingly. The monsters which in paper have a roughly 50% chance of killing the PCs usually provide a challenge while not causing a TPK. Players are crafty animals.

Jesus, it's not that fucking hard. It also better than the alternative>>45779569 provides, which just makes you a douche.

>>45779345
They have a chart telling you what is appropriate, it's near the top of the beastiary.
Just starting or novice?

>>45779345
Damn I've been looking for that pdf for a while. Aside from combat being a bit tricky, how goes your game anon?

>>45779688

Telling an interesting story through combat and giving players a victory instead of accidentally killing them makes you a douche? Idk about you, I play to have a good time not to combat simulator. I would rather plan a good balanced encounter but if you fuck up that's when you cheese the numbers so the players don't suffer. It's not a computer game, it's a story.


Faggot.

>>45780305
I don't know about you, but if I wanted to have a well-told story I would read a book. If I wanted fairness I would play a video game. When I play I want a real possibility of defeat, otherwise I could just do the above.

Faggot.

>>45780406
>fudging numbers to not instagib your pcs on level one is being a douche.

Like I understand if your autism gets triggered by the GM not following the numbers to a T but if it makes for a more enjoyable experience then calm your tits.

DnD and other table top RPGs are escapism, not "lol you died on level one, roll a better character next time"

>>45780553
>level one
That's quite a bit of an assumption there, champ.

>Like I understand if your autism gets triggered by the GM not following the numbers to a T but if it makes for a more enjoyable experience then calm your tits.
If you are going to disregard the numbers, why use them in the first place?

>DnD and other table top RPGs are escapism, not "lol you died on level one, roll a better character next time"
Maybe for you. I can get my escapism and powerwanking done by myself thank you. tabletop RPS are the only storytelling medium where you can really meaningfully fail. I like to use that aspect of the game, because if I don't I could be reading a book, watching a film or playing a video game. I'm not saying everyone should be dying left and right, just that the chance of failure should always be present, because otherwise there's no point in playing this game over any vidya or choose-your-own-adventure book.

Abandon the concept of balancing encounters completely. Get a general area, 3 or 4 detailed locations for adventuring, a list of 20 plothooks.
Then start running a sandbox. If the players want to take on the harder challenge to get a bigger reward, they're free to do so. If they want to play it safe and get a smaller reward, that's valid as well.
When you put players in control of the difficulty in that way, it's easier to run and will give you a good foundation in improv, keeping verismillitude, efficient prep and allow you to learn difficulty scaling while mitigating your fuckups since running away is a valid option.

>>45781522
Allow for failure but be able to fudge rolls if there's an unfortunate roll of the die. Let the bbeg wipe your player characters if that's what you want, but let them put up a fight even if your bbeg rolls a crit before initiative

>>45782059
If a BBEG is rolling crits before initiative, the players have fucked up so colossally, that they shouldn't survive with or without crits.
Seriously, I'd much rather solve these problems before we play, with proper encounter/BBEG design, than to fudge during combat.

>>45779316
>Beginner GM.
>All encounter are either too strong or too weak for the player.

You'll get better, it's just part of the process of learning a new game. Whenever my brother and I would try a new system, he'd accidentally end up crushing my PC with an encounter that's too strong.

>>45779316
> Middling GM with little experience
> Veteran of many strategy games
> GMing for a 5e Campaign
> Make up shit about monster stats, mostly giving them really low stats and basic equipment
> Make up for it by having the bad guys use actual military tactics and operate as squads, with obvious leaders that can be killed to break up the squad coherency
> Party enjoys the rich tactical experience, and praises me for having fun encounters that test their ability to think on the fly and work together
> Meanwhile I have never even read the core rulebook or the bestiary, I'm just making this shit up and letting the players do anything so long as it doesn't sound unreasonable

Guys, when will the party figure it out? How far can I go without reading the books?

>>45782290
Never. Years. Good job, keep at it.

Just wing it. Add some hitpoints on the fly, make them a bit easier to hit if something cool happens. You don't have to follow your prep or the books, if it means everyone has a better time.

>>45779360
>Can't really solve this problem except to try more. Eventually you'll get the hang of it.

Yeah, this.

Fiddle with your system's combat system on your own time to help you figure it out, design encounters while asking yourself WHY the characters are fighting, and design encounters based around the idea of fighting some "bog standard party," because fighting enemies custom-designed against YOUR particular party is going to feel gay for everyone involved.

Also read this shit
http://theangrygm.com/the-angry-guide-to-akicking-combats-part-1-picking-your-enemies/
http://theangrygm.com/the-angry-guide-to-kicka-combats-part-2-battlefields-and-battlefeels/
http://theangrygm.com/the-angry-guide-to-kickass-combats-part-3-lets-make-some-fing-fights-already/

>>45779316
You can balance on the fly without having to change stats during combat (which your players can and will notice which can degrade their sense of achievement at the end).

If the enemies are too easy you can do two things. The first is just send in reinforcements. If 3 enemies aren't giving your players a challenge, flank them with another 3. It shakes up combat very quickly and is quite exciting when the squishies in the back are suddenly getting ganked. Just make sure the reinforcements are beliveable (as in the party could have conceivably noticed reinforcements coming before they get ambushed) and to not spam it otherwise the party will see it coming too often and itll lose its effectiveness. The second thing you can do if to add objectives during combat to your players. If your enemy group is starting to lose, have one of them break off to go and sound an alarm. Now someone has to also break off from combat and run down the escapee lest bad things happen. Make sure the party is given extra rewards as well if you use this.

If your enemies are too hard, just give them extra objectives. They want to take the party alive, they want to protect a certain enemy from being killed, they want to make sure the party doesn't step on a certain spot. This makes the combat both easier for the players and gives them something to look forward to after the battle when they try and find out why the enemy group had such peculiar objectives.

And if you're truly desperate, just have your enemies waste their turns being arrogant and taunting the party.

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>>45779316
In addition to all the other advice, I recommend fudging until you get the hang of planning balance.
Enemy too strong? Fudge a few misses or lower it's hp. Or maybe there's a reason it wasn't at full strength.
Enemy too weak? Fudge a few crits or raise it's hp or DR. Maybe they brought some friends.
Or better yet if it's humanoid, throw in a magic item it can use.
There is no law stating you cannot change your encounter on the fly.

Any tips for the same thing but for an FFG Star Wars campaign with 6 players?

>>45785628
Well literally all the tips have been applicable to any system so just read the thread hey

>>45785628
Beginning
>many minion groups that are not very powerful

Few Games in
>many low power minion groups, on or two rivals used sparingly

7-10 games in
>one or two rivals with decent sized minion blob

10-15
>small minion groups with nemesis
>medium minion groups
>multiple minion groups and 3-4 rivals

15+ games
>environmental hazards on top of any above
>multiple nemesis or nemesis with rival back up
>crank that nemesis rating to 3

>>45779316
dumb frogposter

>>45782059
Babysitter GM detected

Fudge rolls only if YOU fuck'd up the math. Not if your players don't assess a threat.
Maybe you don't like combat simulators, but a player may.

Serious question: If you're so invested in playing by the rules 100% and mathy combat, why not play a video game? What possible advantage does a pen & paper have if you just want turn-based combat?

>>45780406
Did you seriously just say you'd rather fight a random number generator is more fun than getting into character and playing the game as intended? Maybe you really should stick to video games, or at the very least stop wasting everyone's time and just stay home to write all the characters you want. You don't even have to slowly work your way to combat; you could just tear the paper up.

Also no need to be a huge cunt out of nowhere, dude. He was just asking a rookie question.

Make them fight waves f weaker creatures like kobolds

But make the kobolds fight smart using traps and tactics to delay or damage the players

Make them out think the enemy once in a whole instead of just "it hits for all the damage"
Nothing is more satisfying than destroying and annoying enemy

>>45779316
>Monsters have infinite health
>they die when it's appropriate
Done.

>>45789168
Because you have the ability to show your math prowess by beating nerds who just want to do it for fun and socialize with people that have the same likes.

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Every thread (I find) until you like it

>>45790706
This is what you got from this game? Not the fact that they're spells that make you shit so hard you explode, or you balls fall off or what ever.
By the way, Pathfinder has this exact monster, IIRC.

>>45790743
>There are spells.
Fuck sleep.

>>45789168
Because I can have my cake and eat it too.

>>45790743
>Monster
I wish, its a class from an expansion book that lets you join up with the demon lord from the start or something. You know, for those people that dont want to work with any sort of party dynamic.

>>45779316
Aim easy, throw some more easy opponents if they are steamrolling too much. Remember how many dudes you threw at them this time, next time throw that total amount of dudes but in bigger clumps.