Balance: Encounters
The last time I talked about balance with regards to character classes, I found myself outspoken on several points. Well buckle up, because we're going back in to talk about balancing encounters. Anyone who is afraid to place a lich in their beginner's dungeon should have a look at Tomb of the Serpent Kings - art by David A. Trampier - Challenge rating. If you've ever DM'd a 5E campaign you know the struggle of getting the CR for any combat encounter just right. Too low and the party will steamroll the enemies without spending any resources. Too high and you risk a TPK, ruining the beautifully crafted arcs for each PC. 5E's mechanics and inclusion of CR in the monster stat blocks creates this unique conundrum. As for myself, I have freely dealt my players magic items and weapons from Session One, and now I feel like I can throw any CR encounter at them and they will go hard every time, and nobody leaves the table disappointed. The threat of death is very r