Spicing Up Encounters: No More Blandits

You know the scene: your players are moving from one part of your story or world to the other, and it's time for an encounter. Your players grow excited at the rumblings of combat, and you unveil the enemies they're about to face off against. It's bandits. (Or goblins. Or whatever typical enemies typically make up the encounters in your world.) How exciting is this the third time it happens? Even with strategic details that change, some players are going to get bored fighting against the same old bandits (or blandits, as I call them) before too long. But you can mix these encounters up and provide something exciting for your players with just a bit of creative thinking. Read on for ways to create more memorable encounters. 

There are a few ways that you can spice up encounters. You can completely change the enemy type (while still staying within the story you're telling), you can create unique types of enemies, and you can mix enemy types to create new versions of foes for your players. Each one creates novelty in a different way, and that's important; the human brain craves novelty, so providing it to your players will make your game appeal to them on a deep level. Let's get into the first method. 

You can completely change the type of enemy your players normally face. Let's say that you're dealing with a campaign about small towns being targeted by bandits. Your players have faced a number of bandits, and some of the charm of fighting bandits has begun to wear off. You might mix it up in a small or a large way. Let's say that the next town the players visit is a port city--now, rather than bandits, you can translate the idea to the setting and make them pirates. Now you have the opportunity to have a chaotic pirate battle that allows you to use some bandit tactics and motifs but give them a new face with the pirate design. Similarly, a mountain settlement might feature mountaineers who fight with distance weapons like bows and polearms, and a town of poor folks might have a farmers' militia with farming tools as weapons. Perhaps a deep forest community fight like hunters rather than skirmishers, and a supernatural twist could surprise your players with lycanthropic fighters. These are all minor changes, basically akin to putting a new video game skin on the same character; and yet, each of these twists on the blandit changes the way that the enemy fights, and thereby the tactics that the party will need to use to defeat them. With this method, you get to keep your encounters simple but keep them varied. 

You could just as easily create unique types of enemy. Let's say that you've run a few encounters with bandits or some comparable enemy, and again you need to mix things up. So we'll create different types of bandit. Think about the way most video games work: there isn't so much one enemy you fight, but an army of enemies with varied skills and weaknesses. You can reproduce that in your game with just a few small twists. Below is a list of several types of enemy you can create that have distinct abilities to make them more unique: 

• Tank: These enemies are covered in heavy armor, perhaps finely-made armor, and perhaps cobbled together from whatever was available (pots and pans, sheet metal, washboards, etc.). Because of their armor, they don't move quickly, and most of their strength is used wearing the armor, so they don't deal loads of damage. But they will be hard to hit (at least an 18 or 19 Armor Class), and that will make dealing with this enemy a greater challenge than simply being a bandit. 
• Sniper: These enemies are not particularly well-defended; rather, they use speed and maneuverability to stay out of reach of the players. From that distance, they use ranged weapons to deal damage that cannot be answered. A lot of GMs will keep ranged weapons out of the hands of enemies, but a few well-placed snipers can give the players a much harder time with the group than they anticipate. 
• Explosives Expert: These enemies are neither heavily defended nor prepared for a long fight; their strength in combat is that they can deal heavy damage to a number of players at once. You can equip this enemy with classic in-game devices like Alchemist's Fire or your take on a rudimentary explosive device. Whatever the nature of your device, it should be something that can deal lots of damage suddenly, making these enemies targets your players must quickly deal with. 
• Commander: Oftentimes, GMs operate groups of enemies like they operate with a hivemind; every NPC knows what's going on across the battle, and the GM's knowledge of tactics is uniform across the group of enemies. You can avoid this conundrum and spice up battle by adding a commanding character who calls out strategic maneuvers and may even be able to provide small buffs to the other enemies. They are not the best combatants, but they are capable of turning the tide of a battle. 
• Rogue: So often in battle, all of the enemies take formation and fight openly without variation. You can change that with rogue NPCs, enemies who can use stealth to disappear from combat and reappear only to sneak attack a party member. Like the Sniper, these enemies are not well-defended, but they use maneuverability to make the most of their attacks. You can have these enemies disappear by positioning them behind cover and then rolling Stealth to leave cover unseen. 
• Weapons Experts: Sometimes, even just adding an interesting weapon to an NPC can be enough to set them apart from standard sword-and-shield blandits. A bandit with a reach weapon is considerably different from a bandit with an axe; a bandit with a whip will mix up combat entirely. Take a look at some of the more exotic weapons and use them to spice up your enemies. Players will remember "that guy with the pike" better than you might anticipate. 

These are just a few variations and enemy types. I recommend also describing these enemies as having distinctly different physical appearances. Tanks and Weapons Experts may be big and muscular, where Snipers, Rogues, and Commanders would be smaller but also have specific uniforms: Snipers and Rogues might want different kinds of camouflaged whereas the Commander wants something that sets them visibly apart in battle. I also recommend having your enemies communicate verbally in battle, suggesting maneuvers and calling out player strategies; not only does this make the enemies more challenging and realistic, but the players will be deeply engaged when the enemies are responding to their strategy in real time. 

A final note about these enemy types: as you can probably tell, most of the enemy types above are basically classes from D&D. That's intentional; just as player characters have distinct skills and fighting techniques, so should the enemies in the world. If everyone just smashes swords together over and over, your players are bound to get bored with encounters. By mixing up combat with the same variation that players get to enjoy, we can keep the game balanced and keep our players guessing. 

If you want to mix enemy types together, you can use both of the methods outlined above to create memorable enemies. A bandit with a sword has nothing on a pirate explosives expert or a hunting sniper or a mountaineer with a halberd. Any of these twists on normal enemies creates novelty for your players, which keeps them engaged. 

Some folks might counter that it doesn't make sense to have a smattering of enemy types--why would a pirate, a hunter, a mountaineer, and a rogue all work together? That's essentially what the party of player characters is, though. The variety of classes makes a party stronger and more ready to deal with anything. Similarly, a strong crew of bandits might employ various experts to improve their odds of success. 

You might also mix up your encounters by having different groups of enemies take different strategic approaches. The party might encounter skirmishers, tanks, a pincer attack, a balance of ranged and melee approaches, bandits who focus on spellcasters or healers, or enemies who strike and retreat, strike and retreat. These strategies make enemies more unique, as the battles themselves will change in response to the strategies. 

I also like to add some flair to my encounters by giving the enemies magic items. An enemy cleric with Bracers of Armor is a formidable foe; a bandit with a bastard sword that lights enemies on fire must be taken seriously; an enemy who can summon an ally to fight with them changes an encounter completely. 

Ultimately, it all comes down to this, though: encounters should mean something. If you're not playing a combat-based game, you don't really need encounters. If you are running a combat campaign, encounters should be varied and exciting. Increase the power of your enemies and develop them beyond just a type. This guide can help as a starting point, but to further develop them, start thinking about what you want the enemies to be like. Memorable foes have complexity, so give them more personality than just opposition. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: what to offer in city marketplaces, why roleplaying is the height of gaming, and how to build a player stronghold. Until next time, happy gaming!

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How to Manage a Boss Fight

It's the end of your campaign, and all that's left is the final boss fight. Your players dig in for combat, and you're prepared for the BBEG to show why they're so intimidating. But how can you ensure that your boss fight is dramatic enough to merit being the finale of the campaign? You don't want it to be over too quickly, but you also don't want to wipe out your party. So how do you set up your boss fight so that it excites the players but is also balanced? Some folks would say that the answer is a carefully, mathematically-balanced encounter, but I argue that you can do even better than that by breaking your boss fight into three parts that are more scripted. Read on for how to use this method to create exciting boss fights. 

I've written something similar before: a guide to improvising encounters. That guide takes a few basic considerations and turns them into encounters, but the premise is the same as what we're doing here: we're balancing our encounters to create dramatic moments. The key difference with a boss fight is that it matters more that it be satisfying and dramatic; it's the culmination of your whole campaign. So we'll use the same concept to create boss fights that are more interesting than simply the result of dice. 

As I mentioned, you can spend a lot of time working out a mathematically sound encounter. This requires considering challenge ratings, character levels and abilities, and other details like weaknesses and spells. But you can make it simpler for you and better for your players if you wing it. No, seriously. We'll plan for three parts of the encounter, and in the final part, the players will defeat the BBEG. It's as simple as that. Obviously, this approach isn't for hardcore combat simulators; this approach is about storytelling and getting the most drama for your effort. If you like the sound of that, consider the three parts of a boss fight:

There are generally three phases you want to include in a boss fight. Part one is where the players make their first attacks or other tactical efforts. During this phase, you want the players to be able to deal a good chunk of damage to the BBEG, but you also want the BBEG to attack in a way that exemplifies why they are the final boss--what makes them so much of a badass? Part two is where the players run into trouble. During this phase, the BBEG should use a tactic that weakens the party's strategy, and they should strike hard at members of the party. You want this part to feel like the BBEG is getting the upper hand. Finally, in part three, the players pull ahead again. The BBEG should be able to make a last-ditch effort to turn the tide, and should even be able to render unconscious at least one member of the party, but ultimately, the players will win with a dramatic strike. 

Let's get into the details with each part now. Part one: the players make a strong initial showing, as does the BBEG. In practice, this should look like the party getting opportunities to strike the BBEG. I generally argue that it's better to give your BBEG a higher number of hit points and a lower Armor Class; this means more dramatic successes for the players, but an ability on your part to string the encounter along. So set a relatively low Armor Class depending on your party's level. I like to give them roughly a 50% chance of hitting initially, so a party with an average +3 to hit should have a 13 AC; likewise, a +6 to hit should mean a 16 AC. I generally let this phase of combat go for about three to five rounds or so; you want the party to hit the BBEG enough that it seems like they've done about half damage total. 

At this point, let's address the BBEG's hit points. I don't start with a number set in stone. I might decide that it has generally about 150 hit points or something like that, but this number doesn't matter very much. Whether the party is scoring 30 points of damage or 90, it should seem like the BBEG is at about half health. This just means that the players should work for three or so rounds to damage the BBEG, and it works. Whatever they accomplish should be enough. If they deal more damage than expected, just grant the BBEG more hit points in your head, but if they deal less than expected, string this phase out for another round or two until you can tell your players feel like they have made good progress. 

Then we get into phase two of the boss fight: the players run into trouble. I like to deploy a dramatic flourish here generally, usually by employing an effect that makes the BBEG harder to hit. Perhaps it's magical armor (an artifact or "Mage Armor") or simply the BBEG going Super-Saiyan; the effect is that they pose more of a threat than previous. I like to boost the BBEG's AC by enough to make the players only 25% likely to hit. To provide examples, this would be a +3 to hit with a 15 or 16 AC, or a +6 to hit with an 18 or 19 AC. Now, your players are only succeeding in hitting the BBEG half as often as they were, which allows the BBEG to deal more damage relative how much they're taking damage. At the same time, boost the BBEG's saving throws to defend more against spellcasters. I recommend a +3 or 4 bonus, but this can be adjusted with good fudging of rolls on the BBEG's part. You can go the other route with this as well: improving the BBEG's likeliness to hit the players or deal greater damage can also add the imbalance you need to create some drama. This phase of the battle generally lasts another three to five rounds. Your players need more time to deal the damage they were dealing earlier in part one. Just as important to your consideration of when to move on to part three is how much damage the party has taken. When you have one or two party members who are at about one-quarter health or less, it's time to move onto part three. 

Part three is where the players turn the tide and win. I like to use the AC-improving effect as a story moment; sometimes players will strategically try to negate the AC boost, and sometimes, the effect simply wears off. In any case, it can be helpful to have the AC boost disappear in phase three so that the party can get back on top of the encounter. You can have the boost you've granted to your BBEG disappear when a player strikes them particularly hard--basically use anything that would allow you to change the battle back to closer odds. In part three, I like to have one or two members of the party go unconscious. This really ups the drama. The BBEG should look both poised to win the battle and in fairly bad shape; we're imagining at this point (the beginning of part three) that the BBEG has only about 25% of their hit points left. This part of the battle should again be about three to five rounds, granting time to do and take damage. Then, when one of your players deal a considerably blow (more than 10 damage, let's say), the BBEG has taken all they can, and they fall unconscious. I think it's more interesting to have the BBEG incapacitated than dead, personally, so I generally have the BBEG rendered helpless rather than kill them; it should be a player choice to kill or spare a BBEG, not mine as a GM.

You can absolutely mix up the makeup of your boss fights. Add minions to the mix, use interesting terrain to create strategy, give the BBEG special powers; whatever you want can work. This guide simply shows you how to pace your boss fights for the enjoyment of your players. And trust me, your players will almost always prefer a dramatic fight than a statistically random one. It's more engaging and exciting, and that's the point of playing. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: how to design a custom TRPG, how to roleplay learning new skills and abilities, and descriptions of what each deity's temples look like. Until next time, happy gaming!

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Traveling Random Events: A Table for Travelers

Traveling is often a big part of TRPGs; the players are in one place and the adventure is in another, so it's time to set off on the road and get to the next bit of story. But simply walking or riding from point A to point B is not the stuff of exciting games. It should take more than time to get somewhere--it should also take effort. I have developed a table of random events for traveling that spices up the process of moving around, so read on to add some excitement to your travels. 

To implement this table, roll a d100 every time your players move five miles. The corresponding event will mix up the monotony of travel, and it may allow you to further develop your story and your world. 

1-5: Inspiration - One party member has a helpful idea about how to deal with the situation they're currently facing. You can use this to get a wayward group back on track or develop your story. 

6-10: The party recognizes the glint of metal in the plant life on the side of the road. Closer inspection reveals it to be a cache of coins. Roll for the amount they discover - 1d4 platinum, 1d6 gold, 1d8 silver, and 1d10 copper. 

11-15: Nothing happens.

16-20: A traveling caravan passes by in the opposite direction. The caravan guards are wary of the party and are tense enough that they will attack the party given provocation. If the party passes without engaging in combat, a trader lags behind to offer the party food and drinks for the rest of their journey. 

21-25: The road is blocked by a fallen tree. When the party moves to remove it, an ambush of goblins erupts from nearby cover. 

26-28: The beaten road wears away and the party must succeed on a DC 15 Survival check to find the road again 100 feet later. 

29-31: Mistaken Identity - A lone traveler comes down the road in the opposite direction. They mistake a party member for an old friend/business associate. It takes a few minutes' assurance that the party member is a different person, and even then the traveler suspects they are being lied to. 

32-34: Bandits! As the party comes to a bend in the road, they can notice hidden bandits with DC 15 Perception checks. If noticed, the bandits will pursue the party for up to a mile. If unnoticed, the bandits launch an attack on the players, focusing on ranged attackers and spellcasters. 

35-37: The plants surrounding the road grow taller and more unmanageable for about a mile. When the party gets within 5 feet of the plants, the tendrils of the plants lash out and bind the party. Treat the bound players as affected by the spell "Entangle" and allow them to escape with a DC 16 Strength saving throw. 

38-40: A colorful bird flies down and lands on a branch near the road. It speaks in a creaky voice, repeating the phrase, "All's well that ends well." If the players move toward the bird, it flies 50 feet to another branch, and so on and so forth until it has led the party half a mile into the depth of the area (deep woods, sand dunes, a marsh). There, it transforms into a witch and attacks the party.

41-45: Shrine of Fharlanghn - A small, simple shrine to the god of travel lies along the west edge of the road. There is a pedestal with an empty bowl on the shrine. If any of the players pray at the shrine, the whole party feels rested (including regaining spell slots) and the bowl is magically filled with a hearty meal. 

46-50: Nothing happens. 

51-55: An altar lies on the side of the road, all details worn away. There are faint letters in a dwarven alphabet, which if read will create a chaos effect. Roll another d100 for the chaos table. 

56-60: A troupe of travelling musicians and performers have parked their caravan on the side of the road. They are having a leisurely meal and invite the party to join them. After small talk, the troupe mentions that the last town they tried to perform in, which is only a few miles down the road, refused to let them perform or spend the night in town. To make up for it, the troupe performs a short show for just the party. 

61-63: Alongside the road appears a lake. The lake is murky and green, and twisted trees grow around its perimeter. A DC 18 Perception check will reveal a sword rising slowly from the lake, point first. It remains floating, pointed up, until the players move on or swim out for the sword. If they take it, it acts as a +1 Longsword with one daily use of the spell "Chain Lightning." After being used in one encounter, the sword disappears. 

64-66: A pillar of smoke rises from the horizon down the road. The smell of burning hair permeates the woods. When the party draws near, they can see a wildfire burning off the road which has trapped several woodland creatures. If the players save any of the creatures, Ehlonna (goddess of the woodlands) thanks the party for their help and blesses them with +20 feet traveling speed until the end of the day. 

67-69: The party finds in the middle of the road a tattered old book. Inside the book are notes in a wild scrawl which are just barely legible, and they describe the investigation of the beginning pages of the book, which are torn out. Any player who reads all of the scrawled writing must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be driven insane (DM controls the character) for the next ten minutes. 

70-72: A strange stone formation rests on the side of the road, leaning precariously but remaining standing. A young halfling named Jaskin lies on the ground beneath the stone, and they explain that only the pure of heart can survive under the stone, for those with evil in their hearts are crushed by the stone. As Jaskin explains, a raven lands on the stone, and it begins to fall. Players can pull Jaskin to safety with a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. Jaskin is disappointed and takes it as a sign that he is not pure of heart. 

73-75: The party sights an abandoned building in a clearing off the road. Investigating it reveals that it has been uninhabited for some time. A careful player can find a wand of Mage Armor hidden in a box in an old desk. 

76-80: A lone dog wanders down the road, sniffing idly as it approaches the party. It takes note of the players and begins to bark and run back in the direction it came. If the party follows the dog, it will take them to a thicket in the woods, where its owner (an orcish trapped named Barut) is trapped in a bear trap. If the party frees Barut, she will feed the party and promise them safe lodging for the night. 

81-85: A crackling sound erupts from a thicket to the side of the road. Suddenly, in the middle of the path is a displacer beast, its tentacles flicking through the air. If the party runs, the beast will pursue them for half a mile and then relent. If the party defeats the displacer beast, they notice a nearby nest with a litter of infant displacer beasts. 

86-90: Nothing happens.

91-93: Ruts in the road veer off the path and into the brush. By following the ruts, the party can track a wagon for nearly a quarter of a mile into the beginnings of a swamp. Inside the wagon are supplies, a rusty battleaxe, and a frightened half-elf child named Gera. Gera says that the swamp ate her family's horses and maybe her parents as well. She asks for safe passage to the next town, where she has extended family who can care for her. 

94-96: A DC 17 Perception check reveals that a piece of paper is stuck to a treebranch. Inspecting the paper, the party learns it is a map which indicates a shortcut to the party's destination, saving them as much as five miles from their journey. 

97-99: A traveling fortune teller comes down the road and stops a few feet short of the party. She bows her head, draws a card from her robes, and cackles. "The morning crow!" she cries. "A good morrow to you, then." She departs, refusing to speak another word. The following morning, each of the players awakens to discover a gold piece resting inside each of their shoes. 

100: Divine Intervention - One of the players' gods appears and offers help to the party with one major action. This is best implemented in the form of a piece of useful information or instantaneous travel to the party's destination. 

How to Improvise Encounters

You're running your game and then your players end up in an encounter. Maybe they're up against a plot-related enemy and maybe it's just a random encounter. But you haven't prepared stat blocks or anything you need for combat. You know that combat is complicated and requires special balance to keep things from being too easy or too hard, so how can you create something balanced on the fly? The surprising answer is that you can create an encounter very easily if you keep a few things in mind. 

The first thing you should decide is what type of enemy your players are facing off against. For a story-based encounter, this is easy enough: you want the enemy type that is most involved in your campaign. For random encounters, you can make the decision based on the same idea, but you can also mix it up if you feel like it. What matters is that you're getting a baseline of what your enemies are capable of. 

Then you want to determine the number of enemies involved. Is it a single foe, a party, or a horde? This will depend on the type of enemy you selected to begin with. Your BBEG fight will likely be a single enemy, a party of rival adventurers or monsters will be somewhere in the middle, and a horde will feature less powerful enemies. For the purposes of most encounters, you want to select one of these three options. There is a basic mathematical relationship you want for each one, and it's straightforward. [I will address armor class after discussing these other considerations.]

• A single enemy should have twice the hp of the party's average character; they should be more likely to hit by a small number (if the party averages +5, they should be +7/8); and they should deal about twice as much damage as the average party member.
• A party should be roughly equal to your players' party: slightly less hp (10%-25% less), slightly less likely to hit (if the party averages +5, they should be +4), and about the same amount of damage. 
• A horde should be about twice as many as are in the party: half the hp of the party's average character; a half less likely to hit (if the party averages +5, they should be +2/3); they do about half as much damage as the party's average. 

These numbers are rough and largely approximations. You can use the official mathematics to find the exact balance according to the game books, but we have another trick up our sleeve: fudging rolls. We can use that tool to moderate any imbalance in our combat. More on that later. For now, let's look at an example of each possibility with real numbers:

Single enemy: Your players have found themselves a young dragon and are itching to fight. You can look up dragon stats if you want, but if your playstyle is storytelling-based rather than combat-based, you'll want this dragon to be an appropriate challenge more than you'll want an actual dragon's kind of challenge. So let's say our average player in the party has these vital stats: 55 hp, +6 to hit, and 1d8+3 damage (which is about a 4th-6th level character, appropriate for a young dragon fight in the first place). So we'll follow the doubling formula and end up with these stats for the dragon: 100 hp, +9 to hit, and 1d12+5. I dropped a few hp from the dragon for a clean 100 hp--this is in part because 100 hp is a large amount we rarely want to go over. I selected +9 to hit because it fits in our formula and because it means that the dragon is likelier to hit than to miss, which makes it a challenging foe. And I expanded its damage not by a complete factor of 2, but by a step less than double--there is no d16 in standard dice sets, so we go for the next down, and the +5 is a step up from +3 without overwhelming the players. Now we have the vital combat information for our dragon, and it only took a moment. You would be able to design the stats for this encounter in less than a minute and be able to keep rolling with the game. 

Party: Your players have been running up against a rival band of adventurers for days and the tensions have finally boiled over. You could use a handful of pre-designed characters or the numbers provided for specific enemy types from the game books. But you could also just slap together the stats for a bizarro version of the party. We'll keep our numbers from the last example: the average player as 55 hp, +6 to hit, and 1d8+3 damage. So our rival party has variations on those numbers. Let's say the player party is three characters. So our rival party also has three characters, with these numbers: rival adventurer 1: 50 hp, +5 to hit, and 1d8+1 damage; rival adventurer 2: 52 hp, +4 to hit, and 1d6+4 damage; rival adventurer 3: 45 hp, +4 to hit, and 1d8+2 damage. Each of these numbers is slightly below the party's on average--our goal is to create an almost equal but still winnable fight using our bizarro version of the party. I suggest directing these party-sized combats as though the players are fighting themselves--one rival adventurer could use similar tactics to a certain player character. Or you could try out strategies you're interested in. What matters is that as the players fight, you track the momentum as you go. More on that shortly. 

Horde: Your players have entered a dungeon which appears to be inhabited by kobolds, who become defensive and territorial when they come in. You could use kobold numbers, but how many will you include to strike the right balance? I suggest that instead, you use the formula given above. Our players still average the same numbers: 55 hp, +6 to hit, and 1d8+3 damage. There are still three players, so our formula says we need 6 kobolds for the combat. Their numbers will be about half the party's:

Kobold 1: 25 hp, +3 to hit, 1d4+2 damage

Kobold 2: 27 hp, +2 to hit, 1d4+1 damage

Kobold 3: 28 hp, +2 to hit, 1d6+2 damage

Kobold 4: 23 hp, +3 to hit, 1d6+1 damage

Kobold 5: 24 hp, +2 to hit, 1d4+3 damage

Kobold 6: 26 hp, +3 to hit, 1d4+2 damage

Now we have the same numbers are our first two encounter types, but reorganized for more creatures. You'll notice that the total hit points in each step are slightly different--all the kobolds combined have more hp than the dragon, so aren't they a greater threat? But we still haven't addressed the final vital stat for combat: armor class. 

I decided to leave armor class for last because it's a delicate number. Whereas you can fudge any rolls involving to hit and damage, armor class is a set number which can't be changed mid-combat without some serious fudging. So you want your armor class to be a little more carefully considered than how many hit points a character has. I say that generally, you want your armor class to reflect how long you want the combat to last. A higher armor class means more misses by the players, which means more time in combat, which means more damage taken by the players' characters. But you're throwing this encounter together off the top of your head, so how do you get it right? 

I recommend a simple sliding scale. It involved taking an enemy's to hit and damage into consideration. There's a mathematical way to do it and an estimating way to do it. The mathematical way say to start with their to hit. Let's assume that our party averages a 14 armor class, which is pretty normal for most parties. That means that a +4 to hit would mean striking the players about 50% of the time. (That's the number for our party of rival adventurers, so let's run with it.) Their average damage (at 1d8+1) is 5 or 6. At 50% of the time, that means that rival adventurers will deal 2.5-3 damage per turn. Our players have about 55 hp, so they should be able to withstand about 20 rounds of combat before ending up seriously hurt. Now we run this number back through our other player information: 20 turns to go through the rival adventurer's 50 hp means the players should average about 3 damage per turn to stay ahead, and we know they average 7-8 damage per successful strike, so the players should successfully hit 1 out of 2.5 attacks. If they have a +6 to attack, then the rival adventurer's armor class should be about 16 or 17. So we can give the rival adventurers armor classes of 16 or 17, and we have a balanced encounter. 

We could do the same math on the young dragon and kobold examples. Young dragon: +8 to hit and 1d12+5 per hit means that an armor class 14 would take 11-12 damage roughly 75% of the time, or about 9 damage per turn. At 55 hp, the players can safely take damage from the dragon for 6 rounds. The players need to go through the dragon's 100 hp in 6 rounds. There are three adventurers, so this is really only 33hp in 6 rounds per character. This is roughly 5 damage per turn, and they deal 7-8 damage on a successful strike, so they must hit roughly 2 out of 3 attacks. With a +6 to attack, the players will strike successfully that often against an armor class of about 13. On the other hand, the kobolds: +3 to hit and 1d4+2 damage means an armor class 14 would take 4-5 damage a little less than half the time, which is about 2 damage per round, but from 6 kobolds total. Since we have twice as many kobolds as adventurers, we double these numbers; the average player character takes about 4 damage per round from the kobolds as a whole. The player characters have 55 hp, so they can take 13-14 rounds of combat from the kobolds. So we take the 14 rounds and the kobold's collective 150 health and find that the player characters need to deal about 10 damage per round collectively, or 3/4 damage per player per round. (Eliminating kobolds from combat will shift these numbers, but not enough to throw things off completely, and you can always fudge things.) The players deal 7-8 damage per successful strike; the players should be facing a kobold that allows them to hit every other turn. With a +6 to attack, we want armor classes of about 16 to keep combat balanced. 

But that was a lot of math to do, especially on the spot when improvising an encounter. If you improvise enough encounters, you'll get a feel for how to do this without breaking out a calculator. But in general, here's a simple rule to allow you to do this without much effort: For party- and horde-sized encounters, if you're using the formula I showed you above, you can just take your party's average bonus to attack, add it to 10, and make that the enemy's armor class. That will give your players about a 50% chance to hit the enemies, and the balance of the rest of the numbers will suffice to keep things even. For your occasional lone enemy, cut your players' average bonus to attack in half and add it to 10. If you're using the above method for doubling their vital stats, this will mean that your player characters will hit the enemy about two-thirds of the time, which will create a tense combat. These shortcuts will get your started, but they won't carry you through the encounter. 

Other features of encounters can enrich the experience for your players. Interesting terrain or distinct strategies can make things memorable; consider which is more interesting, a scrap with some bandits in the woods, or a scene in which bandits scale makeshift walls to fire projectiles down on the party before leaping down on top of them? You can also give the enemies access to artifacts and magic items which will affect the way that they fight. The momentum of an encounter can be exciting too; perhaps you spring one on the players just as they're beginning to feel safe or in a part of town where combat shouldn't be happening. What matters here is that an encounter feels like a unique and valuable part of the game and story, not just a way to get experience and loot. 

Finally, as I've written about previously, it is often a great idea to fudge rolls. Encounters, whether devised by the guidelines above or improvised or taken directly from a sourcebook, are inherently random, and sometimes things will go awry. But should a few unlucky rolls mean that the players are stopped dead (literally) in their tracks before completing their adventure? Wouldn't it be meaninglessly tragic for a random encounter to be the end of a years-long campaign? I think that fudging rolls is an important part of walking the line between telling a story and running a random simulation. So as I describe in this previous article, it is a good idea to soften the blow of random chance with some fudged rolls. 

Let's say you've done some quick math, improvised your encounter, and now your players are floundering anyway. They had some unlucky rolls and now the BBEG has rolled a critical hit on a player character with little remaining health. The dice say the damage is enough to outright kill the character. But you have no plot reason to do so, so you fudge the roll. Maybe the BBEG failed his attack, or rolls incredibly low on damage, or directs his attack at a healthier player character. You can adjust here and there as you go to keep the momentum going in the right direction. 

The most obvious issue here is that you don't want your players to be overwhelmed. But what if your players are kicking the crap out of the boss you've created for them? Fudging is even easier this way. Add a few dozen hit points to the enemy. Grant them a critical hit on a player character who's giving them a hard time. You could even have the enemy take on a greater form by adding another piece of armor, increasing their attack stats, or gaining access to a new spell. Whatever you do, it helps to have an in-game rationale for the change--not only does this rationalize the change, but it will enrich the story of the encounter. 

So you see that developing an encounter on the fly is a relatively easy thing to do if you strip away all the math. You can give your players a memorable combat scene before returning to your regularly scheduled adventuring, and all without having to get involved in rules-heavy reading. 

Coming soon: how and when to fudge rolls, how to deal with player issues as a GM, and a one-shot based on the movie Con Air. Until next time, happy gaming!

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