Fine Tuning Difficulty

Start Easy. Creating perfectly balanced encounters takes practice. It’s better to err on the side of "too easy" than "too hard." As a GM, you have many ways to increase difficulty during play, but few ways to lower it without breaking immersion.

Balancing With Tactics

• Focus Fire. Concentrating attacks on one or two heroes makes encounters feel harder. Conversely, spreading out damage or sending monsters in waves can make the encounter more manageable.
• Movement. Monsters that move each turn force martial characters to reposition, limiting their attacks. This also opens up opportunities for reactions like Opportunity Attacks. To lower difficulty, reduce monster movement.
• Target Squishy Characters. Make them use their actions to defend or run away and hide behind their stronger friends! Let the tanks feel good about Defending and Interposing.
• Adjust Initiative. The sooner the monsters act in the round, the harder the encounter will be, and vice versa. If, after the first player’s turn, it looks like the bad guys are in for a trouncing, move some of them up in the initiative order instead of waiting until the end of the round.
• Relax! Heroes have plenty of tools to handle tough situations, so don’t stress over getting every encounter perfectly balanced. You’ll improve with experience, as will your players.
• Hero Death Isn’t the End. If some (or all) heroes die, it’s not necessarily a failure. Encourage your group to make new characters and dive back in.

Balancing with Minions

Minions excel as battlefield filler, allowing heroes to showcase their strengths. Armored defenders can hold off waves of attacks, while spellcasters can annihilate groups with a single spell. They help combat feel dynamic and give heroes the chance to shine, all while keeping the pace fast and exciting.

Waves of Minions. Start with an easier encounter and introduce minions in waves to dial in the challenge. Minions might emerge from hidden positions or be summoned mid-battle.

• 1 minion/hero: Slightly more difficult, but will greatly increase the tactical options.
• 2–3 minions/hero: Noticeably more difficult.
• 4 minions per hero: Much more challenging.

Overkill Damage While minions lack HP, you can optionally use their die size as a measure of durability. Excess damage from an attack can carry over to other minions in range. For example, a 20 damage attack could take down two d10 minions or five d4 minions.

Suggested minion die size by party level