Balancing Adventures

The only rule of DnD that we consider unbreakable is the “Rule of Cool”. The Rule of Cool is: “If any rule is getting in the way of your players having a great time at your table, ignore that rule.”

The same goes for balancing combat. We try to make our combat encounters very challenging for players. But, nothing is worse than a party that keeps losing battles. Your heroes should feel like heroes! Many players have a different style of gameplay, one more focused on roleplaying and character than effective turn-based combat. We want to celebrate these play styles instead of rewarding them with a TPK, Total Party Kill, every outing.

To make combat more balanced for your adventurers try these techniques:

• Knock the number of baddies in an encounter down by 1 or 2 if your party is having trouble dealing with bigger groups of monsters.

• In the middle of combat, have the monster become distracted by something non-combat related, some shiny Gold on the ground or another source of food, and skip a turn while being distracted. Having the monsters skip a turn seems like a small thing, but it can give the players a huge advantage.

• Giving a monster Disadvantage for a turn or two is another great trick to balance an encounter. In this adventure, having a monster step on a stray clump of corruption is a perfect way that can happen.