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Video Preview: What Does Challenge Rating Mean? (Patreon)

Published:
2022-11-01 20:20:01
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Hello friend!

Here's a sneak preview of an upcoming YouTube video on "What Does Challenge Rating Mean?"

If the video is marked "private", that means I've scheduled it for general release and it'll be back up soon.

Enjoy!

Files

What does Challenge Rating Mean in D&D? #dnd #lazydm #dndtips

Mike talks about what a monster's challenge rating actually means in Dungeons & Dragons. Video Contents 00:00 Video Start 00:28 Definition of Challenge Rating 00:56 Challenge Rating and the Action Economy 01:28 Non-Linear Power Increases of Higher Character Levels 02:24 Challenge Rating and Encounter Building 03:41 Challenge Rating and Encounter Building is a Loose Aproximation At Best 04:05 The Lazy Encounter Benchmark Links Subscribe to the Sly Flourish Newsletter https://slyflourish.com/subscribe/ Support Sly Flourish on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/slyflourish Buy Sly Flourish Books: https://shop.slyflourish.com/ Kobold Fight Club https://koboldplus.club The Lazy Encounter Benchmark https://slyflourish.com/the_lazy_encounter_benchmark.html Lazy Encounter Benchmark Video https://youtu.be/05VWofhNMHI

Comments

Steve Johnston

All of your points are very true. My five level 8 players were surprised to learn that the white dragon they defeated last night in Rise of Tiamat was CR 17. Using the Lazy DM math, 5x8=45/2=22.5. I knew this would be a tough fight and at least one character might die, but I also knew that my group of very experienced players could win. It was a tense battle, but fun!

David Russell

One thing I think that's important is to pick fun monsters, or to modify a monster to make it fun. If you're not excited about a monster encounter then make it exciting by adding interesting terrain or monster abilities. or maybe another monster to combo with the first one.

Baron Kimble

Some more secrets to balance encounters is use action points for legendary creatures. Have this scale with party size, and have them use any ability, not just legendary actions during fights. Also alternating initiative helps a ton.

💙Kev

My player's PCs are all pretty powerful. I can make an encounter deadly, then double it, and they still come out fine. They only death they've had was from a catoblepas' gaze attack, and even that was immediately reversed by a spell in the next round. Their ACs are all pretty high, so only things like spells and breath weapons* really matter. Lately I'm using monstes that are more creepy than dangerous, like Spawn of Kyuss. *Not necessarily dragons, but things like chimera and hell hounds too.