An Easy Way To Figure Out Encounter Levels
written by Donat P. Fevre
July 6th, 2007 · 5 Comments
For some reason, I know I’ve had trouble balancing encounters out with my large D&D group. I throw something at them that I think will give them a challenge, just to find them defeat the encounter within a couple turns. Heck, they even manage to get through encounters in just one turn, or even in a couple of rounds before the encounter creatures even get a chance to act!
But then, for some reason, I never really got the whole encounter level thing through my head. I know that it’s one of those things that should be easy, but for some reason I’ve failed at it. Though, I imagine I’m not the only one who suffers from this malady.
Thankfully, I’ve just found a handy little tool that can help you create an encounter that can challenge your players, regardless of the number of players you have or their PC’s levels! So go check out the d20 Encounter Calculator over at Pen, Paper, & Pixel, and make sure that you give your players a good challenge! I know this will be particularly handy as I try to come up with something that will more or less kill my player’s PCs for out upcoming summer one-shot adventure. 
Topics: D&D General
I recently wrote a Excel utility for figuring this out. It runs the EL encounter table against the list of critters in the MM (working on adding MM2 and others).
It’s a modest sice (so far) you can find it here.
I almost completely stopped using EL. Whenever I try it I can’t help but think that it has potential but it’s so hard to find out what’s a good encounter level for your party.
I had more or less given up on using EL myself, particularly with how large my group is. However, since I can roughly calculate the EL of a party of 7 PCs, it may now be a bit easier to find a better challenge for them.
Trying to use the EL listed in the manuals is an exercise in futility. Sadly, there is no real effective way to judge what kind of challenge a creature will be to the party just by reading its stat block. Each party will have it’s own individual strengths and weaknesses, and what may challenge one party could well prove completely inadequate against another. That, unfortunately, is why EL tends to be completely worthless. . .it does not take the party composition, its gear, its abilities, or the manner in which it is encountered into consideration.
On top of the creature itself being part of the EL, the situation the party is in as it is encountered also has a strong influence on how challenging it is. A couple EL 2 creatures may well be worthless in general vs a party of 5th level characters. . .until you give them levers and a good size pile of rocks to start dropping off of cliff tops at the party.
The opposite is also true though. I don’t care how nasty the creature is, if you let a lower level party get in a good enough position, it will always be easier than it would seem to be. . .IE give THEM the levers and rocks and let them drop on the enemy with no chance (or at best minimal) of return fire.
It’s easy to consider as if hunting a wild buffalo. . .if you shoot it with a 50 cal from a mile away it’s EL is almost non-existent. . .that same buffalo is worth a whole lot more if you are only armed with an obsidian knife and are wearing a belled necklace.
When it comes right down to it, just use your own brain and be creative. Forget what the book tells you about how difficult a creature is supposed to be, and make it as difficult as you WANT it to be. Find something that fits your story and fudge it till it works. After all, there’s no reason why a kobold can’t be a 12th level rogue, and that minotaur may well be the runt of the litter. . .
FYI WoTC has a free calculator now:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20010320b