Encounter Difficulty & Challenge Rating System | Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

[@TheDungeonCoach]

How do YOU use the CR System?! 🔴 JOIN 🔥 Become a KZbin Member kzbin.info/door/z8xkTADYdRQR7GP-f2PjOAjoin 🐲 Become a Patron 🐉 www.patreon.com/thedungeoncoach ▶️ Dungeon Coach Homebrew Playlist 📱 kzbin.info/aero/PLMzshUEANAtOovJb_pr27pwLOTR3nn19g

[@akashambatwamiller6924]

I could not agree with you more. The ability to adjust on the is so important. during a recent game I did not trust the deadly calculation of the CR system when designing my encounter (1st session new players to me with some new players in general). The part was made of 5th level characters with a mage with less than 20 HP, and the Champion was already at 2 levels of exhaustion by the time the fight started. The planned first attack by the enemy boss (a sorcerer) was a Cone of Cold spell. followed by the attack of his minions and the beast companions they ran with. Unfortunately, the tactics of the party combined with those incalculable issues left most of the part down after the 1st attack let alone the first round. Realizing this quickly I adjusted the combat. I simply acted as if the enemies were similarly depleted of resources (the final spell of the sorcerer and while the lower CR minions fought hard, none fought to the death. Once bloodied the enemy would turn and run. needless to say, Death save were rolled and they players learned that there are consequences to waking you party members for needless matters during the night. If you cannot make adjustments on the fly your just not doing it right

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Akashambatwa Miller YES!!! PREACH! I love this example! So good! Will put it in the follow up if the likes get hit! Lol great adjustment!

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

Cone of Cold? More like Cone of TPKs. 😄 AoE magic is one of the quickest ways to wreck low level parties. The other is by boosting the number of combatants. The more attacks you make, the higher your likelihood of rolling at least one crit. Crits against low level players are often a death sentence. It's okay for a team of weak players to fight one enemy that is a big blob of HP. It gives them time to adjust to battle conditions and back off if necessary; if they're totally new you might want to remind them about the Disengage action.

[@lycandeadfall8542]

Ironically. This is literally what I needed as a new DM to 5e.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Lycan Deadfall YES!!! That’s why I made it! That makes me so happy to hear!

[@CooperAATE]

Agreed. Session 1 is this Thursday... I'm not sure if I'm gonna kill them 1st level players. lol

[@lycandeadfall8542]

@@CooperAATE My players are starting at level 5. Mostly so I don't have to worry about TPKs too much and most of the players are experienced 5e players.

[@mattopmasterX]

If you teach math remotely close to how you are in your videos, your students are damn lucky to have you as a teacher. Wish you a splendid and wonderful day!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Thank you so much for that! I try and bring the hype wherever I go!

[@HowtoRPG]

Spot on Alan. You can't make a formula that determines everything that is involved. Great video.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

How to D&D thanks man! They sure tried though! lol

[@HowtoRPG]

@@TheDungeonCoach Yep.

[@thedollardm4672]

Super helpful explanation! I've been beating my head against the CR wall because I was having so much trouble matching my players playing style & tactics so I didn't kill them all every session! Thanks!

[@seanboyll7968]

Bro, i just found your channel last week, but I've watched several of your videos multiple times and taken notes. I gotta say that yours is one of the best channels for d&d I've found. I've bought some of your Dmsguild content as well. Would be amazing to see some campaign diaries as well, if you ever took a notion to record them. You're a fantastic orator and storyteller.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Sean Boyll wow dude thank you!! Next campaign I start up I plan on having a series where I do a behind the scenes on it for sure!!

[@davidrose7938]

Skill Challenge, not worried about winning but definitely watch to the end. :)

[@TheDungeonCoach]

David Rose haha what a cool guy!! Thanks for that, you got 4th... dang! In the future I want to do like top 5 or so! But thank you anyway dude

[@MassMoment]

Tweaking abilities on the fly is incredibly tough to get right, but when you do, it can really up your game and cut the stress of prepping down.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Marduk can’t agree more! I went from spending +8 hours to prep for 4 hours of a session to 2 now and most of it can focus on story

[@WeTalkDD]

Really liked the idea of offense and defense (coach) home brew with guide rails. Numbers help to set the parameters. If your group is punching up in their cr weight class, if you have the numbers, you can adjust. So a 4K for them seems easy, you can build a 5k and see how it goes. Great video again dc

[@TheDungeonCoach]

We Talk D&D That’s exactly it! “Punching above their weight” I should have used that analogy in the video! Dang!!

[@WeTalkDD]

The Dungeon Coach I’m full of good ideas

[@TreantmonksTemple]

I use a similar system with the CR guide in the DMG. Let's say I have a CR 4 creature but I want to make it a bit more challenging, so like a Black Pudding I want to make an Obsidian Pudding - I'll look at the difference between the average CR 4 AC/Damage/Saves etc and the CR I want to up it to, and just add those numbers. Keeps the pudding similar in feel but more challenging for a higher level group.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Treantmonk's Temple yes! I do pretty much the same thing too, and maybe throw in one new spicy ability 😉

[@charlesfischer7089]

Great video. I have trouble balancing encounters because I tend to focus more on what would "be cool" rather than math and metrics. Often, I have to adjust encounters on the fly, but a few bad rolls can go from an encounter that challenges my PCs to them just steamrolling it.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Dude THAT IS what you should focus on! Your right on! You’ll get better and better at it and have to adjust less and less as time goes on!

[@DDHomebrew]

Once again your ability to explain math based stuff and make it simple (relatively for the math challenged like me!) is unparalleled. Great stuff!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Hey man!! I gotta dip into my math teacher mode for it! Haha guess that pays off here in D&D KZbin too lol

[@Doughy_in_the_Middle]

I'm a database developer professionally, so -- well be fore DnDBeyond came out even in open beta -- I built a database to hold monsters, races, classes, and spells based on the SRD material floating out there (and a couple others on the Seven Seas). When the UA on Encounter Building came out, I used that set of tables, extrapolating it out to more players and fewer players. Since I did that, it's honestly not failed me. For instance, last night I was using an old Adventurer's League module that was a maze populated by ghosts and snakes trying to eat them (a funny combo of the Snake game and Pac-Man). The AL guidelines said for a "powerful party" (which my group tends to be MOST nights) said to have two of the giant snakes (each CR 11) and six ghosts (CR 4). A very powerful party said to make the ghosts wraiths, but I left it as the ghosts. My table consists of seven players, all level 11. A deadly encounter for them -- which is what I typically use as a "boss fight" encounter -- ends up around 18K XP. As it turns out, two CR 11 creatures is 14K. Six more CR 4 creatures is 6,600, which put the fight at 20K. I nearly killed one fighter, and the barbarian had a good chunk taken out of him too. One of the ghosts possessed a player, and it was only a couple of good saving throws (thanks to Beacon of Hope advantage) that kept it from getting worse. It WAS a challenging, appropriate fight, and when I have to prep for 7 players, like you, I can't just math it all. I'm getting MUCH better when it comes to evaluating action economy though, and if there aren't enough to make it challenging, I toss an extra creature in. If there are too many guys with multi-attack, I may subtract one.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

DoughyInTheMiddle man it sounds like you got this thing down! That’s great! You might like my video this week on encounter design! But wow 7 players, that would be much more difficult than 4 haha! Love the story!

[@Doughy_in_the_Middle]

@@TheDungeonCoach We started at our FLGS back in 2016. I started with three players and I had played 5e for all of three months until the DM quit. I hadn't DM'd since 2nd edition in 1990! Then, two guys joined the following week. One of them didn't come back, but two more joined. Then the next week, two more joined. A couple fluxed out and back in over the weeks. In about 2-3 months, I had FIFTEEN PEOPLE at the table. It took us nearly five months of RL play time for part of the group to split off, and I was left with eight regulars and 1-2 would come and go until we moved the game into my basement at home (well, until covid hit). We started at level zero. Combat was bad enough, but you have no idea how long it took them to get to level 1! It's been a long ride, and they're level 11 now, having found out they were kidnapped at level 0 by Spelljamming slavers. Now...they're trying to get off the rock they're on and back home.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

DoughyInTheMiddle you tied something back to when they were level one from 11 and there’s that many players over that many years!!! Wow... that’s super impressive! Great DM right there!

[@GunnarWahl]

one of the things you can do for add some flavor to the current CR system is, if your party has magical items already, give the Monsters some too, and have them use them. The wizard has a wand of magic missles? The bandit has a scroll of shield, The Fighter has a +1 sword? The Hobgoblin has a potion of mirror image. These things should be consumables that the Monsters use the first round or so and aren't lootable unless your okay with your party having it. The CR 12 Arch Mage is a 9th level spell caster with no magical items? unlikely! Give him Elven Chain, an animated Shield and a Cloak of invisibility with a few other things. As for the other way around of the party being worn down, Maybe that pack of wolves you planed also attacked the bandits your party just fought and are already injured, I for one have a dungeon where a group of Yuan-ti are fighting against a small sister hood of Driders, well the driders are not willing to fight the party because they're losing to the Yuan-ti and need the players to help them. These sort of things can cause cool iterations and it came from a desire to not kill my already worn down party.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

GunnarWahl I totally agree with giving baddies more abilities, I do this all the time, those extra features help me keep pace!

[@BeyondTheScreenRPG]

Excellent breakdown coach! The CR system is a good place to start from, but it's far from being perfect. Planning ahead and adjusting on the fly is the way to go!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Beyond The Screen I started off trying to have a perfectly balanced game lol, then realized it’s impossible!! Haha

[@joshfratis2738]

Great video dude keep it up

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Josh Fratis thanks man! This one was a little different! But seems people like it!

[@JCLSooty]

I really like how much your setup has changed. The lighting is nice.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

JCLSooty that’s man! I keep trying to get better every week!!

[@craigstueber8073]

I like the way you do your CR stuff

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Gotta love backwards math!! 💜

[@jozcofoz8560]

Damn Man, tua Channel is growing so fast. Awesome intro by the way

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Thanks man! Did you know I was the voice of it lol! Fun stuff

[@jozcofoz8560]

@@TheDungeonCoach Really? Kakakakak using your vocal skills brah

[@sleepnt992]

When switching defensiv/offensive stat from thr table (or coming up with some of your own), it is also interisting have higher AC and lower HP or higher attack bonus and less damag. So mixing it up further. I had a fight against a awakened tree (easy too hit, but tanks a lot) and short after against 3 awakended armor (hard to hit, nut squishy). That was a completly different battle type, even it is 'just' melee.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

sleepnt ooooo for sure, I’d want to make an advanced monster creation homebrew around that, Cuz I do the same thing! I’d give that tree a low + hit but if it hits you BOOM huge damage!! Totally agree

[@TheOrpheusYT]

Skill Challenge, And I'm in the right place this time!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

The Orpheus ahhhh you em were 8th! Thanks for watching dude! You found the place lol

[@TheOrpheusYT]

@@TheDungeonCoach Oh well, congrats to the top 3 though!

[@NothicCreates]

I know im not early enough but I'm here to engage! You got the best homebrew idea's I've ever heard! Really appreciate the work you put into this stuff!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

GamerAffair thank you so much! I put a lot of effort into my videos and I’m glad it shows!

[@erikrocks22]

Knowing the strength and weaknesses of your party, especially in areas like party class composition, goes a long way when building encounters and is my biggest gripe with the CR system in that it doesn’t really take this aspect into account. Case in point: my level 5 party of three consists of a warlock, sorcerer, and ranger. So good emphasis on magic and range, less so on survivability and physical damage output. At the climax of an arc, they fought a homebrew, pretty challenging-built Bugbear Chieftan which I thought would be a rough fight. Instead, they shelled him with magic spells from range and swept the encounter. At another point they had what I thought to be a throwaway encounter with a single Hill Giant. That battle took forever and nearly TPK’d them because they didn’t have powerful attacks or the AC/health to withstand the Giants devastating club swings. Point being is depending on how you change the party composition around, you’d have the opposite experiences in these two encounters. Knowing where your party excels and struggles is an important key to encounter building.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Erik Anderson perfect example to show the weakness there! I’m with ya’

[@mymysterymysterio]

I'm still learning this and run my first thing soon

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Misterio Nebulous I hope this helped! Watch The DM Lair video on “8 ways to adjust combat on the fly” great video and something I’d recommend

[@mymysterymysterio]

@@TheDungeonCoach will do man!

[@popanda9685]

Have you seen Dungeon Craft's player facing chart how would you use it

[@TheDungeonCoach]

po panda didn’t he just make a video on this?? I’ll have to check it out!

[@sylvaincousineau5073]

Some say its mad science , but for me is a simple Skill Challenge .

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Sylvain Cousineau hahaha you were the 6th person! So close!

[@wyattwear815]

Goooooooooooooooood morning coach and thank you for another vid 💜

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Wyyaaaaaaatttt! Hey hey! Thanks man! I feel the energy!

[@nickboss1092]

It'd be so cool to play with you!

[@perrygrosshans8537]

Hard agree!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Haha thanks man that’s a goal of mine for sure! Gotta keep grinding though, but thank you so much for that lol

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Balance is overrated! Like you said, adapting during the encounter or letting the party learn when to run is better for immersion! 😄

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Bob World Builder with ya on that brother!!

[@Domina7ion]

I was just about to ask for what you suggested in the overtime. Also ways of beating the players in a way that's not a tpk. I always thing stories are better when the party fail hard sometimes and have to come back from the brink.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Dom Minniti that’s what I want to make a video on for sure! Gotta be flexible!!

[@2g33ksgamingttv3]

Some easy ways to allow the party to lose without dying are quests or encounters with alternative conditions, like protecting an npc or artifact, disrupting a ritual, or stopping an important enemy from escaping.

[@dachef123]

Thanks man I need some help on this really

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Farrell Williams III glad it helped! Tryin to share different approaches to things 👌🏼

[@kenogarbe3220]

Skill challenge accepted :D

[@TheDungeonCoach]

WINNER! You were first! What’s your email?

[@kenogarbe3220]

@@TheDungeonCoach I send you a message on discord. My username there is Moriturus

[@broke_af_games9661]

Hey coach, a video I don't think anyone has done a video on, what do you give xp for outside of combat. I use milestone, but many don't and could benefit from it

[@TheDungeonCoach]

broke_AF_ Games I didn’t think so either, from all my research nobody has a video like this! 👌🏼

[@broke_af_games9661]

The Dungeon Coach rad, enjoy :)

[@jasonp9508]

I’m interested in this as well. I start with looking at the combat XP (monsters total divided by party members) and always adjust upward 1.5x or more to give a session XP award that reflects good roleplaying moments, how much the PC’s moved the plot, and whether they exceeded or disappointed my expectations for them. So I guess it’s a hybrid of strict encounter XP and general milestone advancement? I would love to hear more ideas on this topic.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Jason P I have an XP video planned but it hasn’t been voted on yet!

[@kylemullen5341]

Great video

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Kyle Mullen wait isn’t this Kyle from school??

[@kylemullen5341]

The Dungeon Coach sorry , my be a different guy , I from NS Canada :) Still love your videos tho , and enjoyed your guest spot on The Saturday Morning DnD show :)

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Kyle Mullen ahh yea saw that! Yea that was super fun! Nice to meet ya NS Canada Kyle!! Haha

[@da_meowlord6669]

I’m not very smart so what would be the even match challenge rating for a five player level 5 party? If it matters they only have like four magic items or something and all but one are uncommon. The other is rare.

[@michaelclemens2232]

I always watch to the end, no skill challenge needed.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Michael Clemens what a champ! Thanks man! I have a giveaway coming for the Dungeon Crew like you soon too!!

[@jasonp9508]

Count my YES vote for a follow-up video about on-the-fly difficulty tweaks!! Things I’ve done: make it ambiguous how many enemies there are so you can add or remove reinforcements as the fight goes; roll monster hp ahead of time and selectively “fudge” which attack hits which enemy (strong vs weak); adjust enemy tactics to be smart or naive; have enemies run away even if they are winning but damaged (tough and strong cowards); give PCs free Perception or Int checks to find out stuff you hoped they would have thought of themselves; “forget” to use a monster’s second attack per round; choose to use a less-or-more-powerful attack or spell option; be very generous giving a player Advantage for even a minor tactical advantage; award lots of Inspiration so the players have that to smooth out your overkill moments. #1: Err on the side of a fight that’s too hard - players are much happier if they suspect you are fudging things in the party’s favor than the other way around! Any other ideas out there? And examples, I’d love to hear them!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Jason P I LOVE those, I do the SAME thing! Very very good tips! Might throw them in that follow up video!’ (If we get there! It’s closer)

[@perrygrosshans8537]

Skill Challenge! (but am I too soon?)

[@TheDungeonCoach]

WINNER!!! You got 3rd! (out of 3) Nice job! Thanks! Whats your email? And no not too early, You have your notifications on then you know when it goes live, 10:00 is just when the premier starts I just wanted to put up the video as close to 10:00 as I could so its more fair

[@perrygrosshans8537]

@@TheDungeonCoach Thanks! I'll send you my email via Patreon messenger. :)

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Perry Grosshans perfect!!

[@buttponcho101]

I never even bothered with the CR system. Every time I tried calculating anything and adjusting to it the fights were just way too simple and boring. So yeah, it's rough :^)

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Andrew Panfilov hahaha yup! I feel ya!! Now I just use it as a guide 👌🏼

[@helixxharpell]

What about party magic item strengths? Did I miss something?

[@Eldrad235]

I run a campaign with 5 players I carried them over from phandalin to tomb of annihilation. They are 2 levels ahead of the story. But I feel like they way over powered because of items from the previous campaign. I threw a cr 13 dragon at them and they took it down relatively easily.

[@LeMayJoseph]

Oh man, how did I just *know* you were a math teacher, DC?

[@Domina7ion]

Ps have you considered leaning into the coach aspect of your name in the logo and stuff? What you have now is good but doesn't necessary scream "dungeon coach" - it could work for all the other channels out there.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Dom Minniti my main thing is Homebrew and show people how to Homebrew, so I guess I would be coaching people how to Homebrew. I did a DM tips video and a lot of my live streams are tips and stuff too. I also have 12 or so people I mentor/ coach every month as part of my Patreon tiers. What ideas would you think videos would be for a “coaching” theme? Always love feedback!

[@Domina7ion]

@@TheDungeonCoach I meant in the visuals. Make your little dragon guy look like a coach more somehow? I think you got strong coach branding in your actual videos (timeout, overtime etc) but the branding on the logo should match it . Give him a whistle and sweat bands?

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Dom Minniti that was talked about lol when we created it. But I love DRAGONS and didn’t want to have too goofy of a personified coach dragon, BUT we’ll be making some channel art with him with a whistle/ dumbbells etc lol

[@Domina7ion]

@@TheDungeonCoach shoulda called yourself dragon coach then! Jk

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Dom Minniti hahah dungeon is in the name and dragon is in the logo! Eh eh?? Covering all the bases!

[@stephanecoutu9707]

0hi coach i was wondering if u knew how a crowded encounter works how many ennemies can attack you in a battle i hope u got an anwser for me pls

[@TheDungeonCoach]

stephane coutu I’d let 8 surround a single creature and they would get a large modifier too! But if you want to do mass combat I would check out my “One around Skill Challenge” video

[@BennysGamingAttic]

My DM: "This CR 20 creature will do good against my group of 4 level 20 players. I should be careful though. I'd hate for anyone to die!" Literally just me: "Yeah, so I deal 180 damage. Can I still Action Surge?"

[@gopro_audio]

There is an easier way to fix the CR system. Scale the 1-20 CR system to a 1-100 system. This way a level 20 player has unlimited creatures to take on. A CR100 Ancient Red Dragon that is 100' long has 5D20 atks.

[@gopro_audio]

that's claw, claw, wing, wing, tail... dont forget its breath weapon... and legendary actions

[@stevevondoom4140]

as an example, Zombies have a low cr, but when they don't stay down , your party is in more danger than the CR might imply....

[@zreyon]

Skill challenge (I'm too late, right?)

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Miguel Rebollo awww Yea you were 5th! So close! Thanks for watching man!

[@zreyon]

@@TheDungeonCoach I just remembered, I saw the notification of the premiere and marked it as "watch later". Won't happen again, I'll be ready for the next one

[@initiativeplaytherapy88]

Use the chart in the DMG, but don't use the hit points. Only one set of monsters in all of D&D (elementals) uses the hit point values listed in the DMG. EVERYTHING else is lower.

[@jgook1207]

Skill challenge

[@TheDungeonCoach]

WINNER!! You were second! What’s your email?

[@jgook1207]

The Dungeon Coach I’ve never won anything in my life! The majority of your content has been so useful and pretty much implemented into the next possible session, so I’d rather see this voucher go back into the channel where possible? Either via directly back in (however possible, straight into the Patreon?), buying through your affiliate links on amazon, or whatever will help the channel continue to grow the most. Not sure how some of my sessions would’ve gone without the skill challenge videos and the new rest system (which is totally kicking my player’s butts! In a good way!). The community definitely benefits from these types of videos and homebrews around! Thank you!

[@TheDungeonCoach]

JGook DUDE your message cut off and I can’t see the rest of it! Please email me @ [e-mail] and tell me what you said! And email so I can get it to you!

[@jgook1207]

The Dungeon Coach screen shot and emailed!

[@bruced648]

I use the HD method. balanced encounters - what's that? create for the story, not for playability. players will need to self determine the risks and live or die with the choices made.

[@lesserkey]

This topic is extremely confusing to me. I just can't wrap my mind around what monster(s) that are good for my party.. or to be easy for my party, or the monsters that will totally destroy my party... I read from the PHB, DMG, XGTE... etc etc and i still just dont get it... I've come to the conclusion to just use the D&D beyond encounter maker...

[@tukman16]

Sorry, I disagree with almost everything. To start with, how is a system COMPLETELY broken if you still have ways to use it? Let me break by points here: 1. There is a section in DMG (the same where CR calculation is shown) that tells the DM to be careful with low level parties. It is highlighted there and it makes a lot of sense IMO 2. Magic items are purposefully not considered for CR calculation (there is a highlighted section in XGtE about this). I mean, how could they? Any DM can do anything in regards to magic items access to a party. And to be honest, this is an important message: magic items are powerful. They should feel powerful and meaningful. 3. How would it count for how worn down the party is? Should it count spent resources as ki, spell points and action surges or just count Hit points? Either way, I can easily see this not working 4. How good your party is making and implementing strategies is a credit that they get. It should not affect your CR calculation by definition, especially on the fly. This may be seen as DM vs player mentality 5. I can easily imagine a CR9 offense with CR1 defense monster created for an intended CR5 and ravaging the party with some unlucky rolls. This point purposefully lacks common sense the same way as expecting to come down to a CR calculation that solves all variables of combat. 6. You base most of your adaptations on the fact that you know your players. That is not really applicable for a commercial product now, so again, how does this show that CR system is broken? 7. Combat creation section does provide meaningful data to estimate your challenge in numbers (as you said) but also has a chunk of subsections in the DMG talking about variables that affect your CR. Sure, it gets to a qualitative approach when it comes to that but it is either that or add a 4th core book to the game called "CR calculation for dungeon masters who can't use reasoning". That 4th book would still fail to deliver to the expectations of anyone who calls the CR system broken because of the only main reason everyone likes D&D: the DM can come up with creative and unique scenarios and the players can find creative solutions for them. 8. Most people try to get only one engaging battle in an adventuring day. If you try to get in one single engaging battle per day a good challenge for a party of level9+ with all their resources, you'll eventually get unlucky and kill your party while most of the time, they will wipe the floor with your monsters spamming everything they have. I've seen alternative solutions from other people that "don't like the CR system". It is usually based on monsters HPs or damage output or something like that. Those guys are indirectly using the CR system and don't even know it. Look, your conclusion about adapting to your players is fine, but the arguments made are not great. I really don't recommend you to make a video on how to adjust the fight on the fly because you are stealing the merit from the players as a direct consequence of poor planing. When I'm a player and I notice that, the trust is broken and I don't see the point of playing anymore after that. What I do recommend you is to make a video on what I really think would add value for all DMs out there, myself included: what are your solutions to adapt external variables to your CR calculation, like environmental hazards, traps, choke points, etc. DURING PLANNING PHASE IMO TTRPG has several great traits, but it should never lose the characteristic of being a game. So the DM must have maturity to deal with the rolls. If a PC died or you had a TPK, you must understand the threshold between a normal consequence of a game (the randomness factor) and poor planing. One is detrimental. If you think that the detrimental part is dealing with randomness, then I'm sorry, you don't want to play D&D, you want to write a novel collaboratively or maybe play some other game, but really not D&D. To finalize, yes, CR system has problems (banshees can get you a TPK, Tarrasque can be solo'ed). My point is that I never saw anyone that says that CR system is broken to provide an applicable solution and this annoys me. It is like we are complaining for the sake of complaining. I'm still to see someone propose a real solution on how CR calculation should have been done in the rulebooks.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

tukman16 I love your passion for the game and it definitely comes across in your comment. Overall I feel we have very similar thoughts and very opposite thoughts about the CR system and it’s place in D&D Real quick, on your 5th point, yes any system stretched to its edges (9 and 1) that would be broken and I probably wouldn’t do (unless the players knew it was a SUPER glass cannon) Anyway I presented the problems with the CR system to display that is is IMPOSSIBLE to fix, nor do I have any plans on fixing it (I tried for some time but for all the reasons I listed, I stopped) I believe that is more important to adapt on the fly because this is the style of game that me and my players love the most. I would be TOTALLY down to play a “game style” like you called it, but that’s just not the priority of myself and my players in the past. I could make % adjustments for features and magic items gained and not make ANY adjustments on the fly, and let the dice fall as they may, I would probably not use a DM screen either and everything would be out in the open. BUT that game, isn’t as appealing to me. So I outline why it’s broken as a journey of realizing what parts of it are broken (for all the reasons we agree on too) I personally don’t use it and next weeks video shows how I DO make encounters which I honestly don’t know if you would like or not, it’s VERY mathematical and is how I balance things to not have to adjust on the fly as best I can

[@tukman16]

@@TheDungeonCoach hey man, thanks for the reply. It comes down to how to adapt to your style of play and I get that. I think the genius thing about 5e is that open ended approach to allow the DM to do these things. And that is why I state that people in the end are really using the CR system. All the additional considerations are consequence of the qualitative sub sections of the planning combat encounters section. Same goes for stealth mechanics or how to handle illusions for example. I'm not afraid of math so I'm eager to see your next video. And I may not agree with its content but I'll probably like it. I do recommend you to consider talking about possible bad consequences of making on the fly adaptations. Remember that not all people will implement your solution at the same rate that you do and no one wants to compromise the trust that should exist between players and DM, by whatever unspoken social contract your game is about. I personally had bad experiences as a player due to this several times.

[@kaythiastar]

No. No effin apps. You are a DM. It is important for me to think and calculate on my feet for any scenario. As you said with your own mouth, PLAYERS are NOT predictable. This video tells me how to use an app. I learned NOTHING I can use for my game. But, I'm NOT a new DM. I'm converting to the new system. And I'm Gygaxian.

[@rogerwilco2]

The Challenge Rating system is not based on a lot of math and science.

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

Enjoyed the content, but I personally cannot stand videos stuffed with self promotion and "if I get X amount of likes" or "check out my..." and would rather just watch videos from fellow nerds who just love the same things.

[@oliveroljica6932]

am i the only one who can't watch of sync video? Sorry but i had to listen to it...

[@thechaddad1609]

Skill challenge

[@TheDungeonCoach]

The Chad Dad oh just too late, you were the eighth person 😆 Thank you though!

[@thechaddad1609]

@@TheDungeonCoach I was gonna give it away anyway🤣🤣

[@TheDungeonCoach]

The Chad Dad what a cool dude!!