Dungeon Master Assistance

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D&D 5E – Encounter Size Tables

13 Comments Posted by on October 18, 2020

Tables for Determining Encounter Size

These tables have been updated. Get the revised files HERE.

This is for Dungeon Masters. I created it a few months ago and have found it very useful when creating encounters for my 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons games. Using guidelines found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide I worked on the math to come up with simple tables that I could reference to make the encounter neither too hard nor too easy for my Player Characters.

There are separate tables for 3, 4, 5, or 6 characters of any level (1 through 20). Just find the table for the number of PCs – their average character level – and if you want it to be an easy, medium, hard or deadly encounter. There is also an “Any Level” encounter table if you want to use that. Then read across the table to find how many monsters you will need based on the monsters challenge rating (CR).

This makes for a lot of tables. Each of these single page PDF files has a separate table for Any Level encounters, Easy encounters, Medium encounters, Hard encounters, and Deadly encounters.

PC Levels 1-5 for 3 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 1-5 for 4 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 1-5 for 5 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 1-5 for 6 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 6-10 for 3 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 6-10 for 4 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 6-10 for 5 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 6-10 for 6 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 11-15 for 3 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 11-15 for 4 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 11-15 for 5 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 11-15 for 6 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 16-20 for 3 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 16-20 for 4 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 16-20 for 5 characters: Download HERE
PC Levels 16-20 for 6 characters: Download HERE

There is also a single PDF file that contains all of the above: Download HERE

If you find these useful let me know.
Enjoy!

Reference Material

13 responses to “D&D 5E – Encounter Size Tables”

  1. Unknown's avatarAnonymous October 18, 2020 at 2:55 pm

    Thanks so much. These are great.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Unknown's avatarAnonymous March 5, 2021 at 5:15 am

    Legend! I was slogging though making my own , but you’ve saved me the trouble. Thanks heaps! 🙂

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  4. Andrea's avatarAndrea February 20, 2022 at 3:50 pm

    Hi Ronny! Great job!. I took inspiration by your job and created something similar, but more dynamic (is a spreadsheet). However I got different results than yours, and I cannot understand where is the mistake… Could I send you my work for you to have a look at?

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    • Ronny's avatarRonny February 21, 2022 at 8:36 am

      Hi Andrea.
      Of course, just attach it to an email. You can find my email address under the “Legal” tab at the top of the page. I’ll watch for it.
      I probably got the math wrong. In the text of your email, please point out to me where yours and mine differ.

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    • blaidd31204's avatarblaidd31204 February 21, 2022 at 9:33 pm

      Would you possibly send me a copy of your spreadsheet?

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      • Ronny's avatarRonny February 22, 2022 at 8:51 am

        Perhaps Andrea will read your comment and send you his spreadsheet, if that is what you want. I don’t have mine in spreadsheet form. What you see here is all I have.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Andrea's avatarAndrea February 22, 2022 at 10:42 am

        Let me iron the kinks out with Ronnie and I will be glad to send it to you

        Liked by 1 person

      • Andrea's avatarAndrea February 25, 2022 at 2:53 am

        Hi Blaid, Spreadsheet is ready and good to go. Please note that the format of the document is not the widespread Excel, but Apple Numbers. The Numbers document can be opened (from windows computers) using any browser by going to https://www.icloud.com/numbers/. It will work exactly like if you were using it locally.

        I have decided not to create an Excel version for two reasons: formatting the tables like I wanted in Excel is quite difficult and when converting it, some formulas disappear and I do not have a version of Excel to find the the problem and fix it.

        I’m not sure if I can send you a private message somehow, but if you send me your email I can certainly send the spreadsheet to you. I’ve provided a copy to Ronny as well so he might include it in the revised version of the article once he has time to do so.

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      • blaidd31204's avatarblaidd31204 February 26, 2022 at 10:21 am

        Awesome! Take my username and add @ yahoo dot com.

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  5. Unknown's avatarAnonymous February 21, 2022 at 9:32 pm

    Awesome!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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