Today, I will give some tips for easy 5E encounter scaling and balancing based on the number of players. DnD 5e is usually balanced around a party of 4 players; most material produced for the game is simply designed for that number of players. While 4 is the recommended number of players, it is very common for DnD 5E groups to feature 3 to 6 players around the table. Most published material leaves it to the GMs to adapt the encounter scaling and balancing to the number of players they have. 

Our DnD 5E adventures always feature a scaling system in their bestiary to help GM’s to scale the encounters of the adventure based on their party size. While this system is not perfect, it is a good basic tool to adjust the encounter difficulty based on the number of players. 

DnD 5e Easy Encounter Scale Balance

DnD 5e Easy Encounter Scale Balance

DnD 5E Easy Encounter Scaling, Balancing Technique

The scaling and balancing technique provided in our adventure is very easy and can be applied to any DnD 5E homebrew campaign with a few simple steps.

First off, build your encounter as if the party was for 4 players and balance it according to the official DnD 5E Dungeon Master’s (DM) Guide. Once this is done, you will determine what creatures are supposed to be “weak” and what creatures are supposed to be “strong” in your encounters. 

Weak creatures: These creatures will typically be a very low threat to the party individually, but a much greater threat when in numbers. Player characters that can dish out good AOE damage will usually be the ones to take care of those creatures. 

Strong creatures: These creatures are a real threat to a Player Character (PC) if fought one-on-one at their current level. These creatures will usually be the target of focused attacks and might require many PCs to win the encounter comfortably. 

Once all creatures have been assigned as either Weak or Strong, we can now scale the encounter using an easy multiplier. 

• 2 = 0.5
• 3 = 0.75
• 4 (baseline) = 1
• 5 = 1.25
• 6 = 1.50

For Weak creatures, we increase their numbers by our multipliers. For strong creatures, we multiply their hitpoint instead. 

DnD 5e Easy Encounter Scale Balance

Easy 5E Encounter Scaling, Balancing Example

Let’s say I was planning to run a 5E encounter with ten bandits and one bandit captain. If I wanted to scale this encounter for a fifth player the scaling would go as follow :

• 10 bandits*1.25= 12 (12.5 rounded down) bandits

• A bandit captain that has 65 hitpoints*1.25= a bandit captain that has 81 hit points.

There is nothing wrong with rounding the number of creatures up or down; it all depends on if you think your players can manage the threat of one additional creature. 

DnD 5e Easy Encounter Scale Balance

The easy encounter scaling, balancing results 

Using this easy scaling tool should help to keep the balance of the DnD 5E encounter stable, but there are some other key things to remember when using this method.

Weak creatures: The increase in weaker creatures will increase their offensive capability; the horde of weaker creatures will be able to attack more often and potentially land more hits. Because the attack bonus of these creatures is often low, it is possible that they will focus on characters with weaker armor class (AC), putting a lot of pressure on squishy Player Characters builds as the number of creatures increase.

While in theory, more creatures mean more hit points in total, this method won’t always grant the horde much more survivability because they will still be dispatched in numbers by strong area of effect (AOE) attacks. This also makes it so that Player Characters who focus on single-target damage and dispatch them one at a time will find it harder to cut through the horde. 

Strong creatures: The increase in hitpoints will result strong creatures survive longer. As the number of players increases, it will become more and more difficult for a single player to dispatch a stronger creature, forcing teamwork in the party to vanquish these creatures. Because their number has not increased, these creatures will remain vulnerable to spells or abilities that can render them unable to act.  

DnD 5e Easy Encounter Scale Balance

Other DnD 5E scaling and balancing factors

DnD 5E is a complex game with many mechanics that affect the gameplay. For that reason, consider these factors when attempting to scale and balance your DnD 5e encounters.

Chances to hit: In some instances, giving creatures an artificial bonus to hit might be helpful to make sure weaker creatures have a reasonable chance to touch the players when they attack. This method may also be used with stronger creatures but may require you to be more careful to not render the investment some characters made in AC pointless. To explain these bonuses to hit, you can put “Captains” in the squad of weaker creatures that grant these bonuses as long as they’re alive. Increasing a caster’s spell DC is also an option to increase the encounter difficulty. This method of adjusting difficulty is not only a tool for the number of players but also for teams that may feature particularly powerful characters. The “Captain” method can also be used as a way to spice up certain encounters when thematically appropriate.

Defensive bonuses: While strong creatures will benefit from more HP, these additional hit points might not always be sufficient to keep up with the additional offensive option a bigger party may bring to the table. To this end, it can sometimes be necessary to give artificial bonuses to armor class (AC) or saving throws of few or all creatures in that encounter. In some instances, legendary resistances may also help creatures that are supposed to be really important and need additional survivability.

Debilitating effects: As the number of players increases, single-target effects that prevent a player from playing becomes less of a threat. For example, paralyzing one party member in a party of six is not as powerful (17% of players) as vs a party of four (25% of players), but very threatening for a party of 2 (50%). In some instances, increasing or reducing the number of targets of such spells or abilities may be necessary to balance things out with the number of players. If tweaking the number of targets is not a viable solution, consider adjusting the DC of these particular spells or abilities to increase or decrease the chances that the player characters are affected by those disabling effects. Remember that each point of adjustment to a DC results in a 5% change to the chance of success. 

Party composition: As the size of the party increases, the number of tools, spells, and abilities they have access to will increase along with it. When you design your encounters or modify existing ones, it is important that you take into account what skills and abilities your party have and in what area they are lacking. Taking these things into account, you can equip your creatures with what they need to be a challenge to the party present in your game. For example, a party that deals heavy damage using weapon attacks may be challenged by enemy spellcasters using spells such as Mirror Image or Blur to protect themselves. In larger parties, it is also possible to design specific creatures that require the particular skill set of a number of party members to defeat to encourage teamwork.  

A change in dynamic: Another thing to consider with bigger parties is that each party member becomes less and less individually powerful. A creature that may have been defeated one-on-one in a game of three players might be totally impossible to beat one-on-one in a game of six players. As a GM it is important that you push your players more toward teamwork and make them understand that creatures will scale according to the size of the party and the players must understand that. Characters may go down more often in bigger parties, both the GM and the players must understand that. If you do not intend to be more lethal with your players, avoid targeting dying PCs and focus on the ones that still pose a threat to your creatures. Death saving throws are usually in favour of the players if it comes down to that. 

Legendary creatures: When it comes to legendary creatures (often bosses), increasing the number of legendary actions and resistance to their disposal will be an absolute must. Usually, you should give them legendary actions and resist equal to the number of players minus one. In some cases, it may be necessary to limit the number of times a single legendary action can be used during the same turn to limit unintended consequences of the increase in legendary actions. 

DnD 5e Easy Encounter Scale Balance

Closing Thoughts on 5e Encounter Scaling and Balancing

As this article was already a long one, I will not go into detail on how to build, balance, and scale a boss encounter and leave it for another article. 

I hope this post for Easy DnD 5e Encounter Scaling and Balancing is useful and encourages you to try the tools and advice and improve your gameplay experience. 

If there are any DnD 5e topics you would want to be covered in the next article, send us an email info@cultadventures.com or drop it in the comment section!

Marc Bouchard, Lead Game Designer and Writer for Cult Adventures 

DnD 5e Easy Encounter Scale Balance