ber of rows a cone contains, divide its length by 5. For
example, a 30-foot cone contains six rows.
Here's how to create the rows. Starting with a square
adjacent to the cone's point of origin, place one token.
The square can be orthogonally or diagonally adjacent
to the point of origin. In every row beyond that one,
place as many tokens as you placed in the previous row,
plus one more token. Place this row's toke ns so that
their squares each share a s ide with a squa re in the
previous row. If the cone is orthogonally adjacent to the
point of origin, you'll have one more token to place in the
row; place it on one end or the other of the row you just
created (you don't have to pick the s ide chosen in dia-
gram 2.5). Keep placing tokens in this way until you've
created all of the con e's rows.
Lines. A line can extend from its source orthogonally
or diagonally, as shown in diagram 2.6.
Encounter Building
This section introduces new guidelines o n building com-
bat encounters for an adventure. They are an a lternative
to the rules in "Creating Encounters" in chapter 3 of the
Dungeon Master's Guide. This approach uses the same
math that underlies the rules presented in that book, but
it makes a few adjustments to the way that math is pre-
sented to produce a more flexible system.
This encounter-building system assumes that, as DM,
you want to have a clear understanding of the threat
posed by a group of monsters. It will be useful to you if
you want to emphasize combat in your adventure, if you
want to e nsure tha t a foe is n't too deadly for a group of
characters, and if you want to understand the re lation-
ship between a character's level and a monster's cha l-
lenge rating.
Building an encounter using these guidelines follows
a series of steps.
STEP l: ASSESS THE CHARACTERS
To build an e ncounter using this system, first take stock
of the player characters. This system uses the charac-
ters' levels to determine the numbers and challe n ge
ratings of c reatures you can pit them against without
making a fight too hard or too easy. Even though char-
acter level is important, you s hould a lso take note of
each character's hit point maximum and saving throw
modifiers, as well as how m uch damage th e mightiest
cha racters can deal with a single attack. Character level
and c hallenge rating a re good for defining t he difficulty
of an e ncounter, but they don't tell the whole story. You'll
make use of these additional character statistics when
you select monsters for an encounter in step 4.
STEP 2: CHOOSE ENCOUNTER SIZE
Determine whether you want to create a battle that pits
one creature against the characte rs , or if you want to
use multiple monsters. If the fight is against a single
opponent, your best candidate for that foe is one of the
game's legendary creatures, which are designed to fill
this need. If the battle involves multiple monsters, de-
c ide roughly how many creatures you want to use before
continuing with s tep 3.
STEP 3: DETERMINE NUMBERS AND
CHALLENGE RATINGS
T he process for building fights that feature only one leg-
endary monster is simple. T he Solo Monster Challenge
Rating table shows you which c hallenge rating (CR) to
use for a legendary creature opposing a party of four to
six characters, creating a satisfying but difficult battle.
For example, for a party of five 9th-level characters, a
CR 12 legendary creature makes an optimal encounter.
For a more perilous battle, match up the characters
with a legendary creature whose challenge rating is 1 or
2 highe r than optimal. For an easy fight, use a legendary
c reature whose challenge ra ting is 3 or more lower than
the challenge rating for an optima l encounter.SOLO MONSTER CHALLENGE RATINGCharacter Party Siz
level 6 Characters S Characters 4 Characters
1st 2 2
2nd 4 3 2
3rd 5 4 3
4th 6 5 4
5th 9 8 7
6th 10 9 8
7th 11 10 9
8th 12 11 10
9th 13 12 11
10th^14 13 12
11th^15 14 13
12th 17 16 15
13th 18 17 16
14th 19 18 17
15th 20 19 18
16th 21 20 19
17th 22 21 20
18 th 22 21 20
19th 23 22 21
20th 24 23 22If your e ncounter features multiple monsters, bala nc-
ing it takes a little more work. Refer to the Multiple
Monsters tables, which a re broken up by level ranges,
providing information for how to balance encounters for
characters of 1st-5th level, 6th- 10t h level, 11th-15th
level, and 16th-20th level.
First, you need to note the challenge rating for each
creature the party will face. T hen, to create your encoun-
ter, find the level of each character on the appropriate ta-
ble. Each table shows what a single character of a given
level is equivalent to in terms of challenge rating-a
value represented by a ratio that compares numbers of
characters to a single monster ranked by challenge rat-
ing. The first number in each expression is the number
of characters of the given level. The second number tells
how many monsters of the listed c hallenge rating those
characters are equivalent to.