For a more perilous battle, match up the characters with a legendary creature whose challenge
rating is 1 or 2 higher than optimal. For an easy fight, use a legendary creature whose challenge
rating is 3 or more lower than the challenge rating for an optimal encounter.
Solo Monster Challenge Rating
Character Level —^ —^ —^ —^ — Party Size —^ —^ —^ —^ —^
6 Characters 5 Characters 4 Characters
1st 2 2 1
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
18th 22 21 20
19th 23 22 21
20th 24 23 22
If your encounter features multiple monsters, balancing it takes a little more work. Refer to the
Multiple Monsters tables, which are broken up by level ranges, providing information for how to
balance encounters for characters of 1st–5th level, 6th–10th level, 11th–15th level, and 16th–
20th level.
First, you need to note the challenge rating for each creature the party will face. Then, to create
your encounter, find the level of each character on the appropriate table. 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 rating. 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 challenge rating those characters
are equivalent to.