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Hey guys thinking of making my own encounter. Pretty new to DM'ing.

If I have 4 1/4 CR skeletons fighting a 4 man party of level 1's. Is it equivalent to a CR 1 Ghoul fighting the party?

And does this scale well e.g. 2 CR 2 creatures = 1 CR 4.

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1 Answer 1

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You should read the relevant chapter in the DMG. It starts on page 811.

CR is not supposed to be treated that way (ie multiplied, summed etc). The XP value of the monsters is closer to what you want, but still not exactly. Multiple monsters pose a bigger threat than fewer ones. To balance this the DMG uses XP multipliers based on the number of enemies.

Also note that an encounter can be dramatically different based on other factors, such as terrain or ambushing. Balancing is more of an art than a hard science.


1 Also in the DM Basic Rules, page 56.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I also would recommend to completely read the PHB and DMG, to understand how D&D 5 wants to present itself to you. The Game sets a Baseline for play (that you can modify) that is a little bit different from the previous 2 Editions, regarding balancing and how the System wants to be used before you and your Group adjust it to their Playstyle. If you have read and grasped the "spirit" the rules want to convey, you will see, that you do not really need to ask this question, because the Books encourage you to find your own "balancing". \$\endgroup\$
    – 8t88
    Aug 15, 2017 at 23:58

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