How to Design an Encounter
Designing an encounter for Pathfinder 1e can be a little challenging. Here are our guidelines for designing an encounter for Player Run Plots (PRPs). Note that DMed staffer events can deviate from these guidelines due to their competency and handle of the system.
Calculate the Challenge Rating for an Encounter
1. Calculate the Average Party Level, or APL. To find the APL, add the levels of each player character in the plot, then divide the end result by the number of players, and round it to the nearest number (not necessarily down).
You may decrease the APL by 1 if:
- The number of players is 3 or fewer.
- The circumstances are heavily stacked against the player characters (such as a boxed-in map design, difficult terrain, traps, and more).
You may increase the APL by 1 if:
- There are 5 or more players.
- Circumstances play heavily in their favor.
However, you may not decrease the APL below APL -1, and you may not increase the APL above +2, even with these suggested adjustments. Any encounter outside of the range of APL-1 to APL+2 is not eligible for rewards.
2. Determine the Challenge Rating (CR) for the encounter you want to present. The following table presents the encounter difficulty descriptions and what Challenge Rating (CR) the APL corresponds to:
| Encounter CR Based on Difficulty | |
| Difficulty | Challenge Rating (CR) Equals |
| Easy | APL -1 |
| Average | APL+0 |
| Challenging | APL +1 |
| Hard | APL +2 |
3. Use your encounter’s CR to determine your creature 'budget'. Pathfinder 1e’s encounter design hinges on the total XP that an encounter is worth, which includes the XP of creatures. We don’t reward the encounter’s XP on Tenebrae to ensure everyone gets an equal share of XP and gold no matter what level their PC is, but it is a useful tool for you to use in selecting the creatures for your encounter.
The following table describes creature XP budget as it correlates to encounter CR:
| Total Creature XP Budget Based on Encounter CR | |
| Encounter CR | XP Budget |
| 1 | 400 |
| 2 | 600 |
| 3 | 800 |
| 4 | 1200 |
| 5 | 1600 |
| 6 | 2400 |
| 7 | 3200 |
| 8 | 4800 |
| 9 | 6400 |
| 10 | 9600 |
| 11 | 12800 |
| 12 | 19200 |
| 13 | 25600 |
| 14 | 38400 |
| 15 | 51200 |
| 16 | 76800 |
| 17 | 102400 |
| 18 | 153600 |
| 19 | 204800 |
| 20 | 307200 |
| 21 | 409600 |
| 22 | 614400 |
Keep in mind that including multiple creatures will affect the creatures’ individual CR rating. For example, including 2 copies of a CR 1 creature means that the encounter CR will be a total of CR 3, not CR 2. The following table describes how the total number of creatures affect their total CR rating:
| CR Adjustment for Multiple Creatures | |
| Number of Creatures | CR Adjustment |
| 1 Creature | CR is unchanged. |
| 2 Creatures | CR +2 |
| 3 Creatures | CR +3 |
| 4 Creatures | CR +4 |
| 6 Creatures | CR +5 |
To provide another example: say you have an APL of 6, and you want to run a Challenging encounter, so therefore, you want to make an encounter with a CR of 7 (which has an XP budget of 3200). You find a CR 4 creature that you like and decide that you want to run 3 of them. According to the table, running three creatures adds a CR adjustment of +3. This means that CR 4 + 3 = 7. Since the equation is equal to the ideal CR for your encounter’s challenge, your encounter is successfully balanced for a Challenging difficulty.
4. Go monster hunting. Use the World Bestiary page and the limits for your type of PRP (Standard PRPs and Death Consent PRPs have different creature limits) to find creatures from approved sources. Remember that dragons, demiliches, drider, catfolk, and drow are not permitted. (Dragons and demiliches are reserved for staff events to make them feel special when they do appear; the rest are not in theme.)
You may submit a creature from an unapproved source for staff approval by sending it in a +request/rules job. If the total XP of your selected creature(s) roughly equals your CR for your encounter’s challenge, you have successfully built a balanced encounter!
Tip: Many plot runners on Tenebrae use the software tool Combat Manager to help calculate the CR of an encounter. Just double-check that the creature you’re using is the one from the correct source, as Paizo has published multiple variations on stat blocks with the same name, and Combat Manager sometimes doesn’t clarify what source a stat block is from.
Help for GMs
| Tools for GMs | ||
| Question | Answer | |
| How can I design an encounter? | We wrote an article on it! See How to Design an Encounter for your answers. | |
| Are there tools to make running encounters easier? | A lot of plot runners on Tenebrae use a software called Combat Manager to help track enemy HP totals and have enemy stat blocks available at a glance.
The Player-Contributed Encounter Grab Bag has some player-contributed inspiration for running your own encounters, too. | |
| Where can I find monsters for encounters? | Check out the Tenebrae Bestiary. The only approved sources for monsters are listed on this page!
Keep in mind that there are creature restrictions depending on what type of PRP you're running! (See Standard PRPs and Death Consent PRPs for more on those.) Dragons and demiliches are reserved for staff-only events to keep them unique. Catfolk, driders, and drow are not in theme and therefore are not permitted. | |
| What if I want to offer legwork? What IS legwork? | The Legwork Mini-Guide for GMs explains it all!
+help legwork in-game is helpful too. | |