Write Down Your Encounter Benchmark

Preorder Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster! The lazy encounter benchmark for 5e helps GMs quickly benchmark whether an encounter might be deadly in 5e games like D&D 2014 and D&D 2024. Here's how it works: Choose the type and number of monsters based on the situation in the story and the pacing of the game. Determine if an encounter might be deadly by comparing it to your lazy encounter benchmark. An encounter might be deadly if the sum of all monster challenge ratings is greater than the sum of 1/4th of all character levels or 1/2 of all character levels if they're 5th level or above. This benchmark might be as high as 3/4ths of character levels if they're 11th level or above or equal to the sum of all character levels if they're 17th level or above given the massive power growth of high level characters. A single monster might be deadly if its challenge rating is greater than the average character level of the group or 1.5x the average character level of the group if they're 5th level or…