🐉 Encounter Builder

A fight that fits, in one tap

Set your party size, your party level and how dangerous you want it, then tap Build encounter. The builder picks a themed group of monsters — undead, raiders, beasts or worse — and scales their numbers to the threat you asked for, then drops them into a place with a complication to keep the fight from being a straight slugfest. Roll again for a fresh one whenever the party wanders somewhere you didn't plan.

Reading the result

You get a one-line setting (a collapsed crypt, a fog-choked bridge), the monsters and how many of each, and a twist — a hostage in the crossfire, a floor about to give way, reinforcements on the way. The numbers are a rules-light starting point based on this tool's own weights; trust your read of the table and adjust on the fly.

How the generator spends its budget

The tool rounds party size × (level + 1) × difficulty × 1.1 to an integer. Difficulty is 0.5 for Easy, 1 for Medium, 1.6 for Hard and 2.4 for Deadly. These are this tool's own weights, not XP or challenge ratings from a published ruleset.

For example, four level-3 characters on Medium get a budget of 18. One possible undead group is a wight (10), a ghoul (5) and a zombie (3). Another roll may spend those same points on more weaker creatures. The generator chooses a theme first, then picks affordable creatures until it cannot buy another or reaches 14 creatures. At the lowest budget, it returns one creature even if the theme's cheapest option is over budget; the result explains when this happens.

Turn the result into a playable encounter

1. Choose stat blocks from the system you actually play. A monster name here is an idea, not a supplied stat block.
2. Compare enemy actions, damage, defenses and special abilities with your party. Several weak enemies can be more dangerous than one expensive enemy because they act more often.
3. Decide what the enemies want and where the party can retreat. Set a surrender or negotiation condition before rolling initiative.
4. Review the twist. Reinforcements, poor visibility, hostages and hazardous terrain are not included in the budget; reduce the opposition if the complication adds substantial danger.

The 14-creature cap can leave much of a high-level budget unspent. A difficulty label changes the generated budget; it does not certify a balanced or survivable fight. Use the initiative tracker after you have selected the final creatures.

Creature, setting and twist tables are stored in this project's source and combine locally in your browser. See how the random generators work for the source tables, probability and privacy notes.

Is this balanced to exact encounter-building math?

It's a fast approximation using the documented weights above, not a strict calculator for a published system. Use it as a starting point and tune to your group.

Can I get a non-combat result?

This tool builds fights. For social scenes, pair it with the NPC Generator and Tavern Generator.

Does it save anything?

No — everything is generated in your browser.