Previous Article - 5. Setting up your map in Roll20
Since this crypt is intended and currently being used as a base of operations for our group up cultists, we are going to need to populate where they actually are. We had mentioned previously that we are going to be setting up three encounters.
- An easy difficulty encounter to give our players a taste of how combat works
- A medium difficulty encounter that introduces some combat effects
- A boss encounter that we can vary the difficulty for to how the group is performing
Setting up and building custom combat encounters can be a bit challenging. The ability to balance is a skill that is improved/refined over time as you grow more comfortable with a given system. However, to make this a bit easier for ourselves, we'll be using a free tool called "Kobold Fight Club"
This tool allows us to set up filters that we can use to generate more balanced combat encounters at a variety of difficulty levels. Something to bear in mind here is that this calculator was originally designed for the 2014 version of D&D 5th edition. As a result, there may be a few differences, but it should still provide a working approximation right now.
To start, let's make sure we have all our filters and settings enabled properly.
In the top left, make sure to set your group size and level. Our example will be 4 players at 3rd level
Moving to the right-side, starting top to bottom, we will want to Click "Manage Sources", then click "Disable All" and select "Systems Reference Document (SRD)" from the menu. Once selected, you can click "Done" at the bottom right.
This will restrict the monsters that are presented to us to ones included in the SRD. The SRD is a fully free version of the rules for D&D 5th edition provided by Wizards of the Coast. Since this guide is intended for brand new players and GMs and those who may not have access to content such as the Monster Manual, we are restricting our options to avoid confusion.
These same monsters from the SRD will be available in the Compendium when we add them to the game.
With our sources filtered, we can go ahead and change the following settings:
- Challenge Rating (CR) maximum at 5.
- Size category set to "Medium"
- Creature type set to "Humanoid" and "Undead"
This will help restrict the number of creatures that appear to something that is a bit easier to sort through.
Regarding Challenge Rating, this number is a rough guideline. The intention is that a monster's challenge rating value represents a low-difficulty challenge for a group of 4 adventurers of the same level as the challenge rating.
For more information on building and balancing encounters, we recommend checking out the Combat Encounter Difficulty page of the Free Basic Rules.
I've done some pre-planning for some balanced encounters that we'll use for this adventure, but just so you can see what it looks like for this first example, we have 2 cultists and 4 skeletons which are posing an "Easy" level of difficulty.
Below are the compositions of the encounters and some details and tips on how you can run them.
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Easy Combat Encounter Add to the bottom of Section 1 (The Entryway) of "The Silent Crypt" handout.
Combat Details This group is on the inside of the crypt and supposed to be keeping watch. However, the rumors of the place being haunted have kept most common folks away and as a result they are not paying close attention. The party should be able to approach undetected with a successful stealth check of DC 12. If the party does not engage the guards then they will remain there until a scheduled patrol of 1 cultists and 2 skeletons every 2 hours. If they hear any loud noises such as fighting in other areas of the crypt, they will rush to the area and join the fight after 2 rounds. If the guards are engaged, the others in the crypt will not be alerted as they are preoccupied with a ritual and cannot hear. However, exceedingly loud sounds such as explosions or sounds from a “Thunderwave” or “Shatter” spell will alert others in the crypt who will join after 2 rounds with 2 Cultists. |
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Medium Combat Encounter Add to the bottom of Section 5 (The Main Ritual Room) of "The Silent Crypt" handout.
Combat Details Players can get a surprise round on the cultists if they did not set off the sleeping gas trap. If players attempt to get close, they will need to pass a stealth check of DC 8. If players stay to the outskirts of the room they do not need to make a stealth check. The cultists will attempt to engage at range using short bows while the Ghast moves into melee range. They are reluctant to get too close to the ghast due to the stench effect. |
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Boss Combat Encounter Add to the bottom of Section 12 (Leader’s Chamber) of "The Silent Crypt" handout.
Combat Details Provided that the party refuses the offer, the leader may reply “Then you will join us in death!” The cultists will attempt to engage directly into melee range with the party in order to hold them off from the leader. The leader will attempt to maintain distance and utilize spells such as Command and Hold Person to disable the party and allow the cultists to get in a few solid hits. After a cultist dies, the leader will use an action to summon two shadows that appear from the walls behind the party. If the shadows are quickly dispatched, the leader can use another action to summon an additional two shadows – however, this should only be done if the current combat encounter is not difficult enough for a party of four. If all cultists and shadows are dead, the leader will attempt to summon a spiritual weapon to aid in combat. If the party closes the gap on the leader while he is alone he will resort to using his daggers to retaliate. If you’d like to plan for the party to join the villain, then you could have them finish this session and instead work with the cultist leader to raise the fallen cultists and attack the village thus beginning your evil campaign! |
Tip!
Something to remember when running a game as the GM, is that our goal is not to "win" or "defeat" the players and their characters. TTRPGs are a method of collaborative storytelling and the GM's role is to guide the tension and progression of the story.
This doesn't mean we should bend fate to avoid a total party kill (TPK) but we don't want to completely overwhelm the group either.
The goal is finding that perfect balance where it felt difficult and the rewards earned!
Adding enemies to the map
So now we know where the enemies go, roughly, we can begin organizing them more precisely. To do this, we will want to make sure that we enable the "GM Layer" from the bottom left toolbar, and then we will open the "Compendium" pane from the right-side panes.
In the compendium you will want to look up the following enemies, and then drag their entry from the compendium to the main play area (click and hold the entry, and then release once it is over the map).
Add the following creatures to your game:
- Cult Fanatic
- Cultist
- Ghast
- Shadow
- Skeleton
As you drag-and-drop these entries, you will see a character sheet appear, for now, go ahead and close this as we will come back to discuss in more detail later.
Once all of our enemies have been dragged to the VTT, we can now go to the "Journal" pane (one pane to the left of the compendium). Here you should see all of your enemies listed for easier access rather than needing to search them up every time. you can also drag and drop these entries into the play area as well!
Since we have all of these characters, the next thing we should do it organize ourselves. If you right-click the "Characters" header in the journal, you can select "Add Subfolder" -- let's name this one "Monsters"
To reorder and reorganize entries in the journal, you will need to hover over them, and you should see three horizontal lines appear where the art used to be. This is the reorder handle. Hover over that, and you can drag it around. As you drag it, you will see a faint blue area be highlighted showing you where you are dropping it. Make sure it is "nested" or "indented" one space and inside the monster folder.
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Reorder handle |
Highlighted Area |
With our creatures showing up on the map and in our journal, we can begin dragging extra copies to the GM layer to orient how they might be standing when the party encounters them. You can add extra copies by dragging-and-dropping from the journal or compendium, or you can select the token, and use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste them.
Here are some examples of how the encounters are set up in my example adventure.
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Combat Encounter 1 - Entryway/Entrance |
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Combat Encounter 2 - The Main Ritual Room |
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Combat Encounter 3 - Leaders Chamber |
You'll notice in the final combat encounter, that I've placed the shadows outside of the map off to the side. As these are not necessarily part of the fight initially, I don't want to accidentally add them when I make these tokens appear to the players.