Effective HP and Damage
How to represent creature defensive and offensive strengths in effective terms that don’t require calculating chances to hit or save against an enemy creature.
XP and Encounter Balancing
A detailed explanation of where XP comes from and how encounter balancing works.
Calculating the Encounter Multiplier: part 1
A deep dive into the encounter multiplier and how it depends on the number of NPCs and PC strategies.
Calculating the Encounter Multiplier: part 2
A deep dive into the encounter multiplier and how it depends on the number of PCs and NPC strategies.
Rounds of Combat Per Day
How many rounds should combat take? And how does encounter difficulty affect the number of rounds in a full adventuring day?
Valuing Conditions
How strong are conditions in 5th edition D&D?
Encounter Building in Pathfinder vs D&D
How similar is the math between the XP and encounter building systems in D&D 5e and Pahtfinder 2e?
Encounter Building in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
A comparison of the encounter building rules in XGtE and the DMG.
Variability: Damage and Healing Rolls
How do we account for variability of dice rolls for damage and healing in D&D?
Variability: Attacks
How do we account for variability of attack rolls in D&D?
Variability: Saves
How do we account for variability of saving throws in D&D?
Variability: Combat
How much does chance affect combat?
Variability: Encounter Difficulty
What’s the probability of winning for each encounter difficulty?
Initiative Probabilities
How likely are you to roll higher than your opponent in initiative? How often will you go first or second? This post looks at the math behind initiative orde...