D&D Encounter Generator

Set your party, add monsters or roll a random group that suits your map, and see straight away whether the fight is Easy, Hard or Deadly. Uses the XP tables from the Dungeon Master’s Guide, 2014 or 2024 edition.

Party

PC 1 levelPC 2 levelPC 3 levelPC 4 level

Set all to

Monsters

How manyCRGoblin

How manyCRBugbear

Difficulty

Medium

Monster XP 400 × 2 = 800 adjusted

Threshold	Party XP
Easy	300
Medium	600
Hard	900
Deadly	1,600

Random encounter for your map

MapAim for

Draws from 30 SRD creatures that fit the chosen map. Then generate the dungeon map.

Why four goblins are not four times one goblin

Experience points measure how dangerous each monster is on its own. Put several on the map and the danger grows faster than the XP, because the party’s actions get split while the monsters’ attacks add up. Slide the numbers to see the 2014 multiplier at work.

Goblins (CR 1/4, 50 XP each): 4Party size: 4

200raw XP (what the party earns)

×2multiplier for 4 monsters

400adjusted XP (how hard it plays)

Eight goblins give the same XP as one CR 2 ogre plus a bit, but they get eight attacks a round and soak up area spells differently. The 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide handles this with a multiplier on total XP: ×1 for one monster, ×1.5 for two, ×2 for three to six, rising to ×4 for fifteen or more. Small parties (1–2 characters) step one row up the table; parties of six or more step one row down. The 2024 rules dropped the multiplier and warn instead that big groups and very high-CR solo monsters swing harder than their XP suggests.

2014 thresholds per character

Selected levels, from the Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014), chapter 3.

Level	Easy	Medium	Hard	Deadly
1	25	50	75	100
3	75	150	225	400
5	250	500	750	1,100
10	600	1,200	1,900	2,800
15	1,400	2,800	4,300	6,400
20	2,800	5,700	8,500	12,700

The map matters as much as the math: a chokepoint doorway can turn a Deadly horde into a Medium fight, and open ground does the reverse.

Questions game masters ask

How is encounter difficulty calculated in 5e?

Add up each character’s XP threshold for their level to get the party’s budget, then add up the XP of the monsters. Under the 2014 rules you multiply monster XP by a factor for the number of monsters before comparing; the 2024 rules compare raw XP against Low, Moderate and High budgets.

What does Deadly mean?

In the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide, a Deadly encounter could kill one or more characters. It is not a ceiling: parties with good tactics, magic items or rests beat Deadly fights often, so treat it as a warning, not a rule.

How many encounters per adventuring day?

The 2014 guide suggests six to eight medium or hard encounters with two short rests, about the total of the "Adventuring Day XP" per character. Most tables run fewer, bigger fights.

Which monsters are included in the random builder?

Thirty creatures from the System Reference Document 5.1 (released under Creative Commons), sorted by the map type they suit so the encounter matches the battle map.