Combat
Encounter Budget
Total enemy XP-value budget for a party of 4 PCs across four difficulty bands. Sum the XP values of all enemies and check against this table.
| Difficulty | Total XP Budget | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 4–6 | 4 Minions or 2 Soldiers |
| Standard | 8–10 | 1 Elite + 4 Minions, or 2 Elites |
| Hard | 12–16 | 1 Boss + 4 Minions, or 3 Elites + 2 Soldiers |
| Deadly | 18+ | 1 Boss + 1 Elite + Soldiers, or 2 Bosses (if you hate your players) |
Encounter math is necessary but insufficient. Terrain, cover, and tension shift the felt difficulty more than raw XP. A Minion behind Hard Cover is worth more than its XP suggests.