CR=Average Party Level (APL) usually yields a Medium encounter. (Recall the encounter descriptors in 'Combat Encounter Difficulty' on DMG p.82.) The exceptions are at levels 5-7, where the 'CR-appropriate' monster actually yields an Easy encounter. CR=APL-1 usually yields an Easy encounter. The encounter creation method from the DMG is based around having 4-8 encounters with 1-2 short rests, so they are on the easy side to start with. A single deadly encounter, especially against a single enemy, isn't likely to be difficult when the players are on full resources, but if they've already been through some medium/hard encounters, then it becomes a real threat.

• Dnd 5e Encounter List
• Dnd 5e Encounter Difficulty Chart

Tested with FG version 3.3.5.
This is an update/streamline of hereander's original version that was updated by Fudly.

Dnd 5e Encounter List

How it works:
Put the attachment in your fantasy ground's extensions folder. On my computer that is:

Activate the extension for your campaign
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Choose whether you want to get party levels from the combat tracker or the party sheet.
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To use this, as you're creating a new encounter, click the refresh button to update the XP total, and then press 'Calculate Encounter Difficulty' to output the difficulty of the encounter to chat.
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Dnd 5e Encounter Difficulty Chart

This version uses Fudly's formula for calculating the difficulty, which seems to agree with the 5E DMG. I removed the 'super deadly' threshold, and any changes to the random encounter template. Encounters generated using random encounter template will still have the difficulty calculator available.

Attached Files

• 5E_Encounter_Calc_new.ext(3.5 KB, 1192 views)

Let's face it, there's nothing sexy about math in D&D -- unless it's adding up 10d6 sneak attack damage from a critical hit. However, calculating the difficulty of an encounter for your players is a skill set that all DMs need. A slew of easy encounters or incredibly hard ones will get super old super fast for your players.

Now, the Dungeon Master Guide and Xanathar's Guide to Everything do contain tables and formulas for setting the difficulty and challenge rating when you're building your encounters in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. However, punching the numbers manually is no fun.

So about let's use some digital online tools for calculating D&D 5e encounter difficulty to do the work for us, eh?