The Encounter Builder shows how hard a D&D 5e fight will be for your party. Choose the rules (2024 or 2014), enter your party's size and levels, add creatures, and it compares the encounter's XP with what your party can handle. A line under the totals tells you how far you are from the next difficulty.
With the 2024 rules the encounter is compared with the Low, Moderate and High XP budget for the whole party. With the 2014 rules it uses the Easy, Medium, Hard and Deadly thresholds, with the group multiplier for the number of creatures, adjusted for very small or very large parties. Each group of characters has its own level, so a party with characters of different levels is covered too.
The public builder saves nothing, and you do not need an account. In a campaign, the same builder sits at the bottom of a scene, where it follows your campaign's rules and tracks each creature's hit points during the fight. XP budgets are a guide: tougher monsters, terrain and tactics all change how a fight plays.
The Encounter builder is free and needs no account. Find it in the Tools menu in the site header.1. Party: set how many players and their level. Need a mixed table? Choose + Add a group with a different level.2. Rules: pick D&D 2014 or 2024. They measure difficulty differently (Low, Moderate, High in 2024; Easy, Medium, Hard, Deadly in 2014).3. Choose + Add creature. Click the box and scroll, or type a name, a type or a CR. The list runs from CR 0 up, under a heading for each CR.4. Set the Number of that creature. Use the CR box beside it to make the creature stronger or weaker. Its hit points, armor, attacks and saves are rebuilt for that CR.5. Watch the Difficulty bar. It shows the encounter's XP against your party, and how much more XP reaches the next level.6. Open a creature's stat block to read it. Copy stat block copies it to paste into Roll20 (Bio & Info or GM Notes).Narrow the list (optional): under Creature filters, set Creature type (for example Undead) or untick Allow Homebrew to hide the homebrew NPC creatures. Leave both alone to see everything.
Every job the NPC generator uses has a basic stat block: tavern keeper, blacksmith, baker, town guard, thief, hedge wizard and more. They are homebrew, made for Roleplay Journal. They are not official monsters, and each one carries a Homebrew tag so nobody mistakes it for one.Find one: in the Monster builder, the Encounter builder or a scene's Encounter, click the creature box and type the job (for example "tavern keeper") or the word homebrew to list them all.Make it fit your party1. Pick the creature. Most start at a low CR, from 0 to about 2.2. Change its CR. A tavern keeper at CR 5 hits harder, has far more hit points and gains extra attacks. Its cudgel and thrown tankard stay.3. Some have a special trick that scales too, such as the cook's boiling stew or the hedge wizard's sleep dust.Good to know- Noble, Priest, Acolyte and Bard share a name with an official creature, so theirs read "Noble (NPC)" and so on.- Copy stat block adds a "Source: Homebrew (Roleplay Journal)" line, so it is still marked when you paste it into Roll20.- Do not want homebrew in the list? In the Encounter builder, untick Allow Homebrew under Creature filters. It is on by default.- They follow the same CR rules as every other creature, but they are a starting point. Change what you like.
Add your party and the creatures, then look at the difficulty the builder shows. The 2024 rules give Low, Moderate and High budgets; the 2014 rules give Easy, Medium, Hard and Deadly thresholds. An encounter beyond the top tier is a real risk for the party.
The 2024 rules use an XP budget for the whole party, in three tiers: Low, Moderate and High. The 2014 rules use Easy, Medium, Hard and Deadly thresholds and multiply the monsters' XP by a group size multiplier. The builder has a Rules switch for both.
Each group can hold 1 to 12 characters at levels 1 to 20, and you can add more than one group for a party of mixed levels.
Yes, and you do not need an account. Nothing is saved on the public page. In a campaign, an encounter lives on a scene, where the campaign decides which rules it uses.