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I have a question about adventure design.
I have players which are APL 19. It is quite simple to design a single encounter CR 19 and play it out.
But how about a module-like adventure?
For example, most modules are a collection of short encounters versus minor monsters which aren't quite the CR as the characters. At the end, the players then fight the "boss" who is usually their CR or higher.
If I wanted to design a CR 19 adventure, are the 204,000 XP points to be budgeted throughout the entire adventure? Or does each encounter need to be at least CR 19 (or CR17-18)?
If the adventure is CR 19, I was just wondering if the budget, which is roughly 204,000 XP, was to be spent over the entire adventure and not just the "boss" encounter at the end.
The 204,800 XP value is for a single CR 19 monster/NPC.
If the adventure is intended to give the PCs enough experience to reach level 20, then you'll be looking at an average of 20 encounters of CR 19 each (if playing on the Medium advancement track). As such, the XP budget for the entire adventure would be at around 4 million XP.
These encounters would usually be spread out with some lower than CR 19 and some higher than CR 19. Many adventures will also use fewer encounters with a higher average CR.
You'll probably want the final encounter to be higher than the APL by at least two. Also the boss should have minions to fight alongside him. Encounters with single monsters tend to be easier, as the party can gang up on the monster.
In my opinion this is where the fun of DMing shines - there are lots of ways you can go about it. Since your APL is 19, I assume your players are fairly experienced? I ask because the difficulty of your encounters should be based on how good your party is in combat (not just their APL). So, for example, if they're average, the end boss encounter should be no more than 1-2 CR higher than the APL. If they're above average / quite good with combat, don't hesitate to make the boss encounter 2-3 CR above their APL. Personally I try not to go over 2 notches higher than the APL, unless I spend a lot of time analyzing the enemies' stats vs. party stats before hand... or if the party just plows through everything you throw at them. Bottom line: determine your CR levels based on your players' skills along with their APL.
Also, it's okay for the final boss encounter to be solo... don't feel like you HAVE to throw henchmen in there too. If you're using a monster entry, just look in their "Environment" section... their organization should be "solitary". Solitary monsters are MEANT to be fought alone, and thus make great boss fights.
When you're stringing fights together to make an adventure, there are several things to think about. Are they going to get a chance to rest? Will they be in a confined area with "patrol" monsters? Once they enter the dungeon/area with the creatures involved in the encounters, will the party have an easily accessible way of leaving? 9/10 I assume that the party will just leave/rest whenever they want, especially at higher levels when they can pretty much teleport all the time. If I don't want them to leave, I think about that before hand (maybe laying a few Dimensional Anchor Traps, having the rear passage collapse, etc).
Assuming the party has average combat skills, I would categorize your various encounters like this: easy encounters = CR 18, medium encounters = CR 19, tough encounters = CR 20 (like a sub-boss), toughest fight / final boss = CR 21. Then just decide which encounters you want to be easy/medium/hard, assign the CRs, and design the fights.
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So I'm trying to figure out what the final encounter should be. I don't want to make it overly hard but want it to be challenging. They just completed a single encounter at CR 18 where they faced a beholder and several drow, ogres, etc. I used the Gamemastery rules for it, which allowed for an XP budget of 153,000.
The players completed it with no deaths. It wasn't a walk in the park but it wasn't a tough challenge, either. There were no near death experiences; they played smart and I figured good job.
I look at the module No Response from Deepmar, a module for level 8 characters.
The end scene has four enemies, CR 9, CR 7, CR 7, and CR 9 or 6400 XP + 3200 XP + 6400 XP + 3200 XP.
It would seem the XP budget, using Gamemastery rules, would be 4,800 XP for this final encounter in the module. However, the final budget in the module is 19,200!!!!!!! WAAAAY over budget for an encounter of level 8.
How is the Gamemastery rules for making single encounters viable?
Who's not to say I can put the level 19 characters (there are 4 of them) versus 8 CR 19 enemies? How does one know the right number? I don't want to make a mistake and make it too hard resulting in a party wipe.
As mentioned before, for a level 8 group (assuming they haven't leveled by that point), the final encounter should be CR 10-12. (Your example is 12.) The final battle should be hard and the outcome should be uncertain (though smart players will prepare carefully for such a climactic battle, which helps).
That module pits an APL 8 group against a CR 12 encounter as the final boss fight... in my opinion, that's a little too tough. 4 notches over average is usually going too far. If the characters have plenty of time/resources to prepare, if they have some help, if they can easily get a surprise, if the terrain is in their favor, etc... basically, if they have some sort of advantage... THEN it might be okay, but if it's meant to be a standard toe-to-toe encounter, then no. That's too much... in my opinion. Either find a way to lower the CR or give your players some help. As I suggested, I recommend making the final fight CR 21 vs. your APL 19 group.