Encounter calculator
Is this fight fair?
Add your party and the foes. The calculator uses the D&D 2024 or 2014 XP rules. It is free and needs no sign-in.
Free D&D Encounter Builder and Generator
Generate balanced combat and roleplay encounters with auto-computed difficulty, terrain, objectives, and tactics. Built for D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, and Savage Worlds.
Free D&D Encounter Builder and Generator
Generate balanced combat and roleplay encounters with auto-computed difficulty, terrain, objectives, and tactics. Built for D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, and Savage Worlds.
Generate a bundle of related content?
Build related people, places and encounters around one shared premise, with the relationships already connected.
Built into every result
What This D&D Encounter Builder and Generator Creates
Balance That Holds
Difficulty is computed deterministically per system and recomputed live whenever you change the foe list, so the meter never drifts from what is on the table.
Combat or Conversation
Pick combat for a tactical card with zones, objectives, and tactics, or roleplay for a social scene with goals, a clock, leverage, and disclosures.
Built From Your World
Link the Monsters, NPCs, Hazards, and Loot you already generated, and the encounter deep-links back to each so prep stays connected.
Practical guidance
How to Use the D&D Encounter Builder and Generator
The best encounters ask the party to make decisions beyond dealing damage. State the objective, the changing pressure and what failure alters in the campaign.
Give both sides a goal that can change during play.
Use terrain that creates choices rather than passive decoration.
Plan an outcome for success, retreat and partial failure.
Before you generate
D&D Encounter Builder and Generator Questions
Which systems are supported?
D&D 5e (2024 and 2014 rules), Pathfinder 2e, and Savage Worlds (SWADE). The first three compute an XP or point budget, and SWADE returns a ratio guide instead of a number.
How is difficulty calculated?
Deterministically by the tool, not the AI. Each system uses its own budget table plus a Lazy Benchmark second opinion on the d20 editions, recomputed every time the foe list changes.
Is the encounter generator free to use?
Yes. Generating an encounter is free for every account. Premium subscribers can also edit the generated encounter and use richer models for the supporting art.
Is this an encounter builder or an encounter generator?
Both. Describe the fight or name the foes you want, and it builds a balanced encounter with an XP budget, terrain and tactics. Premium subscribers can change the foe list afterwards, and the difficulty updates to match.
How does the 2024 (5.5e) encounter calculator work?
For the 2024 rules it adds up the XP budget of each character at their level for Low, Moderate and High difficulty, then adds up the XP of every foe and shows where the fight lands. For the 2014 rules it uses the XP thresholds and the multiplier for the number of foes.
Is there a free 5e encounter calculator with no sign-in?
Yes. The encounter calculator above the generator is free and needs no account. Pick the D&D 2024 or 2014 rules. Set your party's size and level. Then add each foe by challenge rating and count. It names the difficulty and shows the XP behind it: the foes' total XP under the 2024 rules, or the adjusted XP after the foe-count multiplier under the 2014 rules. Generate this encounter then fills the generator form with the same party and foes. Pathfinder 2e and Savage Worlds difficulty is in the generator only.
Is it a random encounter generator?
Yes. Leave the Encounter Description empty and each run gives you a fully random encounter for the system, party level, party size and difficulty you set. To steer it, describe the setup, the foes or the stakes in a sentence. For a social scene instead of a fight, pick Roleplay mode.
Related generators
Keep building your world
The short answer
What is the CharGen Encounter Generator?
The CharGen Encounter Generator is an AI tool that builds run-at-the-table combat and roleplay encounters for tabletop RPG sessions in one pass. Each generated encounter includes a title, read-aloud opener, stakes, a foe list with roles and counts, a battlefield of zones and terrain levers, an objective, win and lose triggers, per-creature tactics, complications, and scaling notes for weaker or stronger parties.
Unlike static encounter tables, difficulty is computed deterministically by the tool, not the AI, so the meter always matches what is on the table. The first three systems return an XP or point budget plus a Lazy Benchmark second opinion, while Savage Worlds returns a ratio guide. Above the generator sits a free encounter calculator that needs no sign-in. It takes your party's size and level and each foe's challenge rating and count. It shows how hard the fight is under the D&D 2024 or 2014 rules. Encounters link the Monsters, NPCs, Hazards, and Loot you already generated through the World Codex, and share as public pages that hide the roleplay disclosures you reveal at the table. Generating an encounter is free for every account; premium subscribers can edit it after generation.
Compare alternatives
Compare generation depth, editing controls and how each tool fits into campaign prep. These field reports are based on current public features and hands-on testing.
How CharGen's encounter generator compares to other tools.
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