Encounter Management
Encounter+ is a great way to manage any combat encounter. It’s designed to quickly add creatures or NPCs as well Player Characters on the fly. It’s also designed to keep track of various conditions both positive and negative for each creature and Player in an encounter.
What is an Encounter?
An encounter is a collection of creatures assembled for the intent of going up against your player characters. An encounter is not part of a map. It’s a stand alone “object” that you can use with a map but techinically it is not part of the map. We keep enounters decoupled to provide flexibility. Using this approach allows you to mix and match encounters with maps. You can use any encounter with any map.
Example: Let’s say that you create an encounter with 3 Kobolds named “Kobold Kandy” and you have two different maps with forest settings. You don’t have to create an encounter for each map. You can load the same encounter, “Kobold Kandy”, into both maps as you see fit. This modular approach gives the DM maximum flexibility on the fly!
Creating an Encounter
Add Creatures and Player Characters:
- Tap
Encounter+.
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Choose between the following:
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Monster or NPC: This will open the built-in Compendium for all the creatures stored within Encounter+.
Note: The only creatures included in the Compendium are from the Systems Reference Document in compliance with Wizards of the Coast Open Gaming License v1.0a.
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Player Character: This will add any Player Characters that have been added to the Encounter+ Compendium.
Note: Players can be added to the Compendium via tapping on the
icon in the top right of the app.
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Party from Campaign: This will add whole parties of Player Characters if they have been added to a particular campaign in the Compendium.
Note: Player Characters can be added to a campaign by tapping on the campaign in the Compendium
. Then tap the Edit button to add Players to that particular campaign. This gives one-tap capability to add groups of PCs.
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Tap on a creature or Player Character in the Compendium to see the description. All the stats and abilities of that creature or Player Character are viewable before insertion. Tap the
to add that creature or Player Character.
Note: The
can be tapped multiple times to add several of the same creature to a combat encounter.
Starting Combat
Note that the difficulty of the encounter is at the bottom of the app interface. This will allow customization of the size of the encounter to best suit the Player Characters.
Tap to start the encounter. This will roll initiative for all the enemies in the encounter. Note that the initiative settings can be changed by tapping on the
icon in the top left of the app interface. This customizes how initiative is rolled for the creatures in the combat.
Note: By default the app doesn’t roll initiative for the Player Characters. If desired, the app can roll for the PCs as well. Tap on the and change that setting.
Managing Combat
- Manage the encounter by tapping on the
icon.
- For Player Characters, manually add their initiative into the Initiative block if the app is not rolling for their characters.
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Creature and character health are tracked here as well. Tap on the creatures health and type in the amount of damage that creature has taken into the Damage Calculator. It will automatically subtract. Tap anywhere on the screen to dismiss the Damage Calculator.
Note: Tap on the MOD button in the Damage Calculator to change the number to healing as opposed to damage.
- Once combat has started you can edit or change the conditions of the creatures by swiping from right to left on the creature in the initiative order.
- Tapping the
tool will give the ability to name, change label, hide, adjust HP, or adjust light of that creature. Additional notes can also be added if desired.
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Tapping on the ![Condition][icon-condition] tool will allow you to add conditions to the creature. Additional Custom Descriptions can be written in. The duration and source of the condition can also be added in if relevant.
Note: Once conditions are added they can be tapped on under the creature in the Initiative Order to see the effects of that conditional as well as delete when necessary.
- Tapping on the
in the bottom right corner of the app interface once the Combat has started will highlight the next or previous creature in the initiative order to keep track of turns.
Ending Combat
Once the combat has concluded, tap the button in the lower left corner of the interface and the combat will end. Combat can be resumed if the
button is tapped and combat will resume where the initiative last left off.
Note: Combat can be toggled on or off at will. Combat does have to be stopped in order to add additional creatures to the combat. When is tapped there is an option to re-roll initiative. Tap Later if combat is to be resumed without re-rolling initiative.
Saving Encounters and Maps
Tapping the button will save this encounter or map for later use.
- Encounter will save all stats and conditions.
- Map will save any changes to the map including Fog of War and drawings, as well as the creatures’ locations.
The saved encounter or map can then be accessed in the Compendium . Tapping the
will load the encounter or map.