Sometimes you want to use an adversary but they’re too powerful (or not powerful enough) for your party’s tier. Or you might want to replace a feature or two, then present them as an entirely different creature. When planning your session (or even mid-session), you can adjust an existing adversary’s stat block to fit the needs of your battle.

When you’re mid-session and you realize you need a new adversary, don’t sweat. You can quickly adjust a stat block to a different tier by replacing its existing statistics with those listed on the Improvised Statistics by Tier table, using the column that corresponds to your party’s tier.

Improvised Statistics by Tier

Adjusting Between Tiers

If you’re moving an adversary from Tiers 1 or 2 to Tiers 3 or 4, you’ll want to consider raising their HP and Stress by 1–3 points depending on how long you want them to last in the battle and how many Stress-based features they have. Also keep an eye out for features that deal a different amount of damage than the adversary’s standard attack, as those might need some adjustment, as well.

If you feel comfortable inventing an adversary’s features on the fly, you can even improvise a completely new adversary using these statistics.

Using this guidance won’t always make the adversary a perfect match for the PCs at your table, but it’ll reduce the chances of you unexpectedly overwhelming the party (or the PCs defeating your Solo adversary with just a few rolls).

Adding or Changing Features

When scaling an adversary to a higher tier, consider adding a new feature to make them a greater threat instead of just scaling up the damage and Difficulty of their existing features. Similarly, if scaling down to a lower tier, consider removing one of the adversary’s most powerful or impactful features.

Improvising Hordes, Minions, and Solos

If you’re improvising a Horde, Minion, or Solo adversary, keep in mind that their power levels are very different from other adversaries’. The following guidance can help you create these adversaries on the fly:

Horde: Their standard attack should deal high damage, then reduce (roughly by half) when the Horde has marked half or more of their HP.

Minion: Give them a flat damage value for their standard attack, usually between 1 and 5, and use that value for their “Group Attack” feature. You’ll also set the value of their “Minion” feature, determining how much damage is needed to defeat additional Minions in one attack. This is usually between 3 and 15, depending on the adversary’s tier.

Solo : Give them high damage, high HP, and features that let them act more frequently (like “Relentless”) or deal area-of-effect damage.