In which we get circular with the action economy, encounter balance, magic items and the action economy

 The steepest learning curve when I made my foray back into D&D was absorbing all the nuances with the action economy.  And I'm sure I'm still absorbing but the WORST of it has been realized and I'm dealing with it.  Here are the problems I'm cramming into this post - how do magic items impact party level for using CR to achieve encounter balance and what role does the action economy play therein?

As a baseline, I rely on the Sly Flourish encounter benchmark.  This will tell me roughly what CR the "bbg" would be to be deadly, hard, etc.  The PROBLEM was I was taking THAT number and plugging in a relevant creature to be that bbg.  And they were getting thumped in short order, largely because each character could do four things each while the bbg could only do four things.  Period.  Even with a lair action they were slammed.  

So here's my first modifier:  once the formula determines the suggested CR I cut it in half.  THAT'S my bbg.  The OTHER half I divide by the number of party members so that each of them "gets a minion" to oppose. My favorite use of this was a vrock accompanied by a handful of quasits.  Good combat variety and the party had their hands full fighting not just the vrock but the action economy problems presented by a handful of minions.  As deadly as those ancient red dragons are they can be action economied to death quite quickly.  But a young red dragon with four wyrmlings is a MUCH tougher problem.  So suggested CR, divided by 2 to get the bbg, and divided again by party number to get supporting cast.  Hat tip to Ginny Di for her recent vid which kinda got this ball rolling in my head

The OTHER problem that I recently brushed up against is that is SEEMS that everybodys encounter balance guide is based on party/character level per se, but doesn't really incorporate magic items.  Example:  my current party has thee 2nd lvls and a 4th.  That's a total of 10.  A suggested deadly encounter would be a 2.5.  So an ankheg or a basilisk.  But what if your barbarian has a +2 weapon, your rogue's AC is buffed and one of your casters has a staff of X that increases it's DPR.  It's no longer an average of 2.5.  Closer to 3.5 or better.  That ankheg is now quite a bit easier.  The basilisk isn't the bbg it was GOING to be and maybe a banshee or barghest would be more threatening.  Lesson here is that IF the party is perhaps "overmagiced" you'll need to juice that CR suggestion a bit.  IMHO this is where many of the complaints about CR and encounter balance originate.

Edit to add:  OK - HERE'S an interesting solution I'm gonna play around with a bit:  Trekiros recently began popping up in my suggested playlist and here are TOW vids related to this topic - first the intro to a new aid and the second reviews some updates.  Here's a link to the tool.

To recap (TL:DNR): almost ALWAYS use multiple opponents for that deadly encounter and juice the CR to allow for magic items.  And if you use that tool, drop in here and leave a comment!