#so in a normal campaign youd prolly want less enemies and not to give your CR 1/8 enemies a cantrip that does 1d8 damage

[henchmaxxing]

DM quick tip: 1 hour of combat equals 1 post-it note

What you need on the post-it note:

an objective for the hour (save villagers by stopping the sacrifice)

Number of enemies and of which kind

what happens if the players succeed (cultists will try to complete the ritual using themselves as sacrifices)

what happens if the players fail (fiend summoned)

General timing of the fight (whether the sacrifice is attempted on the first or second round of combat)

whether there is anything special about the enemies (cultists have Produce Flame cantrip)

what loot is awarded, if any (ceremonial dagger). loot can also be information

This works for if you have fights longer than an hour as well, you just have to split the larger fight into phases with separate but related objectives

The example above is actually about double what I usually write, because the monday game has a fluctuating number of players (usually 3-9) that I have to account for