So my group has four level 3s in it. What is an appropriate CR encounter for them? 1 single ogre since it is CR 3? Or is it 1 CR3 ogre for each player? How does it work exactly?
I'm trying to create encounters for my low level group, but I'm not sure how hard to make them...
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Equal CR is supposed to represent a challenge to a party that will consume roughly 20-25% of the parties resources for the day though YMMV . In general CR is a good guideline but you're going to have to vet most monsters/npcs against what your party can do. I find that for the most part an encounter with a CR 1-2 above a parties APL which in this case would be a CR4 or a CR5 is relatively appropriate to challenge a well built group, but not create high odds of player death.
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A CR equal to the level of a party of four adventurers is designed so that the party must give up approximately 25% of their resources to overcome said challenge. That's how I've always understood it. 25% could be resources, abilities, and maybe even one of the four characters' life.
Opinion: depending on how tough the characters are, I don't believe a CR at their level is challenging enough. I would throw 4 and maybe 5 their way for boss fights, especially in epic fantasy type campaigns.
Edit: Shame on me, being a minute too late.
There are some excellent guides out there regarding this. However here are the basics:
Your party (being 4 players of level 3, assuming they aren't extravagantly wealthy or statted) has an APL of 3. This means a CR 3 encounter is fairly easy for them, it consumes about 25% of their available resources. An encounter of +4 above them would be extremely difficult, considered "epic", and has a very high chance for deaths. The values in between represent moderate to more difficult fights.
As always keep in mind these are guide lines. If you grab a shadow demon and put it in the middle of a sunny field, it will most certainly not be its full CR. Equivalently monsters in their ideal surroundings might be considerably more difficult than their CR implies.
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Also adding multiples of a monster to an encounter doesn't scale the CR on a 1 to 1 scale for example 4 Ogres is equal cr to the base creature +4 or CR7 which would constitute a "deadly" encounter for your players.
All this information can be found in the Gamemastery section of the Core Rule under *Designing Encounters* pages 397 to 400.
The appendix of Bestiary 1 also has some CR guidelines for making your own creatures.
So my group has four level 3s in it. What is an appropriate CR encounter for them? 1 single ogre since it is CR 3? Or is it 1 CR3 ogre for each player? How does it work exactly?
Short answer: 1 CR 3 ogre should be an average encounter for the whole party.
This is an excellent guide if you prefer a more in depth analysis.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGj BMDg/edit
I lack Link-Fu
1 ogre (CR 3) is probably an easy encounter for a APL 3 party (4 PCs all level 3 = Avg Party Level (APL) 3).
2 ogres (CR 3 x2 = Encounter Level (EL) 5) would be a much more challenging encounter most likely.
3 ogres (CR 3 x3 = EL 6) could very likely result in a PC death (or two).
4 ogres (CR 3 x4 = EL 7 or APL+4) could very well end up being a TPK (total party kill). But it all depends on how the PCs are built, how they are played, and what their gear is like (wealth by level or WBL).
Good luck!
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This is an excellent guide if you prefer a more in depth analysis.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGj BMDg/edit
I lack Link-Fu
Link fixed. :-)