If you have an encounter of, say, 2 CR 2 creatures and a CR 3 creature, what would be the EL (Encounter Level)? 2 CR 2 creatures add up to a CR 4 encounter, but if you add the XP's gained for a CR 3 and a CR 4, it comes up to 2000 xp's, which is right between a CR 5 and a CR 6. So, do you round up or down in such a situation? On a related question, and I know this was asked on another thread, but is it possible to get a peek at how a monster with racial HD and class levels is handled? I have the Bestiary on preorder, but I'm running a campaign now, and I am hoping for a little help from Paizo on how to handle this.
If you have an encounter of, say, 2 CR 2 creatures and a CR 3 creature, what would be the EL (Encounter Level)? 2 CR 2 creatures add up to a CR 4 encounter, but if you add the XP's gained for a CR 3 and a CR 4, it comes up to 2000 xp's, which is right between a CR 5 and a CR 6. So, do you round up or down in such a situation? On a related question, and I know this was asked on another thread, but is it possible to get a peek at how a monster with racial HD and class levels is handled? I have the Bestiary on preorder, but I'm running a campaign now, and I am hoping for a little help from Paizo on how to handle this.
I always understood CR + (CR +1) to equal (CR +2), thus 2x CR2 + CR3 = CR4 + CR3 = CR5. To put it another way, since 2x CR = (CR +2), CR2 + CR2 + CR3 = CR2 + CR4 = CR5.
Creative Director
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If you have an encounter of, say, 2 CR 2 creatures and a CR 3 creature, what would be the EL (Encounter Level)? 2 CR 2 creatures add up to a CR 4 encounter, but if you add the XP's gained for a CR 3 and a CR 4, it comes up to 2000 xp's, which is right between a CR 5 and a CR 6. So, do you round up or down in such a situation? On a related question, and I know this was asked on another thread, but is it possible to get a peek at how a monster with racial HD and class levels is handled? I have the Bestiary on preorder, but I'm running a campaign now, and I am hoping for a little help from Paizo on how to handle this.
The way I handle it in the adventures we publish, I just round to the nearest CR category once things are all added up.
On a similar line of thought, would people recommend awarding experience based on the CR of the encounter, or based on the individual monsters?
Right now I'm running Rise of the Runelords and converting it as I go into the Pathfinder RPG. When I did a quick run down of the experience totals in both 3.5 and Pathfinder it looked like on average awarding based on the encounter gave less xp than awarding based on the creatures.
This varies of course, especially since the Pathfinder RPG lowered the CR of a number of the creatures because of the CR = Levels - 1 for PC classes.
From what I remember, it seemed like the use of EL was primarily to balance out what the party could reasonably handle in a single sitting (between rests). Apart from possible alterations to the amount of xp awarded due to special circumstances, encounter vs. individual monsters should be roughly equal.
For now, I'm probably going to stick with what I have been doing for consistency, but I'm curious to know how other people handle things.
On a similar line of thought, would people recommend awarding experience based on the CR of the encounter, or based on the individual monsters?
I'd award it based on the CR of the individual monsters. If the monsters add up to 500 XP (halfway between a CR 1 and a CR 2 monster), this really is a EL "1.5" encounter (assuming the CR/EL/XP system works): it's harder than a CR 1 monster but easier than a CR 2. So the PCs should get appropriate experience.
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On a similar line of thought, would people recommend awarding experience based on the CR of the encounter, or based on the individual monsters?I'd award it based on the CR of the individual monsters. If the monsters add up to 500 XP (halfway between a CR 1 and a CR 2 monster), this really is a EL "1.5" encounter (assuming the CR/EL/XP system works): it's harder than a CR 1 monster but easier than a CR 2. So the PCs should get appropriate experience.
The great thing about the Pathfinder RPG XP system is that you don't have to worry about how "the PCs should get appropriate experience." They will get appropriate experience: 600 for each of the CR 2s, and 800 for the CR 3. The only place where you have to worry about EL at all is when you use it as a guideline to how well your PCs are likely to do when they face the encounter; the XP end of things is already taken care of.