What is the APL of a level 1 Ranger?
Gamemastering: "Step 1—Determine APL: Determine the average level of your player characters—this is their Average Party Level (APL for short). You should round this value to the nearest whole number (this is one of the few exceptions to the round down rule). Note that these encounter creation guidelines assume a group of four or five PCs. If your group contains six or more players, add one to their average level. If your group contains three or fewer players, subtract one from their average level."
1 player at level 1 is average level 1.
Fewer than four players, -1.
Final APL: 0
"Step 2—Determine CR: Challenge Rating (or CR) is a convenient number used to indicate the relative danger presented by a monster, trap, hazard, or other encounter—the higher the CR, the more dangerous the encounter. Refer to Table: Encounter Design to determine the Challenge Rating your group should face, depending on the difficulty of the challenge you want and the group's APL."
Challenging difficulty Challenge Rating equals APL+1
"Step 3—Build the Encounter: Determine the total XP award for the encounter by looking it up by its CR on Table: Experience Point Awards. This gives you an “XP budget” for the encounter. Every creature, trap, and hazard is worth an amount of XP determined by its CR, as noted on Table: Experience Point Awards. To build your encounter, simply add creatures, traps, and hazards whose combined XP does not exceed the total XP budget for your encounter. It's easiest to add the highest CR challenges to the encounter first, filling out the remaining total with lesser challenges."
A CR 1 encounter has a budget of 400 XP.
You could have a single CR 1 creature (like a Giant Frog, or a Gnoll) or two CR 1/2 creatures, like a pair of weasels. And so on.
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While I agree with Grick's interpretation of the RAW, I remeber a discussion on the boards regarding how APL and CR interrelate.
A party of 4 level 2 adventurers would have a total exp value of 1600xp (2nd level PC class NPC would be CR1 or 400exps, times 4 gives you 1600exps)
A Epic encounter for this party would be CR5 (APL+3) or 1600exps. So it seems that an epic encounter for a party of adventurers is an equal buy of monster experience.
So a level 1 character is CR 1/2 or 200exps. So your party buy for an Epic encounter is 200exps or CR1/2.
From this assumption I would work encounters back like this:
Easy CR1/8 (50exps)
Average CR1/6 (65exps)
Challenging CR1/4 (100exps)
Hard CR1/3 (135exps)
Epic CR1/2 (200exps)
This might leave you with difficulty finding appropriate encounters, but think of how your level 1 ranger might fair against 3 orcs, which is about what a 400exp encounter would look like if you follow the strict guidelines...
A party of 4 level 2 adventurers would have a total exp value of 1600xp (2nd level PC class NPC would be CR1 or 400exps, times 4 gives you 1600exps)
Are you talking about an encounter with a party of four 2nd-lv class NPCs? If so, it would be CR 5, yes.
A Epic encounter for this party would be CR5 (APL+3) or 1600exps. So it seems that an epic encounter for a party of adventurers is an equal buy of monster experience.
You lost me.
If you're talking about a party of four 2nd-level PCs, they don't have a CR, they have an APL. Their APL would be 4. An Epic difficulty encounter is APL +3 so the CR of an Epic encounter for that party would be CR 8, an XP budget of 4,800.
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What is the APL of a level 1 Ranger? Trying to plan an encounter for a solo PC and need to know what CR I should be shooting for...
Thanks
Hey, Rugen.
The problem you're going to run into with a level 1 character is that even a single lucky hit from a bad guy, regardless of CR, can likely take him out. There's kind of a "sudden death" effect going on.
The CR/APL system really breaks down at very low levels like this, since it's really outside the normal, designed play environment. You start running into serious "action economy" problems. For example, a CR 1 encounter with kobolds will have 4 kobolds vs. your PCs. If it's a solo PC, then you're dealing with 4 attacks a round vs. 1. Even if your PC kills a kobold every round, you'll get (4+3+2+1) 10 attacks off on him. You've got good odds of getting at least one hit on your solo player.
What I would recommend is either:
a) Give your PC his 2nd-level hit points at first level, then no additional hit points at 2nd
- or -
b) Go ahead and bump him to level 2.
Doing either of these will give you the opportunity to throw a CR1 or CR1/2 encounter at him and be pretty sure he's not going to get killed in a single hit.
A party of 4 level 2 adventurers would have a total exp value of 1600xp (2nd level PC class NPC would be CR1 or 400exps, times 4 gives you 1600exps)Are you talking about an encounter with a party of four 2nd-lv class NPCs? If so, it would be CR 5, yes.
A Epic encounter for this party would be CR5 (APL+3) or 1600exps. So it seems that an epic encounter for a party of adventurers is an equal buy of monster experience.You lost me.
If you're talking about a party of four 2nd-level PCs, they don't have a CR, they have an APL. Their APL would be 4. An Epic difficulty encounter is APL +3 so the CR of an Epic encounter for that party would be CR 8, an XP budget of 4,800.
He's saying take 4 2nd level characters.
IF they are PCs then they are APL 2. An epic encounter for them is CR=APL+3=5.
IF they are NPCs then they are CR 5.
This math holds true regardless of what level you are looking at. In other words, for any party, an epic encounter is going to be an encounter worth exactly as much experience to them as they would be worth to the encounter if the encounter killed them. An epic encounter is a fair fight.
So, when designing encounters for a group of other than 4 players, you can use the general guidelines of +/-1 APL, or get more specific and accurate by budgeting according to the XP value/CR rating the party would have if they were an encounter.
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Often my explanations are only clear to myself...
Basically if you look at the equivalent NPC value of your APL you get an Epic encounter.
Thus:
4 2nd level PC's APL=2
4 2nd level NPC's = 1600exps or CR5
Epic encounter = APL+3 or CR5 in this case
Thus if you fight yourself or something equivalent it equates to an Epic encounter.
I just worked that back for 1 PC and the equivalent Exp value.
As I stated though, your way is how its written in the book, mines just an expansion of the assumed maths, which I saw explained on another post.
If you're talking about a party of four 2nd-level PCs .... Their APL would be 4.
Wrong!
I got my fours and twos mixed up and confused myself. *rolls percentile* 30!
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Solo PCs are great to plan encounters for, because you can tailor the encounter to the PC's strengths and really give them a chance to shine. Also remember that they're not going to be splitting the XP they get, so they'll be leveling up quicker too.
Solo PCs also have the advantage of moving along at their own prefered pace. With a Ranger, for example, the character has a great opportunity to make the most out of stuff like Stealth, Climb and Acrobatics to get himself into an advantageous position - things which you often don't do in a party because it's seen as slowing play down. In low-level games in particular, a well-played solo PC can actually often do better than a group facing the exact same encounters - which seems counter-intuitive, but more opportunity to use effective planning and tactics, coupled with not being burdened by fellow party members which are guaranteed to (by accident or design) make your life difficult if you try to use those tactics, can be a winning combination.
Just don't go out of your way to target the guy's weaknesses since, with solo play, that's pretty close to just dropping rocks on the poor chap...