CR and encounter rules

[northbrb]

I need some help with designing my own AP. when figuring the CR of enemies in an encounter how do i make sure not to make it too hard. what should the CR or a single monster be vs a party of 3, is it equal to the level of the party? what about a group of enemies, do i add their CR's together to match the level of the party? what about an enemy with class levels, how much higher should the bad guys level be than the 3 man party's level?

[Weables]

Honestly, theres some good reading in the players guide, that you don't seem to have read.

check this out, then ask questions.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering

[northbrb]

thanks

[northbrb]

I mstill left wondering about a BBEG who has class levels, if he has all class levels then what levle should he be compared to the parties level.

[Blackpawn]

northbrb wrote:

I mstill left wondering about a BBEG who has class levels, if he has all class levels then what levle should he be compared to the parties level.

Unfortunately there's no hard and fast "always do it this way" sort of rule because of the uniqueness of parties. A party of level X will have completely different abilities from another party of the same level. You could have a 10th level BBEG that totally roflstomps one party of level 7 folks and pwipes them, while he could end up dying in round 2 from a different group of level 7's.

Things to take into consideration when designing your BBEG fight:
Is the party a combat-oriented build?
Are they melee heavy or ranged heavy?
Are they spellcaster heavy?
Can they throw out lots of control and status effects?
Do they have ways of cleansing bad effects from themselves?

You need to know your players' capabilities and then adjust from there. When tweaking encounters with a BBEG and his minions I usually figure out expected DPR from melee and ranged combat characters and then adjust the fights based upon the availability (or not) of control effects and area effects.

Doing it that way has worked for me in the past, but it requires a lot of homework on your side to get it right. And that's not to say that I haven't been surprised by clever characters "outwitting" my carefully prepared encounter or by swings of luck one way or the other.