Number of players, ELs, XP awards.. huh?

[Aus_Snow]

I must be having a blond moment.

Where does D&D 3.5 tell me how to figure out the ways that the things in the subject heading (minus the 'huh?') go together?

Like say, if I had a group of 9 players, how would the basic rules of ELs and XP awards change? 2 players? 8? 3? . . . etc. etc.

Or is it that there're no rules for this kind of thing in (for example) the DMG?


I've never thought about it 'officially', you see, but now I really want to know!

 

[Thanee]

EL is based on 4 characters... the easiest way to figure an appropriate encounter is to adjust the number of opponents accordingly, i.e. double them for 8 characters; for 9 it's about the same, with a little extra, i.e. bumping up some of the opponents a little (like +1 CR or an extra HD or two here and there).

XP rules don't change at all.

It's all explained in the DMG. Admittedly, it's a bit confusing, though.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Philip]

They don't change.

EL (and CR) is not dependent upon the composition of the party of PCs (either in level or in number), so it never changes even thought there might be 2,3 or 8 PCs.

The rules for XP also stay the same. If you have more PCs, you just divide the XP by a larger number. In a party of 8 PCs, each gets 1/8th share of the full XP.

Regardless of the amount of PCs or level of other PCs in the party, you begin by calculating the full XP for a single PC by cross-referecing the level of the PC with CR of the opponent in the XP chart. Then divide by number of PCs present. That's all there is to it. It looks much more complicated than it really is.

 

[Aus_Snow]

It's all explained in the DMG. Admittedly, it's a bit confusing, though.

Er. :\

Normally it probably wouldn't be. It's just that someone called me on it, and I actually had no idea how I was working things out, that I could convey at the time, anyway.

And XP rules? No, I don't know what I was thinking of there.

As I said, I'm not really with it. I suppose I should wait until moments where I am, before posting.

Sorry.

 

[moritheil]

Try this link if you don't like calculating such things by hand.

 

[Thanee]

They don't change.

EL (and CR) is not dependent upon the composition of the party of PCs (either in level or in number), so it never changes even thought there might be 2,3 or 8 PCs.

Yup, that's right. Wasn't quite clear about that above.

The EL is just based on what is encountered, regardless of who encounters it.

Since the EL is normally based on 4 characters, to figure out what EL would be appropriate for a different size party, you could do what I have written above.

Basically for 9 characters (actually 8 characters, but 9 is close enough, if combat encounters are too easy, just tweak them up a little) you pick an EL of 2 higher than what you would use for 4 characters (+2 EL roughly equals a doubling in numbers).

But it's usually better to simply up the numbers of the opposition accordingly, which, of course, will result in the +2 EL in most cases, because that's how things work with those encounter levels and increasing numbers.

Single opponents of a higher CR, while also appropriate for the higher EL, are usually not such a good idea.

Bye
Thanee

 

[haiiro]

Try this link if you don't like calculating such things by hand.

Straight to del.icio.us with you! That's an excellent link -- thank you.