Solos: Using AP for the BIG ESCAPE

[Asmor]

The factors that determine how much a threat an opponent represents are so varied and difficult to nail down (and chief among them are non-game-design issues like party composition and character builds, as well as how the opponent is played/used by the GM) that any system of codifying threat level will necessarily be crude.

This is true of 3E's CR/EL system, and it's just as true of 4E's XP assignments.

Well, 3e's CRs weren't based on any arbitrary number, but rather were based on playtesting the monster and seeing how difficult it was against a "standard" party. In that sense, while still crude, 3e's system was at least based on how the monster played.

4e's system is completely agnostic to how the monster plays. You could make a level 1 minion with an at-will dominate and it would still be worth as much xp as a minion whose attack just damaged a player, even though the domination minion is much, much more powerful. I'm not saying you should do that, just that you can. For that matter, you could make a level 1 minion with all defenses, attacks and damages = eleventy billion.

3e's system made you create the monster and then rate it; 4e's system requires you to decide what rating of monster you want and then design according to guidelines.

 

[CharlesRyan]

3e's system made you create the monster and then rate it; 4e's system requires you to decide what rating of monster you want and then design according to guidelines.

I agree with what you're saying, but I come to a different conclusion; if anything, I think the 4E approach probably yields more accurate results.

The 3E system might have been better if the playtesting actually happened, but generally it didn't (or didn't happen enough for the outcome to be meaningful).

In the end, though, I think this is splitting hairs a bit. Given differences in party composition, encounter composition, character power choice, and play and GMing style, any assessment of a creature's "challenge" will be a very crude guide at best--no matter how mechanically accurate it is. And I think that's fine.