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<blockquote data-quote="dkyle" data-source="post: 5855636" data-attributes="member: 70707"><p>If we assume a simple system where there's a set Adventure XP pool, and monsters have a set XP, and that's it (which is what I think Mike was going for), ignore unquantifiable things like ambush setups and terrain advantage, and assume the game looks anything like any edition of D&D, I don't see how 10 100XP encounters could be anywhere close to similarly as challenging (or resource consumptive) as 1 1000XP encounter. Facing 10 times as many monsters all at once is just inherently massively more difficult than facing them one at a time. It's not due to Encounter powers. A 4E "Encounter" could be built as 10 waves of 100XP, and it would still be trivial compared to the 1000XP all at once Encounter. DMG2 advises as such, that a Wave-structured encounter should have more total XP to be challenging.</p><p></p><p>I feel like this is self-evident, but I'll give an example. Suppose we expect that the party can kill one monster per round (and assume a simple per-side initiative). Assume 10 identical monsters, each dealing D damage per round.</p><p></p><p>In the 10 separate monsters case, we can expect 5*D damage dealt to the party. Half those encounters, the party goes first, and kills the monster without taking damage. Other half, the monster gets in 1*D of damage.</p><p></p><p>In the one big combat case, we can expect 9.5*D the first round (50% chance of killing one monster first, so .5*D, rest get in 9*D), 8.5*D the second, and so on. This comes out to 44.5*D damage. Almost 9 times as much expected damage as the 10 encounters case. Or 90 times more than a one lone-monster encounter.</p><p></p><p>Now, obviously, this is an idealized scenario. There might be AoEs available to kill more at once, and party damage absorption isn't the only resource that might be drained. But it illustrates the issue. Dealing with 10 monsters at once simply isn't as resource intensive as dealing with them individually, unless the game deviates radically from traditional D&D (i.e., all PC attacks being AoE, covering all enemies at all times, and/or all PC attacks being a finite resource, while healing is infinite).</p><p></p><p>This isn't a 4E issue. Take any edition of D&D, and the players would be fools to attack 10 monsters at once, instead of picking them off one at a time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dkyle, post: 5855636, member: 70707"] If we assume a simple system where there's a set Adventure XP pool, and monsters have a set XP, and that's it (which is what I think Mike was going for), ignore unquantifiable things like ambush setups and terrain advantage, and assume the game looks anything like any edition of D&D, I don't see how 10 100XP encounters could be anywhere close to similarly as challenging (or resource consumptive) as 1 1000XP encounter. Facing 10 times as many monsters all at once is just inherently massively more difficult than facing them one at a time. It's not due to Encounter powers. A 4E "Encounter" could be built as 10 waves of 100XP, and it would still be trivial compared to the 1000XP all at once Encounter. DMG2 advises as such, that a Wave-structured encounter should have more total XP to be challenging. I feel like this is self-evident, but I'll give an example. Suppose we expect that the party can kill one monster per round (and assume a simple per-side initiative). Assume 10 identical monsters, each dealing D damage per round. In the 10 separate monsters case, we can expect 5*D damage dealt to the party. Half those encounters, the party goes first, and kills the monster without taking damage. Other half, the monster gets in 1*D of damage. In the one big combat case, we can expect 9.5*D the first round (50% chance of killing one monster first, so .5*D, rest get in 9*D), 8.5*D the second, and so on. This comes out to 44.5*D damage. Almost 9 times as much expected damage as the 10 encounters case. Or 90 times more than a one lone-monster encounter. Now, obviously, this is an idealized scenario. There might be AoEs available to kill more at once, and party damage absorption isn't the only resource that might be drained. But it illustrates the issue. Dealing with 10 monsters at once simply isn't as resource intensive as dealing with them individually, unless the game deviates radically from traditional D&D (i.e., all PC attacks being AoE, covering all enemies at all times, and/or all PC attacks being a finite resource, while healing is infinite). This isn't a 4E issue. Take any edition of D&D, and the players would be fools to attack 10 monsters at once, instead of picking them off one at a time. [/QUOTE]
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