FYI, the numbers haven't changed between the preview and the DMG. So the system is still valid !
Just a word about the thresholds : they work fine in practice for lower levels. At higher level, thresholds get shifted a bit and become 35% for easy, 55% for medium and 75% for hard.
Not such a...
I'm not yet to the point where I may advocate how to attribute XP to players according to encounter difficulty. I leave this for the DMG as I will probably use the milestone system for myself.
One word about the last suggestion by Sadras. I'm quite puzzled by the thresholds in the Basic rules...
Thanks to all for your comments (and noticing the typo), and especially to Dnddungeoneer for the pdf, it's just awesome ! I'll link it in front page.
Perhaps I shall have said that the math is not here to prevent the cool. Just to help the DM figure out how well (or how badly) the PC may handle...
First, I would like to stress that I love the way 5E is going up to now. A lot of effort was put to provide a game that is both rich in possibilities and at the same time simple to run. Well done ! However, when it comes to encounter building, there is a huge level of complexity which gets added...
The trouble while trying to "fix" the XP rating is that there is no universal way of doing this. In 5E, there is no generic rule for XP progression, the encounter XP represent more or less the strength of the PC at a given level, but from this you can't infer how long they should spend in one...
I fully agree, the system is broken for monster groups (or player parties) with significant CR (or level) difference. One CR 17 death knight and 3 CR 1/4 skeleton are not as dangerous as a CR 21 lich ! From my understanding of the system, it should only be counted as a CR18-like encounter.
The...
I ran for myself a meta-analysis of Paizo's customers comments. It strangely agrees with my own perspective, so I give you the ranking as well as my comments. The higher the number, the better.
9./10. Rise of the Rune Lords. Agree, awsome stuff. Didn't need too much tinkering to suit my needs...
3 lizards men and a shaman : 1500 excounter XP
3 lizards men and 4 crocodiles : 1750 encounter XP. Plus : the shaman is not yet dead (but your PCs probably will be in a minute)
So definitively XP should be awarded for the crocs if they have no way to dispel or impede the conjuration.
It is rather unfortunate that with a so nice overall design the encounter system looks so intricated in 5E …
I hope that they will come with good tips in the DMG on how to avoid intensive math while still designing interesting encounters.
A good rule of thumb is to say that monster CR...