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<blockquote data-quote="tomBitonti" data-source="post: 9466709" data-attributes="member: 13107">Adding the second banshee considerably worsens the players chances.If saves are 10% likely to be successful, the chances of two failures go from 1% to 3.6% if the number of banshees is increased from one to two.This issue of stacking saves is a problem of encounter design: There are big, non-linear increases in the chance of total failures.&nbsp; That is to say, adding a dozen more bugbears&nbsp; has a very different effect than adding a dozen harpies.&nbsp; Attacks add linearly to damage.&nbsp; Pass-fail saves add non-linearly.The lesson that I've learned is to avoid stacking save effects.&nbsp; Change the encounter from two banshees to one banshee plus another creature.Net:Result | 1B&nbsp; &nbsp; | 2B&nbsp; 1F1P | 0.18 | 0.3078&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 2F | 0.01 | 0.0361&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 2P | 0.81 | 0.6561One save, two characters, 10% failure chanceFF 0.01FP 0.09PF 0.09PP 0.811F1P = 0.182F = 0.012P = 0.81Two saves, two characters, 10% failure chancePPFF 0.0081PFFX 0.009FPXF 0.009FFXX 0.01PPPF 0.0729PPFP 0.0729FPXP 0.081PFPX 0.081PPPP 0.65611F1P = 0.30782F = 0.03612P = 0.6561TomB</blockquote>

[QUOTE="tomBitonti, post: 9466709, member: 13107"] Adding the second banshee considerably worsens the players chances. If saves are 10% likely to be successful, the chances of two failures go from 1% to 3.6% if the number of banshees is increased from one to two. This issue of stacking saves is a problem of encounter design: There are big, non-linear increases in the chance of total failures. That is to say, adding a dozen more bugbears has a very different effect than adding a dozen harpies. Attacks add linearly to damage. Pass-fail saves add non-linearly. The lesson that I've learned is to avoid stacking save effects. Change the encounter from two banshees to one banshee plus another creature. Net: Result | 1B | 2B 1F1P | 0.18 | 0.3078 2F | 0.01 | 0.0361 2P | 0.81 | 0.6561 One save, two characters, 10% failure chance FF 0.01 FP 0.09 PF 0.09 PP 0.81 1F1P = 0.18 2F = 0.01 2P = 0.81 Two saves, two characters, 10% failure chance PPFF 0.0081 PFFX 0.009 FPXF 0.009 FFXX 0.01 PPPF 0.0729 PPFP 0.0729 FPXP 0.081 PFPX 0.081 PPPP 0.6561 1F1P = 0.3078 2F = 0.0361 2P = 0.6561 TomB [/QUOTE]

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