48-point buy

[D'karr]

Umm, maxing out HP's and 50% more monsters/encounter is automatically bumping their EL's by at least +1. Probably +2 in some cases with the high HD critters. Effectively, you're using EL +2 for 70% of your encounters.

Yes maybe it does. The benefit is that I don't have to start trying to calculate bumps for the creatures to match EL + X. This simple solution has worked without having to bump many things to make it work. It also has the added benefit of keeping the XP and Treasure values at the same level for the characters. Their challenge is conmesurate with their reward and advancement is not artificially inflated.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

It's +2 ELs in nearly every case. Minimum +1.5 ELs.

Adding 50% to the number of monsters in an encounter is +1 EL straight-up. (No need to fudge or anything, that's how ELs are explicitly calculated. One fighter 2 is an EL 2, two fighter 2s are EL 4 and three fighter 2s are EL 5. Doubling the number is a +2 EL modifier; adding 50% is a +1 EL modifier).

Giving the monsters max hit points is not quite as straightforward an EL modifier, but it may be considered roughly similar to using the elite stat array (rather than default stat array like all non-classed MM critters) which is also a +1 CR modifier (and which therefore works out to a +1 EL modifier if applied across the board to every creature in an encounter).

Umm, maxing out HP's and 50% more monsters/encounter is automatically bumping their EL's by at least +1. Probably +2 in some cases with the high HD critters. Effectively, you're using EL +2 for 70% of your encounters.