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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NotAYakk" data-source="post: 7937493" data-attributes="member: 72555">problem is it fails to state a lot of deadly encounters are deadly.The problem is that XP percents and CR percents are not the same.  Deadly is 2x medium in XP, but it is more like x1.5 in CR.I made the same error many times, and I think Mike has as well.See, 2 CR 7s are already deadly, but his system only triggers at 3 of them.  2 CR 6s are close to deadly, but in his system they are miles away.No, adding CR type balancing doesn't need the encounter size multiplier.The encounter size multiplier is needed because XP isn't linear in CR, but closer to quadratic.  Challenge is pretty close to linear in CR, and adding CR is a really easy way to get within a step or two of the real challenge.This isn't the exact math, but imagine XP = CR^2 * 100.Take two monsters CR 5.  They are worth 2500 XP each, and add up to 5000 XP.  We then encounter size multiplier of x2 for 10,000 XP.If we naively add up CR we get 10.  The XP of a CR 10 monster is 10,000.  We didn't need thr encounter size multiplier.Now the CR <-> XP relation isn't XP=CR^2 * 100, but more like CR^1.5 * 200 or something (I have it calculated somewhere, but am on my phone - 1.3? 1.5? 1.7? I forgot).  And CR isn't quite linear -- CR 1 to CR 5 is about 4x power, not 5x, and CR 1/8 to CR 1 is 6x not 8x -- but it is close.</blockquote>