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<blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 6625157" data-attributes="member: 6779310">Not so much in 5E. If anything, the assumption is that they're in the same tier, not the same level.In looking at how encounter balancing is set up... ... in 3E it's strongly biased towards same level, and breaks if the party spans more than a 3 level range (such as 4-6th level - yeah, the average party level can be applied in those cases, exceed them, and it breaks badly).... in 4E, it's pretty explicit that the default assumption is everyone is the same level.... in 5E, that core assumption is not strongly evidenced. The encounter balance system isn't based upon the average lever, but upon summing the budget points from each member's xp budget. EG, A 3rd level 5 person party (3/3/3/3/3) has a hard difficulty budget of 1175; a party of 5/4/3/2/1 instead has a budget of 1575, a party of 5/3/3/2/2 has a 1500 budget, and a 4/4/3/3/1 budgets at 1675, 4/4/3/2/2 is 1275, and 4/3/3/3/2 is 1200. RAW, that's not an &quot;all the party is the same level&quot; assumption at work. If anything, that they explicitly make it work that way shows a clear awareness that the presumption of all being the same level is false for many groups and must be accomodated.The whole concept of bounded accuracy is in part an accommodation for mixed level parties.5E suggests keeping it close, but doesn't as a design require it, and actually provides methods for both keeping everyone the same, or, should you choose, coping with the difference with the standard tools.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="aramis erak, post: 6625157, member: 6779310"] Not so much in 5E. If anything, the assumption is that they're in the same tier, not the same level. In looking at how encounter balancing is set up... ... in 3E it's strongly biased towards same level, and breaks if the party spans more than a 3 level range (such as 4-6th level - yeah, the average party level can be applied in those cases, exceed them, and it breaks badly). ... in 4E, it's pretty explicit that the default assumption is everyone is the same level. ... in 5E, that core assumption is not strongly evidenced. The encounter balance system isn't based upon the average lever, but upon summing the budget points from each member's xp budget. EG, A 3rd level 5 person party (3/3/3/3/3) has a hard difficulty budget of 1175; a party of 5/4/3/2/1 instead has a budget of 1575, a party of 5/3/3/2/2 has a 1500 budget, and a 4/4/3/3/1 budgets at 1675, 4/4/3/2/2 is 1275, and 4/3/3/3/2 is 1200. RAW, that's not an "all the party is the same level" assumption at work. If anything, that they explicitly make it work that way shows a clear awareness that the presumption of all being the same level is false for many groups and must be accomodated. The whole concept of bounded accuracy is in part an accommodation for mixed level parties. 5E suggests keeping it close, but doesn't as a design require it, and actually provides methods for both keeping everyone the same, or, should you choose, coping with the difference with the standard tools. [/QUOTE]

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