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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7030196" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think part of the issue here is one that is unavoidable. Both hit point and damage progressions start at a point a bit above 0, that is level 1 creatures have around 20ish base hit points, and a damage output of level+8. This means that a level 2 creature is significantly stronger than a level 1 creature, by something like 20%, and a level + 3 creature is MUCH stronger, about 75% stronger than a level 1 creature. Thus at lower levels the relative increase in challenge of higher level creatures is more steep. At 25th level the difference between a level 25 monster and a level 28 monster is a rounding error. Sure, defenses and attack bonuses DO increase strictly linearly and have a linear effect, but everything else pretty much doesn't. Beyond that other aspects of creatures kind of level out as well. There's a big progression between levels 1 and 5 of secondary effects, special attacks, etc that simply isn't reproduced so much at higher levels (there are bumps around levels 11 and 21, but especially the level 21 bump isn't huge). So, for an Epic DM to produce an effect similar to dropping a level + 5 solo on his level 3 party, he's gotta drop a level + 10 solo encounter, at least. And because the attack/defense bonuses remain stubbornly linear, unlike everything else, he's pretty much gotta do it by piling on more monsters, or using other less scientific tricks like clever tactical problems or something to sink some of the PCs action economy, hostile terrain to drain extra hit points, etc.The point is, you can't really produce the same math at every level. The only way to really do that would be to simply assume that all variation in challenge is accomplished via changes in number and type of monster, but you never use monsters of more than say +/-1 level from the PCs.</blockquote>

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