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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silveras" data-source="post: 2795893" data-attributes="member: 6271">The big thing about CR is a tool for the DM to know when the encounter is too tough for the party. CR has little to do with making sure every character has a chance to shine, or is tested to the limit of his/her abilities. The feeling in 3.5 is that the PCs should be successful most of the time, infrequently at severe risk (15% of the time), and only rarely (5% of the time) so clearly overmatched that it is obvious they should run. Some DMs may feel this is overly generous to the PCs, too deliberately "game designed" as opposed to "story designed". To truly make sure that each character in the party gets a chance to shine, and that each is tested to his/her limits, the DM needs more than CR. The DM needs to consider what each character does best, and select a challenge that the other characters cannot handle nearly as well. Example: To test a party with 1 Fighter, 1 Rogue, 1 Wizard, and 1 Cleric, the DM needs to select "appropriate CR" traps for the Rogue (with detect and disarm DCs that are near the Rogue's total Search and Disable Device modifiers), add "appropriate CR" undead for the Cleric to turn (with numbers and/or HD to make it suitably difficult), "appropriate CR" combatants to challenge the Fighter (something with some useful Feats of its own; the same Undead as used for the Cleric might be used, just with more numbers), and something that the Wizard can't just magic missile away (perhaps a foe with high SR, so the Wizard has to think of a way to use his/her spells indirectly). The CR number (and the Encounter Level (EL), which is a combined CR for all the things that come in one encounter; a single thing has an EL equal to its CR) gives you an idea of whether the things you have chosen might be too tough for the party, especially if the Rogue fails to find the trap or the Cleric fails to turn the undead. Perhaps the Rogue has put a lot of effort into maximizing Search and Disable Device. If the only traps that the DM can find with Search and Disable DCs in the right range are at CRs 6 or more above the party's level, the DM needs to choose something lesser, and maybe add something to the design to make them harder to find and/or disable. In the end, CR and EL are about not ruining the players' fun by accidentally throwing something too tough at them (Mind Flayer against a lone 1st level Fighter) or too easy at them (lone CR 1/2 Orc against a party of 12th level PCs).</blockquote>

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