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General Tabletop Discussion
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CR and Encounter Difficulty: Is It Consistently Wrong?
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<blockquote data-quote="eryndel" data-source="post: 6480930" data-attributes="member: 13120"><p>As a side note, this world would be in a dark place if we could only rely on functional representations of polynomial order of 2 or less, and to claim a cubic function isn't a "reliable" equation. Frankly, the data looks like a power law might fit better, but that's neither here nor there. The truth is the CR to XP relationship is stepwise discrete. It has a specific value at each discrete level of CR, one that is defined in the <strong>Experience Points by Challenge Rating</strong> table on page 9 of the Monster Manual. In fact, the text right above their states:</p><p></p><p>"The number of experience points (XP) a monster is worth is based on its challenge rating."</p><p></p><p>And then provides the mapping between Challenge Rating and XP which is followed pretty well through all the monsters in that tome. I didn't check all of them, but a cursory glance showed a good match. That table, by the way, is mirrored in the custom creatures section of the DMG.</p><p></p><p>So you're right, the creating an encounter section is based off of XP, along with multiplicity of creatures and situational effects, but the individual XP value of a monster does have a clear 1:1 relationship to CR, as described in the MM.</p><p></p><p>The lack of a functional relationship would make it tough to interpolate XP if I wanted to make a creature of CR 2.6, 3.14, or 2<em>i</em>, but as long as I stick with the already defined set of CRs in that table, I know <em>precisely</em> how many XP an individual creature is worth. And, frankly, I can eyeball an XP value if for some reason wanted some unusual CR creature.</p><p></p><p>As long as I stuck to the real numbers <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="eryndel, post: 6480930, member: 13120"] As a side note, this world would be in a dark place if we could only rely on functional representations of polynomial order of 2 or less, and to claim a cubic function isn't a "reliable" equation. Frankly, the data looks like a power law might fit better, but that's neither here nor there. The truth is the CR to XP relationship is stepwise discrete. It has a specific value at each discrete level of CR, one that is defined in the [B]Experience Points by Challenge Rating[/B] table on page 9 of the Monster Manual. In fact, the text right above their states: "The number of experience points (XP) a monster is worth is based on its challenge rating." And then provides the mapping between Challenge Rating and XP which is followed pretty well through all the monsters in that tome. I didn't check all of them, but a cursory glance showed a good match. That table, by the way, is mirrored in the custom creatures section of the DMG. So you're right, the creating an encounter section is based off of XP, along with multiplicity of creatures and situational effects, but the individual XP value of a monster does have a clear 1:1 relationship to CR, as described in the MM. The lack of a functional relationship would make it tough to interpolate XP if I wanted to make a creature of CR 2.6, 3.14, or 2[I]i[/I], but as long as I stick with the already defined set of CRs in that table, I know [I]precisely[/I] how many XP an individual creature is worth. And, frankly, I can eyeball an XP value if for some reason wanted some unusual CR creature. As long as I stuck to the real numbers :) [/QUOTE]
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