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<blockquote data-quote="Theo R Cwithin" data-source="post: 5176339" data-attributes="member: 75712">For a &quot;moderate&quot; encounter for one PC, you should probably be shooting for EL 3 or 4 less than the character's level.&nbsp; A &quot;very difficult&quot; encounter will be against an EL equal to the PC level-- and carries a good chance he'll die.&nbsp; Also, avoid multiple opponents, because that's a huge disadvantage for the PC.&nbsp; If you need to use more than one or two, maybe add +1 to the EL you calculate for every two foes.&nbsp; Frex, one orc Bbn1 is an EL1, but two is an EL3 -- and could be a pretty tough fight even against a level 5 PC.At higher levels (beyond 9-ish maybe?) it gets even harder to balance, because there are so many save-or-die/suck abilities out there, as well as qualities like immunity or incorporeality which can make all of a PC's attacks useless. You just have to&nbsp; be aware a baddy's abilities before throwing it at a PC who has no friends to bail him out if things turn bad.&nbsp; Either the GM can really tailor the encounters, or make certain the PC has the opportunity to research the situation so he can be prepared with items, hire a henchman, or whatnot.IIRC, the XP calculation doesn't need to change much.&nbsp;&nbsp; XP for one level X character against an EL X-4 encounter comes out the same as the XP for four level X PCs against an EL X encounter.&nbsp; (I don't have my books though, so I can't confirm that.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Theo R Cwithin, post: 5176339, member: 75712"] For a "moderate" encounter for one PC, you should probably be shooting for EL 3 or 4 less than the character's level. A "very difficult" encounter will be against an EL equal to the PC level-- and carries a good chance he'll die. Also, avoid multiple opponents, because that's a huge disadvantage for the PC. If you need to use more than one or two, maybe add +1 to the EL you calculate for every two foes. Frex, one orc Bbn1 is an EL1, but two is an EL3 -- and could be a pretty tough fight even against a level 5 PC. At higher levels (beyond 9-ish maybe?) it gets even harder to balance, because there are so many save-or-die/suck abilities out there, as well as qualities like immunity or incorporeality which can make all of a PC's attacks useless. You just have to be aware a baddy's abilities before throwing it at a PC who has no friends to bail him out if things turn bad. Either the GM can really tailor the encounters, or make certain the PC has the opportunity to research the situation so he can be prepared with items, hire a henchman, or whatnot. IIRC, the XP calculation doesn't need to change much. XP for one level X character against an EL X-4 encounter comes out the same as the XP for four level X PCs against an EL X encounter. (I don't have my books though, so I can't confirm that.) [/QUOTE]

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