Dealing with essential impossibility

[Saeviomagy]

Let me guess, half golem orcs or the like?

Those things that have Immunity to most magic, DR 20/+2, 5 hitpoints and an AC of 25 or so?


1. Not low magic.

2. Not CR 6 when +2 weapons don't exist

3. No DM, anywhere, any time should be saying "Can you believe those guys were only CR X?"

Instead they should be going "Now why in the hell are those guys supposed to be CR X?".

 

[Thurbane]

Just for the record, and at the chance of leaving myself open to a public flogging, I really, really don't like the whole 3/3.5E CR/XP system. Things were much, much better in 2E IMHO. Yes, I know this will get me called a heretic, but cest la vie. This was back in the days when the books trusted a DM to run the show without being spoonfed formulas to determine what the players should be facing.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Just for the record, and at the chance of leaving myself open to a public flogging, I really, really don't like the whole 3/3.5E CR/XP system. Things were much, much better in 2E IMHO.

The new system might not be perfect, but it's still better tahn 2e. That (insert monster here) is more of a challenge for your Fighter 3 than for a fighter 20. The old system ignored that.

 

[werk]

Specifically, "Challenge Ratings and Encounter Levels" on page 48 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

or just plus the numbers in here:
http://d20srd.org/encounterCalculator.htm

Well, I'm glad we got that settled!

 

[Nail]

I really, really don't like the whole 3/3.5E CR/XP system. Things were much, much better in 2E IMHO.

Then use the 2e system for XP.

The CR system is one of the key changes in 3.xe, and one of the best, IMHO. Not only does it help DMs judge appropriate encounters, but it largely removed the concept of "XP farming" from D&D.

Good riddance!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Then use the 2e system for XP.

It's in Unearthed Arcana, too.

 

[the Jester]

I thought that you broke them into pairs...

2 CR4 = CR5
2 CR5 = CR6

So 4 CR4s is CR6

Am I making this up?

Close... if you double the number of creatures of a given CR, add 2 to the EL.

2 CR 4 = EL 6.
4 CR 4 (or 2 CR 6) = EL 8.

 

[Nail]

...yet another reason to avoid that book.

Wait, did I just say that? I meant to just think it.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

...yet another reason to avoid that book.

Not really. Good book. The fun part is that it's all purely optional.

 

[mmu1]

While I don't prefer this kind of game, many DMs here on ENWorld run successful campaigns based on this premise. So the campaign is not in and of itself problematic.

What's problematic, though? You might say that as long as the player and the DM are having fun, there isn't a problem...

On the other hand, these kinds of games - regardless of whether the DM pulls them off successfully or not - have a built-in tendency to encourage a lot more inequality, imbalance and unpredictability than a "standard" game. Which inherently makes the DMs job of making everything run smoothly and keeping the players happy that much harder.