mflayermonk
First Post
CR is good, the "adventuring day" aspect is the problem.
The encounter building guidelines are a nice baseline, but using optional rules (feats) and having optimizing players throws them out the window.
I usually don't bother with the guidelines and just toss out whatever monsters seem appropriate. Based on the play experiences of Mike "Sly Flourish" Shea, it also sounds like a monster with a CR equal to the player's level/ 3 is a fair fight. So four CR 1 monsters challenge a level 3 party, four CR 2s challenge a level 6 party, etc.
But CR tends to get funky and break down at higher levels, depending on where you are in the adventuring day...
Both 5e and 4e use a similar experience budget system. 5e just makes accommodations for large numbers of opponents that prevents the dozen minions and couple standard foes against a PC.Yeah I think the 4e approach of "this monster challenges 1 PC" is better than 5e's sort-of-return to 3e "this monster challenges a party".
I'm not sure that "monster CR equals 1/3 party level" works particularly well either, but then I don't think basing assessment off 6-8 fights/day is particularly sensible. I guess I tend to use more like 3 monsters of CR = 2/3 party level as the baseline for my 5 PC group, and assume about 3 fights/day. That's about how many fights the PCs are usually looking to handle before actively seeking a Long Rest.