ECL Question

[Khelvan]

Last year we set aside my campaign. Next week i will take over us DM and we will continue.
I have some troubles with the ECL System perhaps someone around here can provide me some Advice.
We are playing the shackled City campaign form Dungeon.
Group conssists of
Paladin Tyr 13
Paladin Lathander 3 / Fighter 4 /Shining Balde PRC 5
Cleric Lathander 12
Cleric Tempus 12
Dwarven Def 13
Warwizard 13
Arcane Hierophant 12
Eldricht Knight 12

What would in your oppinion be a challenge for them?
How do i get the right ECL?
In the past the enemies where much to weak or to strong.
Any advice how to get some Challenging Encounters?

Thanks

Khelvan.

 

[Thanee]

ECL has rather little to do with challenges.

ECL is simply to combined, total level of a creature (i.e. Racial Hit Dice + Class Levels + Level Adjustment).


A standard challenging encounter for your party (according to the guidelines*) would be EL 14~15 (better, though: EL 12~13 with twice the numbers). That should be fairly doable. Add +1~2 EL and the encounter becomes pretty tough, normally.

For how to put together an encounter of a certain EL, check the DMG. Very roughly it's either one creature of a CR equal to the EL, or two creatures of a CR equal to the EL-2 or four creatures of a CR equal to the EL-4, etc.

You should aim for encounters with at least 4 opponent creatures. Maybe have about two stronger ones and a bunch of weaker ones.

Bye
Thanee


* Note: The CR/EL rules are just guidelines, there are so many factors, which can alter how easy or hard an encounter will be in play, that they cannot provide an exact measure.

 

[Hussar]

Well, you've got 8 PC's between 12th and 13th level. Thanee hits it pretty well to say that your party could be considered around 15th level. However, that's not entirely accurate, as Thanee so rightly points out.

They lack the higher level spells and saving throws for one. Also a couple of hit dice each as well. They are also somewhat short on the magic end of the stick because they are lower level (and lower wealth). That means that if you start bombing some of the single big CR critters at them, you are going to suffer casualties.

Sure, the guidelines say a EL 15 should use 20% of resources, but, that's a bit trickier with so many PC's. You just have so many actions per round, but, each actor also has a bit of a glass jaw.

Thanee's advice is spot on IMO. Go with larger numbers to bulk up the encounter levels rather than using one big critter. For example a Glabrezu is CR 13, so a pair of them makes up an EL 15. Since their abilities are on par with 13th level PC's, it should be a fairly easy fight. But, if you go with a single 15th level cleric, a Blasphemy is going to seriously hurt.