Effective Party Level

[Jcosby]

I hope this is a simple question that can be answered pretty easy. What I want to know is how do you calculate the EL of a party with more then four characters. I know that a group of four players all at fourth level would be EL4, but what if I have 5,6 or even 7 players in the group. How do I figure in the extra characters. Also lets assume they are all Player Characters no cohorts, NPCs, etc seven actual players.

The second part of the question would then be, how do I calculate the XP of say a EL5 encounter Vs a party of seven 4th level characters. (All regular characters nothing special.)

Current Group: (All standard races for the PHB)
4th level Fighter
2nd/2nd Rogue/Fighter
4th Wizard
4th Bard
2nd/2nd Fighter/Cleric
4th Monk
4th Barbarian

Thanks
Jcosby

 

[Wish]

What I would suggest is that you build you encounters for a normal party of four characters, then increase the numbers by 3/4. If you simply treat the party as effectively higher level, you'll find yourself using creatures that have abilities that are horribly destructive to the PCs.

If you don't want to do that, I'd look to the monster rules, where doubling the number of creatures add 2 to the EL (50% adds 1). That would indicate an effective level for your party somewhere between 5 and 6.

Award xp in the standard way - use each character's level and each monster's CR and apply the chart in the DMG, but divide by 7 instead of 4. If you're using extra monsters, there will be little net difference. Each opponent will be worth less XP, but you'll have exactly enough extra opponents to make up for it.

 

[Darkness]

2 higher should be about right, but I wouldn't often use higher-CR creatures - just more creatures.

 

[Nail]

..how do you calculate the EL of a party with more then four characters....

Try Andragor's D&D 3.5 - Mixed-CR EL/XP Calculator. (Scroll a short way down the page.) You'll find that an extra person adds about 0.6 to the APL.

Incidentally, I've found that giving the PCs good ability scores (via 32 or 36 point buy) raises their APL by about the same amount.

..The second part of the question would then be, how do I calculate the XP of say a EL5 encounter Vs a party of seven 4th level characters. (All regular characters nothing special.)

There are no changes. Add up total XP, divide by number of PCs. (Assuming all PCs are the same level, of course.)

 

[Jcosby]

Calculating EXP

Try Andragor's D&D 3.5 - Mixed-CR EL/XP Calculator. (Scroll a short way down the page.) You'll find that an extra person adds about 0.6 to the APL.

Incidentally, I've found that giving the PCs good ability scores (via 32 or 36 point buy) raises their APL by about the same amount.


There are no changes. Add up total XP, divide by number of PCs. (Assuming all PCs are the same level, of course.)

Thanks, Yea I downloaded Andragor's XP Calculator and it makes it much easier to figure the exp for 4,5,6 or 7 characters and I can easily put in their levels etc even if they aren't the same.

As for the monsters, I'm not to worried there I figure that the EPL is about 5.8-6.0 with the full seven characters. But like you suggested above I'm not going to throw higher CR monsters at them very often, just a couple more then you would with a group of 4. I'll see how that goes.

Thanks for the responses.
Jcosby

 

[Jdvn1]

Formally, I believe, the EL of a party is (sum of levels)/4. CR rules don't apply here, because CR isn't always equal to ECL, which is what you use for EPL.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Back in 3.0 (so long ago, I know), I used APL (Average Party Level), which was the sum of all party levels divided by 4. This worked well.

DM