Encounter Building by XP Budget for Saga Edition! (And 3.5)

[The_Gneech]

Can you explain why you added a d20 section, how/why it differs, and how it differs from Pathfinder?

The only real difference between the Saga and the d20 is the underlying math. The d20 section is designed to replicate the "13 encounters per level" model of 3.x, while the Saga numbers are based on the "(total foe levels)/3 = party CL" model.

The main way it differs from Pathfinder is the numbers. Conceptually it's the same idea (and as I mention in the document, it was inspired by the one you wrote up).

Edit: I should add, my original writeup worked perfectly well for d20/D&D but didn't work properly for Saga Edition because I didn't realize how fundamentally different the expected experiences were. A CL 20 encounter in SWSE is only worth 4,000 XP, as opposed to the 64,920 XP it's worth in D&D. Thus, for each level you gain in SWSE, the next level take noticeably longer to get to, as opposed to D&D's "13 and ding!" model.

-The Gneech

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

The only real difference between the Saga and the d20 is the underlying math. The d20 section is designed to replicate the "13 encounters per level" model of 3.x, while the Saga numbers are based on the "(total foe levels)/3 = party CL" model.

The main way it differs from Pathfinder is the numbers. Conceptually it's the same idea (and as I mention in the document, it was inspired by the one you wrote up).

Ok.

Well just so you know, you probably don't want to use 13, use 40/3. (That's 13.333333-- the actual number the 3e designers used).

But you're still going to get hinky numbers out of the encounter builder if for any given CR, the XP value of CR+2 is not (CRx2).

By hinky I mean: it's not going to duplicate the expectations of 3.5e-- ie, twice as many creatures = EL+2.

Again, no value judgment on whether or not that's "correct" or not, but if you want to be able to build encounters that match up to 3.5e expectations, you'll need to work out your numbers.

I suspect you know this, of course, and you have some alternative goal in mind.

 

[The_Gneech]

Hmm ... y'know, I think you may have pointed me at a flaw in my methodology. (Yes, another one! This is why I say I'm math-illiterate.) Looking at my numbers, I think I may have done my figuring based on total XP at a given level, instead of just the XP to get from one level to the next. 0.o

Whoops.

Time for yet another quick fix!

-The Gneech

 

[The_Gneech]

Yup -- that was it. A pretty serious goof, actually.

However, 'tis fixed now. An interesting wrinkle is that the Saga Edition numbers are exactly double the d20 numbers, which I was totally not expecting.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll freely admit I'm not much of a numbers guy, although I do my best.

-The Gneech