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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7846331" data-attributes="member: 996">That's fair, and very well-chosen, because it is a step forward from those editions.  And a lateral move from 3e, and a big step back from 4e.  Which is so frequently the case with everything 5e has done as a Compromise/Big-Tent edition trying to pull the high points from each prior ed, that we really should be used to accepting it, by now, 5 years in. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I mean, 3e introduced CR, and 4e improved on it substantially, but 5e, had to call back the TSR eds, as well.  It couldn't make encounter building into a detailed optimization mini-game counter to the players build-optimization mini-game like in 3e, or a neatly-balanced exercise in set-piece combat 'scene' choreography like 4e.  It had to bring us some of the uncertainty and DM/player 'skill' of the olden days, too.It is, indeed, once a gain, primarily an art - a matter of feel, experience, improvisation, and creativity.  Which is both a good deal of fun, and takes a good deal of skill/talent/energy to get the most of out of.  So, yes, the following are, once again, true, and advisedly/intentionally so: 'Wrong' is the er, wrong? word for it.  YYMV, maybe?  CRs in published materials seem to follow a formula, that formula, thanks to BA, doesn't stand up to the linear-distribution randomness of the d20, nor party composition nor optimization, since balance on  the player side is also far more varied for similar reasons.It maps to level, still.  While BA means a party can functionally engage CRs far above and below them, it's still centered around a lone same-CR critter as a meaningful little challenge. Yes choice of class, build choices, pacing, and many other factors radically distort balance among classes and vs encounters.  It's inevitable given the mandates of 5e design.  You simply can't give some classed no meaningful daily resources, and others game-changing ones, and give players any freedom in the 'length' of their day and expect any set of encounter guidelines to hold up!Well, it can, if the DM sets it up that way and runs to that level of granularity.   In this case, though, I think 5e CR deserves a free pass: the game assumes TotM, TotM doesn't support highly granular tactics. And it exists on the players' side of the screen, too!</blockquote>

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