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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6177090" data-attributes="member: 6696971">The primary problem I have with the paradigm of fluctuating, nebulously accounted for value of class worth (specifically in the arena of combat where the cost of failure is so punitive) is when a class is represented as a value of L(evel) * n (where the value of n is represented as 1) and then goes into the encounter budget formula accordingly.  When varying classes are less than or greater than 1, all of a sudden we have set up a situation where challenge predictability (and thus planning) runs wildly askew.  That puts enormous pressure on the GM to ad-hoc a combat midstream to correct for the large error bars in the formula.  I don't want that pressure, I don't want that conflict of interest, and I don't want the responsibility to correct for bad math mid-stream.  I want the output of encounters I set up to manifest pretty closely to the inputs so all of my mental overhead is spent on (i) going full bore against the PCs (thus giving them a true victory rather than a massaged one) and (ii) the set-dressing and stakes that make the encounter compelling.If n is represented in the rulebooks as 1 yet we have the hypothetical true value of n for classes asHalfling Fighters @.65Fighters, Monks @ .75Rangers, Rogues, Barbarians @ 1Bards, Swordsages @ 1.25Wizards, Clerics, Druids @ 1.5, all of a sudden we have a deeply askew encounter formula contingent upon group makeup.  Worse yet, if certain classes scale quadratically while others scale linearly, as the game progresses n runs afoul by yet another vector, rendering functional encounter budgeting all but obsolete by a further perturbed n...which is represented as a constant 1 by the rulebooks.   Theoretically, say a 10th level group of 5 are supposed to be budgeted at 50 (10 * 1 * 5) for an of-level encounter and 100 for an BBEG equivalent combat.  By 10th level, my group with a Halfling Fighter (10 * .65), a Human Fighter (10 * .75), a Monk (10 * .75), a Ranger (10 * 1), and a Bard (10 * 1.25) are swimming heavily upstream with a 44 input to that proposed budget of 50 and 100.  While of-level combats are slightly harder, BBEG fights may become pretty close to insurmountable.  Alternatively, by 10th level, my group with a Druid (10 * 1.5), a Cleric (10 * 1.5), a Wizard (10 * 1.5), a Swordsage (10 * 1.25), and a Barbarian (10 * 1) are well ahead of the game @ 67.5 input to that proposed budget, dominating of-level encounters and trivializing (relatively) BBEG fights.  And the rulebooks wouldn't represent this.  I'd have TPKs at one end of the spectrum and anti-climactic BBEG fights at the other end...and the built in conflict of interest to "massage" the fights midstream to produce something beyond a table full of facepalms or an unrewarding confrontation with a primary antagonist.</blockquote>

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