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[Historical context] Why "6 to 8 medium/hard encounters" meme is obsolete
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<blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 7205270" data-attributes="member: 71699"><p>Why would you do the conversion? You just use the base unit.</p><p></p><p></p><p>That fact supports the hypothesis: it's the ideal situation. What we wanted to see is that the character classes were already locked in when they published the text of the DMG. The fact they sustained that line of text most simply suggests that it remained true: the game was indeed balanced around 6-8 encounters. For me the climb down is clearly in the table, where they pulled back on the difficulty. I believe we agree that the number of encounters the table yields produces an easier game difficulty. Difficulty is relative: for that difficulty to be "easier" the classes must be balanced to handle a harder difficulty.</p><p></p><p>I'm pondering what a good next step would be? I think we agree that the central purpose of the encounter values is to give DMs a good guideline to what their characters can handle both on a single encounter basis and between long rests. And while we may dislike a 5MWD, we want diversity between small numbers of deadly encounters or large numbers of attrition encounters. You advocate optional encounters and we can appreciate that without obviating the value of a good guideline to what characters can handle on per encounter (lethality) and per day (attrition) basis. @<em><strong><u><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=6796241" target="_blank">OB1</a></u></strong></em> does the same thing - advocates optional encounters but uses concepts such as "deadly" to scale them. The fact is, in RPG's it's super-helpful to DMs to have a way to gauge difficulty without having to run the encounter.</p><p></p><p><strong>Level....Unit (XP floor)</strong></p><p>1..........40</p><p>2..........80</p><p>3..........150</p><p>4..........210</p><p>5..........440</p><p>6..........500</p><p>7..........630</p><p>8..........750</p><p>9..........940</p><p>10........1130</p><p>11........1310</p><p>12........1440</p><p>13........1690</p><p>14........1880</p><p>15........2250</p><p>16........2500</p><p>17........3130</p><p>18........3380</p><p>19........3750</p><p>20........5000</p><p></p><p>By design, <strong>2+ units is attritional</strong> (medium) difficulty and <strong>4+ units is lethal</strong> (deadly) difficulty. An <strong>Adventuring Day is 12 units</strong>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="clearstream, post: 7205270, member: 71699"] Why would you do the conversion? You just use the base unit. That fact supports the hypothesis: it's the ideal situation. What we wanted to see is that the character classes were already locked in when they published the text of the DMG. The fact they sustained that line of text most simply suggests that it remained true: the game was indeed balanced around 6-8 encounters. For me the climb down is clearly in the table, where they pulled back on the difficulty. I believe we agree that the number of encounters the table yields produces an easier game difficulty. Difficulty is relative: for that difficulty to be "easier" the classes must be balanced to handle a harder difficulty. I'm pondering what a good next step would be? I think we agree that the central purpose of the encounter values is to give DMs a good guideline to what their characters can handle both on a single encounter basis and between long rests. And while we may dislike a 5MWD, we want diversity between small numbers of deadly encounters or large numbers of attrition encounters. You advocate optional encounters and we can appreciate that without obviating the value of a good guideline to what characters can handle on per encounter (lethality) and per day (attrition) basis. @[I][B][U][URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=6796241"]OB1[/URL][/U][/B][/I] does the same thing - advocates optional encounters but uses concepts such as "deadly" to scale them. The fact is, in RPG's it's super-helpful to DMs to have a way to gauge difficulty without having to run the encounter. [B]Level....Unit (XP floor)[/B] 1..........40 2..........80 3..........150 4..........210 5..........440 6..........500 7..........630 8..........750 9..........940 10........1130 11........1310 12........1440 13........1690 14........1880 15........2250 16........2500 17........3130 18........3380 19........3750 20........5000 By design, [B]2+ units is attritional[/B] (medium) difficulty and [B]4+ units is lethal[/B] (deadly) difficulty. An [B]Adventuring Day is 12 units[/B]. [/QUOTE]
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[Historical context] Why "6 to 8 medium/hard encounters" meme is obsolete
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