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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cheiromancer" data-source="post: 1639911" data-attributes="member: 141">A quick note to estimate the percentage of a groups resources an encounter should take.  (Assuming that an EL-4 encounter uses 25%, an EL-2 encounter uses 50%, etc.)Compute the power of a group by summing the square of the ECLs of the characters.  A 6th level character has a power of 36, a 5th level character has a power of 25; together they have a power of 36+25=61.Work out the power of an encounter the same way.  Two CR 10 monsters have a power of 100+100 = 200.Divide the encounter power by the party power.  E.g., if the power of the encounter is half that of the party, 1/2 the party's resources should be used up.  The way I have just defined EL, it is an EL-2 encounter.Example: Two 20th level characters and two 18th level characters encounter a CR 13 monster (the "vrock" mentioned above, which is CR 15 in other sources).  The party power is 400+400+324+324= 1448.  The power of the monster is 169.  The encounter should use up 11% of the party's resources.  Note: EL -0 = 100% of party's resources (on average)EL -2 = 50% EL -4 = 25%EL -6 = 12.5%So this is about an EL -6 encounter.The 20th level archmage and his two 10th level assistants encounter an identical CR 13 monster.  They have a party power of 400+100+100 = 600.  169/600 = 28%, so this is an EL -4 encounter.[edit]Sometimes people use an EL -0 encounter to mean that the party receives a fair fight- it uses 25% of its resources.  That's not the definition I use here.  You can add +4 to the above numbers if you like- the important thing is probably the percentage.[/edit]</blockquote>

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