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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cheiromancer" data-source="post: 1647178" data-attributes="member: 141">A few other things- the example with the Red Dragon and the skeletons works a lot better- you don't need to disregard the skeletons.  Recall that was a CR 62 Great Wyrm Red Dragon with 600 CR 2/3 human skeletons.  Fractions are funny, but I think what you do with them is treat them as 400 CR 1 opponents.  Then the raw xp from the encounter is given by(62^2)*300 + 400*(1^2)*300=3844*300+400*300=1,153,200+120,000=1,273,200Over 90% of the experience comes from the Great Wyrm.  The 600 skeletons might occasionally interfere with charging attempts, could attempt to grapple spellcasters, and a few actions might be wasted in dealing with them.  Perhaps the skeletons came in waves over a few minutes, and so burned up some of the 1 round/level buff spells, or maybe a turning attempt was used before the numbers became apparent.  Anyways, they do relatively little, but are not entirely negligible.The encounter has a power of 4244 (vs 3844 for the dragon alone), so 4 35th level characters (power 4900) should find it a tough fight if neither side is prepared or has any particular advantage.In your system four 35th level characters are EL 25, vs an EL 24 dragon with an irrelevant skeleton horde; also a pretty tough fight.  So the results are pretty close; the advantage to the formulaic approach is that you don't have to arbitrarily discard the contribution of weak allies.The formula approach also handles unbalanced groups a little better.  Consider the case of a 20th level Ranger with a trio of first level halflings in tow.  The EL of a 20th level solo character is 18; with the hobbits the EL of the party is 14.  If the hobbits hide in the bushes while the Ranger (still not King) defeats CR 14 bad-guys.  CR 14 would be a moderate expenditure of resources for a 20th level character fighting by himself, but he gets 4 times the xp because of the hobbits with him (due to the shift of 4 in EL)A DM could just disregard these shenanigans, of course, but such arbitrariness is unnecessary if the Y formula is used.  The power of a 20th level character is 400.  That of a 1st level character is 1.  Together the group has a power of 403.  So a CR 14 encounter (raw xp 58,800) earns him2940 xp solo (58,800/400 * 20 levels)and2918 xp with hangers on (58,800/403 * 20 levels)The hobbits each earn 145 xp by observing his prowess in battle.  (58,800/403 * 1 level)  After all, they are at much more risk than if they had stayed home in their hobbit holes.  And they could be some small help to their high level friend- stabilize him if he slew his opponent in the same round as dropping to -7 hp, call out a warning if he fails a spot check, etc.</blockquote>

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