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<blockquote data-quote="NotAYakk" data-source="post: 8000964" data-attributes="member: 72555"><p>I can believe it. You can do a lot of fancy math (fudging CR up and down) to improve it, but that is half decent.</p><p></p><p>[spoiler]</p><p>(I'm doing some work "balancing 5e upwards" (improving classes that fall behind the power curve, balancing single class characters against multiclass combos, etc) and attempting to make a similarly simple system to build tier-based scene and chapter building.)</p><p></p><p>But he missed that CR 24 monsters are "actually CR 30" in terms of power (the budget per CR goes way up past level 20), and I think he over budgets deadly (or maybe I under budgeted it).</p><p></p><p>Now, you can play with "PC less content" by using the endpoint of each tier (1-4,5-10,11-16,17-20; but use 24 for T4, because evil). "easy" encounters are far from easy at the start of a tier.</p><p></p><p>T1: 2.5/4/5/6</p><p>T2: 6/10/13/16</p><p>T3: 11/17/22/25</p><p>T4: 16/24/32/38 (note that CR over 20 is "worth" more).</p><p></p><p>Now, as noted, the T1 power curve doesn't line up as well with CR. Shae is a bit passive tho; he's under estimating low level characters.</p><p></p><p>You can map (or value) CR 1/8 as 1/3, CR 1/4 as 1/2 and CR 1/2 as 2/3, and you'll get something a bit better (and matches the XP rules better).</p><p></p><p>CR at low levels is a bit fiddly. My solution is to give level 1 PCs a racial HD (d6 for small, d8 for medium, d10 for powerful build and dwarves) and a feat (blocking variant human), and that ups the power of characters by about 1 level, and makes a CR 2.5 fight doable for L 1 PCs (if hard).</p><p></p><p>Now build tier-based scenes (something players can be expected to defeat between short rests). A scene has 4 points, and easy costs 1, medium 2, hard 3 and deadly 4. A chapter has 3 scenes in it, and should be defeatable in between long rests (by the mid-end of the tier).</p><p></p><p>Defeating a single encounter in a scene shouldn't do much of interest plot-wise. Ie, if they defeat 1 encounter and run, they "lose the scene" (scenes should have stakes) in some way (it can be "not win as much" but you should arrange story-based consequences). Similarly for chapters.</p><p></p><p>At the start of a tier, players will "lose the scene" pretty often. They'll win fights, but suffer plot setbacks. Towards the end of the tier, they'll start winning scenes. This hopefully will give them incentive to advance instead of taking 5 minute adventuring days.</p><p></p><p>T1 -> T2 has the steepest power curve. I'm almost tempted to make a T1.5.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NotAYakk, post: 8000964, member: 72555"] I can believe it. You can do a lot of fancy math (fudging CR up and down) to improve it, but that is half decent. [spoiler] (I'm doing some work "balancing 5e upwards" (improving classes that fall behind the power curve, balancing single class characters against multiclass combos, etc) and attempting to make a similarly simple system to build tier-based scene and chapter building.) But he missed that CR 24 monsters are "actually CR 30" in terms of power (the budget per CR goes way up past level 20), and I think he over budgets deadly (or maybe I under budgeted it). Now, you can play with "PC less content" by using the endpoint of each tier (1-4,5-10,11-16,17-20; but use 24 for T4, because evil). "easy" encounters are far from easy at the start of a tier. T1: 2.5/4/5/6 T2: 6/10/13/16 T3: 11/17/22/25 T4: 16/24/32/38 (note that CR over 20 is "worth" more). Now, as noted, the T1 power curve doesn't line up as well with CR. Shae is a bit passive tho; he's under estimating low level characters. You can map (or value) CR 1/8 as 1/3, CR 1/4 as 1/2 and CR 1/2 as 2/3, and you'll get something a bit better (and matches the XP rules better). CR at low levels is a bit fiddly. My solution is to give level 1 PCs a racial HD (d6 for small, d8 for medium, d10 for powerful build and dwarves) and a feat (blocking variant human), and that ups the power of characters by about 1 level, and makes a CR 2.5 fight doable for L 1 PCs (if hard). Now build tier-based scenes (something players can be expected to defeat between short rests). A scene has 4 points, and easy costs 1, medium 2, hard 3 and deadly 4. A chapter has 3 scenes in it, and should be defeatable in between long rests (by the mid-end of the tier). Defeating a single encounter in a scene shouldn't do much of interest plot-wise. Ie, if they defeat 1 encounter and run, they "lose the scene" (scenes should have stakes) in some way (it can be "not win as much" but you should arrange story-based consequences). Similarly for chapters. At the start of a tier, players will "lose the scene" pretty often. They'll win fights, but suffer plot setbacks. Towards the end of the tier, they'll start winning scenes. This hopefully will give them incentive to advance instead of taking 5 minute adventuring days. T1 -> T2 has the steepest power curve. I'm almost tempted to make a T1.5. [/spoiler] [/QUOTE]
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