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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aoirorentsu" data-source="post: 5316106" data-attributes="member: 60129">Hello Enworlders,A random thought for a houserule, wanted to see what folks thought.  Presented in a form here.The basic goal is to be able to fashion an "okay" encounter out of an overly easy or difficult one on the fly.  The key is to recognize it early, and kick the Equalizer into effect at that time.To do so, there's a Equalizer Scale modifier.  It starts at 0, and can go either negative or positive.  The Equalizer Scale represents a modifier to all monster attack rolls and defenses that lasts until it changes or until the end of the encounter, at which point it resets to 0.- natural d20 rolls between 8 and 12 (inclusive) impact the modifier as follows:1) a hit on a PC decreases the Equalizer by 1.2) a hit on a monster increases the Equalizer modifier by 1.- any change to the modifier does not come into effect until after the action that resulted in the change has been resolved.  For example, if multiple PCs are caught in an area attack, apply the same Equalizer to all of them and then change the Equalizer after each attack roll is resolved, according to the net number of hits/misses.  If three PCs are attacked, all of the die rolls are between 8 and 12, and two of them hit, a net -1 to the modifier would come into effect after the attack is completely resolved. - an attack on one creature from an ally (resulting from domination or the psion's Betrayal power, for example) does not impact the Equalizer no matter the die roll.Variant: if the an elite creature hits a PC with a natural d20 roll between 8 and 12, change the modifier by 2 as appropriate to account for the increased value of elite creatures; for solos, change it by 5.  This is a variant because most elite and solo creatures have ways of making multiple separate attacks per round, and thus changing the modifier multiple times per round.Variant: to make the Equalizer more powerful, increase the range of die rolls that modify it, as long as the increase in range applies to both ends.  Thus, you can make the Equalizer be modified on a natural roll of 8 to 12, 7 to 13, 6 to 14, 5 to 15, etc.Variant: the "Equalizing Range" might increase by 1 in both directions each round that it is in effect, such that it is 8 to 12 on round 1, 7 to 13 on round 2, etc.The Good:- it more or less accomplishes the goal.  Given a non-swingy d20 roll (8 to 12), the battle would tend toward a situation in which the monsters and PCs are hitting each other in roughly equal measure.  I assume this is a good thing and is generally intended for at-level fights - maybe I'm wrong, though.The Bad:- it may not be philosophically sound to punish PC success (by increasing the Equalizer when they hit).- There's no real XP modification built in.  It'd have to be a DM judgment call, but I would say that an encounter where the Equalizer was used should be worth at-level encounter xp against one at-level monster per PC.  Perhaps that's wonky.Any thoughts?Thanks!Aoi</blockquote>

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