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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Word" data-source="post: 332266" data-attributes="member: 4867">I agree with Mearls, that every DM sooner or later takes on the tasks of a gamer designer anyway. As characters rise in level, they diversify and become more and more personalized. Likewise, they drift further away from the statistical "norm." A DM will always be called on to make some judgement calls in their campaign, at the design level as well as the play level.  What the CR system does well is act as a set of training wheels. It's reliable early on, and implies certain design concepts which a DM can keep in mind when designing higher-level encounters. These high-level encounters will almost always need to be more closely tailored to an individual party than low-level ones. So DMs will be deviating from a rigid system at high levels regardless of the system's quality, I think. The problem I see is one of DM education, which stems from quantifying current CRs. Or rather, not quantifying CRs. Ryan's "CR Factors" are not a bad idea, but any system which suggests a technological solution would be ideal is already too complicated for our purposes, in my opinion. Besides, the flags are already in place for factors such as undead and SR, clearly spelled out in the stat block. Yes, DMs will have to reference that sort of information well in advance of gameplay in order to  check a monster against their party. That's the nature of adventure design. Many gamers are (actively or passively) under the impression that there is some in-house secret at WotC for determining CRs correctly. If there is, it might be time to share it with us. If not (more likely?), how about getting Monte, SKR and others to write a batch of short essays for Dragon magazine explaining the impact they think the existing game elements have on CR. If this means creating CR Factors as a shorthand, that's fine, isn't it? A rigid system will have to be carefully expanded to stay rigid. A system of thought, an understanding of the purpose and method of Challenge Ratings, will be much more flexible and practically self-maintaining. The design judgements of DMs are integral to the game, but they could be made more reliable and better-informed. Thus, more compatible. Methinks. word,Will Hindmarch<a href="mailto:will@atlas-games.com">will@atlas-games.com</a></blockquote>

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