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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DwarvenDog" data-source="post: 4008983" data-attributes="member: 40792">My exact experience.  My group began with 8 characters and something averaging a 50 point buy from good rolls.  So there were several levels of balancing that needed to be done throughout the lifespan of the campaign.Levels 1-5:  The PC's could easily outshine anything between their own CR and CR+3.  Attack rolls and saves succeeded far more often than normal. Enemies failed more often against the PCs' inflated DC's.Resolved by boosting base monsters' stats to a 25 point-buy, and boss monsters stats to a 32-36 point-buy.  75% max hit points. No enemies used directly from MM.  Every monster  tweaked in some way.  Campaign went along balanced for a while.Levels 6-10:  Dropped 2 players, but the extra attack gave melee PC's a power boost for 2 levels. Then the whole power level of the group began a decline. My "boosted" monsters began to be more of a threat as DR, SR, miss chances, and dispel magic became more prevalent.  Elementals, Golems, and Demons usable out of the box towards level 9, but I only learned this after several near-fatal encounters with boosted examples of these.Levels 11-13: Gained 2 new players, but still the biggest collection of PC deaths.  Boosted/Advanced monsters dominated.  Classed Monstrous opponents at 25 point-buy were even matches. Classed humanoids at 32-point buy were even matches. Dragons, Elementals, Golems, Demons/Devils all could be used as-is and presented reasonable challenges.  Levels 14-16:  Dropped 2 players, but retained 7 total characters. Nearly everything was an advanced monster or a classed opponent. Even when picking monsters out of the book, feat substitution was constant. This set of levels was the most difficult to balance, with many opportunities to own the battle with one spell or multiple critical hits in a round. PC power began to rise again rapidly starting at level 15.Levels 17+  PC's once again dominate against CR-CR+3 foes. They own the most powerful stat boosters.  They rarely fail saves or attack rolls.  Their foes are all classed opponents, advanced demons, or CR20+ foes. At this level, boosting monsters too much makes the DC of some abilities completely broken, so it's always a tough call on how far to take monster advancement.  PC's are able to bypass most obstacles; movement, SR, DR, concealment, etc.So my observations:PC's dominate with inflated stats at first. (1-5)Monsters in the mid-high CR range have the advantage towards the middle (8-13)PC's re-gain dominance at the upper-end  (15+)</blockquote>

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