D+1
First Post
EL has only one purpose - it's a tool to help set the difficulty of an encounter to where the DM wants it. It does not inherently change how the XP will be awarded. It also does not change the CR of monsters that are used, but it may indicate that the monsters you do use should be of a different CR, or that there should be more or fewer of them.
CR is a fixed number. It does not change with EL, nor with the level of the PC's. Unless you're redesigning the monster to have greater or lesser innate abilities than it normally does, the CR stays the same.
XP is based on the CR of monsters or traps, and the number/level of characters in the party. XP for a given monster does not change with the adjustments to EL and the CR of monsters doesn't change either. XP is awarded differently in 3.5 than 3.0 obviously but that only affects distrubution among different level PC's.
Circumstances of an encounter might mean that the DM should adjust the EL and XP awards up or down but that doesn't change how EL and XP function or how they are/aren't related. It only means that number and CR of opponents doesn't tell the entire story about EL, and CR alone isn't all that contributes to what the PC's should be earning XP for. The XP-related numbers and formulae simply cannot hope to encompass the vast realm of possibilities and ad-hoc adjustments are simply mentioned to encourage a DM to be as generous or stingy as circumstances warrant for XP.
CR is a fixed number. It does not change with EL, nor with the level of the PC's. Unless you're redesigning the monster to have greater or lesser innate abilities than it normally does, the CR stays the same.
XP is based on the CR of monsters or traps, and the number/level of characters in the party. XP for a given monster does not change with the adjustments to EL and the CR of monsters doesn't change either. XP is awarded differently in 3.5 than 3.0 obviously but that only affects distrubution among different level PC's.
Circumstances of an encounter might mean that the DM should adjust the EL and XP awards up or down but that doesn't change how EL and XP function or how they are/aren't related. It only means that number and CR of opponents doesn't tell the entire story about EL, and CR alone isn't all that contributes to what the PC's should be earning XP for. The XP-related numbers and formulae simply cannot hope to encompass the vast realm of possibilities and ad-hoc adjustments are simply mentioned to encourage a DM to be as generous or stingy as circumstances warrant for XP.
