D&D 5E Understanding the maths behind 5e

[miggyG777]

Sure. We have to take 4 PCs budget, raise it to the 2/3 power and divide it it by 2.8, then divide by 4, to get 1 PC's budget in EBP. You have to do it in clumps of 4, because that is basically what the "zero point" of number of monster scaling is. That'll give the medium budget for medium values.

PC_EBP = ((Party_XP^(2/3))/2.8)/4
4*PC_XP = Party_XP
PC_EBP = (((4*PC_XP)^(2/3))/2.8)/4
PC_EBP = (((PC_XP)^(2/3))* 4^(2/3)/2.8)/4
PC_EBP =~ 2/9 * PC_XP^(2/3)

Level 1 PC easy EBP: 1.9
Level 1 PC medium EBP: 3
Level 1 PC hard EBP: 4
Level 1 PC deadly EBP: 4.8

That is close enough to 2/3/4/5 for my taste.

Thanks for elaborating, I appreciate it. For Level 1 the numbers match well. But if you take 1x Level 15 PC for instance:

EBP with your original approach:

Easy / Medium / Hard / Deadly

31

46

61

77

EBP as in "PC_EBP =~ 2/9 * PC_XP^(2/3)":

27,8

44,1

58,8

76,6

Not an incredible difference at first glance, but the effect becomes greater if you add more PCs to the party, since the values are multiplied. Then those EBP values can translate into a CR difference of 1 step (when we look at solo monster encounters), which is significant in my opinion.

Anyways, I am looking forward to your approach in modeling PCs and how the results compare to the DMG math.

 

[NotAYakk]

CR differences of 1 step after low levels become small. That is one of the reasons why building 5e encounters can be eyeballed.

...

I did my first pass. The fighter's pseudo-CR tracks nicely, but is really sensitive to #encounters/day. I have to plot encounters/day based off DMG guideline XP budgets to see if it curves with level.or not.

 

[miggyG777]

I have a question regarding the EBP formula for party sizes <3 and >5. The DMG on p.83 states:

PARTY SIZE

The preceding guidelines assume that you have a party consisting of three to five adventurers.

If the party contains fewer than three characters, apply the next highest multiplier on the Encounter Multipliers table. For example, apply a multiplier of 1.5 when the characters fight a single monster, and a multiplier of 5 for groups of fifteen or more monsters.

If the party contains six or more characters, use the next lowest multiplier on the table. Use a multiplier of 0.5 for a single monster.

This should alter the formula of how EBP are calculated for said party sizes, correct?

 

[NotAYakk]

N

I have a question regarding the EBP formula for party sizes <3 and >5. The DMG on p.83 states:



This should alter the formula of how EBP are calculated for said party sizes, correct?

Nope. That is basically the same thing as monster count multipliers, but backwards. And EBP gets rid of those.

EBP should be linear. A 50% bigger party gets 50% more EBP (because each PC contributes EBP to the budget, not becuase you multiply afterwards).

I should write one coherant post with a drag and drop EBP system instead of the fragments and "oops" above. But right now am prganizing a school fair, so...

 

[miggyG777]

N

Nope. That is basically the same thing as monster count multipliers, but backwards. And EBP gets rid of those.

EBP should be linear. A 50% bigger party gets 50% more EBP (because each PC contributes EBP to the budget, not becuase you multiply afterwards).

I should write one coherant post with a drag and drop EBP system instead of the fragments and "oops" above. But right now am prganizing a school fair, so...

I see, looking forward to that post