Upper_Krust
Legend
Hiya mate! 
Sure.
Thats correct!
I think I see what you are getting at.
I told you it was easy.
PEL simply mimics the way the core rules determine it. Just that they don't explain it, whereas I do.

Wulf Ratbane said:I'm gonna have to have you walk me through this one.
Sure.
Wulf Ratbane said:Let me see if I understand.
Two 20th level player characters
Four 12th level cohorts
10x 1st level henchmen
(I consider this a reasonable party grouping, such as one might find in Piratecat's Story Hour.)
By my calculations, as a mixed group of adversaries, they are EL19. (CR total = 98, CR 98 = EL 27, sixteen creatures adjusts to EL19).
As a party, using your method, they are (98 levels / 16 characters) = Party Level 6.125.
Apply this to Table 2-1 per instructions yields EL 11.
Modify that by the number of characters in the party using Table 2-5 yields a PEL of 15.
So when this group "fights itself" we have PEL 15 vs. EL 19, which according to Table 2-6 means a 50/50 fight.
Did I get that right all the way through?
Thats correct!

Wulf Ratbane said:If so, I think my confusion arises because of your terminology. The "Party Encounter Level" does not mean, as it seems to imply, "The EL of this particular party."
I think I see what you are getting at.
Wulf Ratbane said:I note that in your explanation to me above you actually make this same mistake.
Rather, PEL means, "The appropriate EL of an encounter designed to be a moderate challenge for this party."
PEL does NOT scale up according to the number of creatures in the group, as you misstated above-- that is to say, we should not apply Table 2-3 to this group. You've already taken care of the number of creatures in Table 2-5.
So to try to sum up and wrap up (unsuccessfully...) and perhaps hint at an easier walkthrough:
The EL of this group is, correctly calculated, at EL19.
A "50/50" matchup for this group is EL 19 (as you would expect).
The appropriate "moderate encounter" for this group is EL 15.
(That could be a single CR12 adversary; or it could be 6-7 CR5 adversaries, or it could be 16-31 CR3 adversaries... etc...)
You could simply find the EL of the group and then apply that result against a chart showing the breakdown:
Encounter EL - Party EL ---> Victory
-12 ---> 99.3%
-10 ---> 98.4%
-8 ---> 96.8%
-6 ---> 93.7%
-4 ---> 87.5%
-2 ---> 75%
+/- 0 ---> 50% (encouter level = party's encounter level)
+2 ---> 25%
+4 ---> 12.5%
Finally, according to my calculations, using your system, the "50/50" fight above (PEL 15 vs EL 19) would be worth Party Level (6th) x 1200 experience points, 7200 xp total, 450 xp per character.
So how'd I do with all that?
I told you it was easy.

PEL simply mimics the way the core rules determine it. Just that they don't explain it, whereas I do.
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