ruleslawyer
Registered User
As I said earlier, count me in for the overwhelming majority of random encounters being either trivial or not really "encounters" per se; stretches of pulsating glowing fungus, the bones of a failed exploration group, the spoor of an actual monster, some weird ruins, and the entire gamut of "ordinary" NPCs, animals, etc. I'm still of the opinion that truly high-CR monsters should never be random encounters in the sense that they appear on a table whose purpose is to be used. I don't think it's per se unreasonable to put huge dragons or beholders on an encounter table, fine, but it doesn't fit with my philosophy: namely, that such creatures should be rare terrors to be specifically sought out. However, as I also said, there are going to be certain encounter areas (the Hellfurnace Mountains, the Elemental Plane of Fire, the Abyss, etc.) in which high-CR wandering monsters will be an essential part of the setting. Of course, only tougher PCs will ever venture into these settings (unless you've got a VERY mean DM or really stupid players) so that's OK.
Now, the Underdark happens to be one of those "tougher" environments. Consequently, it's not so hard to believe that there may be higher-CR wandering monsters. OTOH, the players should be aware of that by now (especially if you did the appropriate buildup to your revised D1-3). Unless the PCs are really bad at hiding, or the monster at hand is really good at spotting or hiding itself, or you've got the 20-HD vorpal bunny phenomenon, you should be all right. My advice would be to do just what you're doing; for basically unavoidable encounters like ropers, pare the EL down to a reasonable value. For encounters with a really high EL (like, say, demon-accompanied drow patrols), give the PCs a chance to avoid or escape. For lower ELs, let the chips fall where they may (and, in most cases, just handwave the encounters).
Now, the Underdark happens to be one of those "tougher" environments. Consequently, it's not so hard to believe that there may be higher-CR wandering monsters. OTOH, the players should be aware of that by now (especially if you did the appropriate buildup to your revised D1-3). Unless the PCs are really bad at hiding, or the monster at hand is really good at spotting or hiding itself, or you've got the 20-HD vorpal bunny phenomenon, you should be all right. My advice would be to do just what you're doing; for basically unavoidable encounters like ropers, pare the EL down to a reasonable value. For encounters with a really high EL (like, say, demon-accompanied drow patrols), give the PCs a chance to avoid or escape. For lower ELs, let the chips fall where they may (and, in most cases, just handwave the encounters).
