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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Destil" data-source="post: 3132402" data-attributes="member: 1980">*sigh* 4 encounters per day means one thing:The EL ratings are based on the assumption that a party of 4 at level X with items totaling a GP value approprate to level X can fight 4 EL X encounters before spending all of their 'resoucres' (spells, hit points etc.)  A 5th encounter would most likely be a TPK as they should be nearly out of usefull spells, low on HP et cetera.And let's be fair, it's the 4 iconics. Tordek Dwarf Fighter, Mialee Elf Wizard, Lydia Halfling Thief and Josan Human cleric. All with statring stats of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 at 1st level (before racial adjustments).(Note: I've never heard anyone explain how resources like wands and potions that are not restricted to daily use come into play in this mesurement. If anyone has I'd love to hear!)That's it.Really, that's it. It's advice for the DM to what CR and EL mean reletive to your party's level.It's a tiny obscure part of the system designed to help explain a single line in most monster entrys that trys (and sometimes fails, but at least it trys) to sum up something as abstract as monster power.It's a little bit of friendly advice to the DM as far as what to expect when you put 2 orcs against your bran new shiny 4 member 1st person party (that after the 4th pair of orcs they'll most likely need to rest, though axe crits are nasty at 1st level...)Why this gets drug out and beaten as meaning the system was designed for "4 encounters per day" I have no idea. Likewise why it gets drug out and beaten as far as the game requiring 4 PC. Or requiring a cleric, rogue, wizard and fighter.The fact is they had to make some assumptions when they designed the system. And because they explained what thoes assumptions were, you have some idea what changes between your group and their test group mean. There was no way to build the EL / CR system without a baseline for player power.Now why there aren't half a dozen books on what sort of changes happen when you vary party size / wealth / magic / class compisition to this baseline I don't have a clue. They would be so much more usefull than semi-generic book with some sort of theme but at least 10 prestige classes / spells / magic items / feats for a DM. I guess what accounts math just isn't an easy pitch when you want someone to publish a book... (and the lack of player apeal hurts too, I'm sure).Stating that the rules don't work for you because you don't have 4 players; your players don't play cleric, rogue, fighter, wizard or you don't run dungeon crawls with 4 fights a day is like saying that the metric system dosn't work for you because it's based on the idea that a cubic centimeter of water weighs 1 gram and you're mesuring lead, not water.(yes that's a dated example because centimeters are now defined in terms of the speed of light and grams are a defined quantity. I'm just gonna run with it anyway...)Note: Henry's right on. Player (and DM) assumption is where this causes problems. It's not really the system...</blockquote>

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