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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4629830" data-attributes="member: 710">I think these two are closely related. If it's the most enjoyable level range, people will also focus more on that naturally. ---I am not sure if it's a "wrong fact" or a misrepresentation or misuse of the rules. The basic encounter guidelines suggest EL = PL encounters as a baseline, but they also allow more monsters and higher EL per encounter. I currently have only the 3.0 DMG ready here. On p.102 Table 4-2 tells us the typical expected encounter difficulties (for "tailored" encounters. There are of course no encounter design guidelines for non-tailored encounters, since that part would be world/sandbox building. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )[sblock]10% are easy (EL < PL)20 % Easy if handled properly (Typically you need to figure out the dangerous monster in the encounter and take it down, or somethingl ike that. THe example is a invisible Cleric healing Ogres)50 % Challenging (EL = PL)15 % very Difficult (EL = PL +1 to PL+4)5 % Overpowering (EL = PL +5 or higher)I remember the DMG 3.5 also containing information on how much resources were to be expended per encounter. Something as defined as "challenging" should cost 20 or 25 %, IIRC. So this would suggest you'd run through 4 challenging encounters before you need rest. [/sblock]Okay, where was I going with that? Well, first the tables don't tell us how many monsters to use. A few things that might become notable with experience though is.1) A "challenging" encounter doesn't feel that challenging if you have all that arcana and divine power at your disposal, and heal away all damage with your Curesticks.2) A "challenging" encounter with multiple monsters will feel very one-sided, since the monsters barely hit and are easily hit by the PCs.3) Calculating EL for multiple monster with varying CR seems sometimes a little bizarre (though you can actually guesstimate it easily...)I wouldn't be surprised if that lead to people to use harder encounters then challenging ones by just picking higher level opponents instead of building bigger monster groups.---How short combats are measured in rounds depends on: - Do you use a lot of save or die effects (typically for high level play)? - Do you optimize your power attack- Do you powergame. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />How long combats take in real life depend on:  - Does it involve ability changing effects (buffs and debuffs) - Does it involve Dispel Magic?- Does it involve Grappling, Tripping, Disarms or Sunders (extra dice rolls and rounds - you might neutralize your enemy, but you still need to kill him afterwards, and his round doesn't get shorter just because he is using an ineffective weapon. It doesn't matter much whether you roll for 1d4+5 damage or for 3d6+18 damage)Another time-consuming aspects regarding combat was typically the "pre-combat buffing ceremony".- Cast Heroes Feast.- Who gets the Greater Magic Armor/Weapon spells? - Who gets the Magic Circle vs Evil?- Who is preparing the ability restoration spells? And generally all the "who prepares what and what do we need to do now."</blockquote>

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