Simple math isn't simple.

[Duboris]

An Encounter with 9 Cr 1/3rd's and 1 CR 7

What level of encounter is that?

[ThiagoMartell]

An Encounter with 9 Cr 1/3rd's and 1 CR 7

What level of encounter is that?

According to the Encounter Calculator (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/), it's EL 8.

[sonofzeal]

An Encounter with 9 Cr 1/3rd's and 1 CR 7

What level of encounter is that?
Three CR 1/3's is EL 1. We have three of those.

Two EL 1's is an EL 3. Three is roughly EL 4.

An EL 4 and a CR 7 is... on the low end of EL 8, but still makes the cut IMO.

[BShammie]

An Encounter with 9 Cr 1/3rd's and 1 CR 7

What level of encounter is that?

The SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/) says that it's a level eight encounter.
Just so you know, the challenge rating system is often a poor measuring tool. A creature's strength isn't always represented properly, especially since the designers didn't see to know what they were doing for some of them. The monstrous crab (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a) and much of the second monster manual come to mind.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Unless there's something extraordinarily effective about how the CR 1/3s' abilities mesh with the cr 7's, it's an EL 8 encounter at most.

Depending on party level and the cr 1/3s abilities they may not be enough to raise the EL at all, leaving it at 7.

[Duboris]

Thaaaat's going in the bookmarks.

[nyjastul69]

An Encounter with 9 Cr 1/3rd's and 1 CR 7

What level of encounter is that?

Depending on the specifics, the 9 CR1/3rd's won't factor in much at all to the EL. I'd say without more specification, it's an EL 7 encounter. It might be be 8 or higher depending upon terrain, party composition, beastie types, etc. The CR/EL rules aren't an exact science, it's a rough gauge that needs to be hashed out between the party and DM. This looks like an EL 7 encounter.

[XionUnborn01]

Out of curiosity, what is this encounter? I'm interested in seeing the 1/3's that you're pairing with a CR 7. Because I always like one big guy with a swarm of helpers.

[Duboris]

Out of curiosity, what is this encounter? I'm interested in seeing the 1/3's that you're pairing with a CR 7. Because I always like one big guy with a swarm of helpers.

The Cr 1/3s are "Clockwork Assistants" which have 1 Hd, a standard hp of 5, an armor class of 13, and only do 1 thing. The only thing they cast is Make whole, but they have to be in touch range.

Their stats are 4 str, 4 dex, - con, - int, 1 wis, 1 cha.



The Big bad for this encounter, the CR 7, is a Large Clockwork Construct that's fallen apart, and smothered in rust.

When the group first encounters it, it's clutching a 25,000 gold Diamond in it's small hand. It's in it's "Dormant" state, but wakes up if it's hit, or they attempt to remove the diamond.

There are actually 9 Assistants, and they come into the room after the diamond has been pried away and begin to repair the party's equipment to full. However, as they get done with that, they all make a dead sprint for the larger construct and start to raise it's health and repair it, starting the big bad up, and having him ready to fight at max hp (79)

There are actually 9 Cr 1/3s, (They might be 1/4ths) and the single CR 7

Regardless, the fight is still difficult, and they can easily kill the assistants if they wish.

The Assistants are "Fine" and always considered flat footed, as they never become hostile.

[Averis Vol]

This may just be me but the assistants sound adorable and, were I the PC, I would probably pack them up and keep them.

So just a warning from a player to a DM, those things could be really useful to a group of adventurers.

[Duboris]

I know right?

But keeping them alive in the fight means that the big bad is going to have 9 creatures casting Make Whole on it every round.

That's 9d6 hp recovery per turn.

That's bad.

[Eurus]

Keep in mind that one AoE spell of even low-ish level is enough to wipe the mini repair bots once they're clustered around the big guy, so it might be closer to CR 7 than 8. Depends on how it plays out, probably. If the minis don't end up causing much trouble, it's probably a 7, if the party has to devote some actions, tactics, or resources to dealing with them then it could be an 8.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Those aren't cr 1/3. They're CR 0 since they pose no threat whatsoever and can be destroyed with almost zero effort.

What you've described is an EL 7 or 9 encounter depending on whether the PC's just nuke the little boogers when they bolt for the big one. 7 if they do 9 if they don't because they're effectively fighting two of the big guy.

[ericgrau]

Almost zero isn't zero and even one action is a lot to blow to keep them from repairing the big bad.

With so little hp they run the risk of overkill from melee attacks making much of his damage wasted if he goes after them instead of the big bad. If the party has area damage or other multi-damage on the other hand they can wipe them pretty quickly. So EL 8 is probably right but if the party lacks the ability to handle large numbers of opponents it could be harder for them. I wouldn't reward them more experience for being poorly prepared, but let's say the party is only level 5 and doesn't have ways to handle large numbers of mooks. Then you run the risk of killing one or more players and might need to tone it down.

And there might be a 1 round delay before the PCs figure out that they should kill the mooks first even if they have the means to wipe out the mooks.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Op already described his party in the thread where he asked if his bruiser construct was appropriate to the party. At least one of them is capable of nuking the little ones with a single standard action. Given his party's composition, they may even have enough attacks between them to drop all 9 without a nuking spell.