CR Question

[ScubaGoomba]

How should you handle the CR of a situation where opponents are being buffed, but the character buffing them is not part of the Encounter?

Say, for example, the players are in an arena and a cavalier stands off to the side to use his banner as a support for his favored combatant? Or the players are raiding a goblin tribe and the local witch doctor shaman is sending hexes to the battle, but is too far away for the players to engage at this point? The wizard leading a troupe of soldiers casts Bull's Strength and Enlarge Person on his army, making them more dangerous than they would otherwise have been.

If they were fully part of the encounter, then the CR would just factor them in, but since they're just sending buffs or penalties, but aren't taking any more of an active participation (the cavalier isn't riding in to fight/the witch doctor isn't casting offensive spells or hexing the players), how would you rule?

[dascarletm]

How should you handle the CR of a situation where opponents are being buffed, but the character buffing them is not part of the Encounter?

Say, for example, the players are in an arena and a cavalier stands off to the side to use his banner as a support for his favored combatant? Or the players are raiding a goblin tribe and the local witch doctor shaman is sending hexes to the battle, but is too far away for the players to engage at this point? The wizard leading a troupe of soldiers casts Bull's Strength and Enlarge Person on his army, making them more dangerous than they would otherwise have been.

If they were fully part of the encounter, then the CR would just factor them in, but since they're just sending buffs or penalties, but aren't taking any more of an active participation (the cavalier isn't riding in to fight/the witch doctor isn't casting offensive spells or hexing the players), how would you rule?

I would calculate the cost of buying those spell, a-la PHB Equipment, and either decrease their gear accordingly to keep the same CR or find where it talks about over equipped encounters and see what the new CR should be.

[Keld Denar]

In the DMG, there is a recommendation to increase the EL of the encounter by 1 or 2 based on "favorable circumstances" for the bad guys. Its up to the DM to determine whether or not the bonus delivered is worth an increase in the EL. Note that XP is granted by CR, not EL, however, so that wouldn't change the rewards unless you wanted to grant extra story XP or such.