So... XP?

[Inevitability]

I am kinda lost on XP at the moment. HotDQ (http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/HoardDragonQueen_Supplement1.pdf) has a Challenge Rating and XP listed for every monster.

I assume the CR is what level PC's should be before they can face this monster? Then why have 1/2 and 1/4 and 1/8 CR?

I assume XP is the XP that is divided amongst the players after the fight? Or is it for every individual PC?

By the way, does a balanced encounter still consist of x level-appropriate monsters, with x being the number of PC's?

I hope someone can help me out here.

[Madfellow]

Without the Dungeon Master's Guide I can't be certain about any of this, but if it works like it did in 3.5:

To determine the Challenge Rating of an encounter, you add up the Challenge Rating of each individual monster in it (that's why you have fractional CRs; it takes multiple monsters of that rating to equal a CR of 1). A total CR equal to the party's level is a good challenge for it, a CR below it is an easy encounter, and a CR just above it is a very significant threat (boss fight). The total XP of the encounter is divided evenly among party members.

[T.G. Oskar]

I am kinda lost on XP at the moment. HotDQ (http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/HoardDragonQueen_Supplement1.pdf) has a Challenge Rating and XP listed for every monster.

I assume the CR is what level PC's should be before they can face this monster? Then why have 1/2 and 1/4 and 1/8 CR?

I assume XP is the XP that is divided amongst the players after the fight? Or is it for every individual PC?

By the way, does a balanced encounter still consist of x level-appropriate monsters, with x being the number of PC's?

I hope someone can help me out here.

5e runs with the concept of the "experience budget", where creatures grant their own amount of XP rather than using a table for it (or at least, for the time being). Thus, the "balance" of an encounter is defined mostly by a simple equation.

For example: an Easy encounter in 5e should give a character 20 XP. You multiply that to the number of characters in your party. Thus, any monster who gives (20 x number of characters) is treated as an Easy encounter if fought alone. A Kobold, using HotDQ statistics, grants 25 XP total, so facing one should be an Easy encounter for a 1st level character. Two should be a Moderate encounter for a 1st level character, as the sum of both would be 50, which is right at the Moderate encounter range. Six Kobolds would be a Hard encounter.

The Challenge Rating is used as a complement to the XP budget in determining the challenge of an encounter. Based on the Building Adventures column of "Legends & Lore", an ogre grants 450 xp, which can easily fit the Hard encounter of a 3-man party and the Challenging encounter of a 5-man party. However, its Challenge Rating indicates that, for a 4-man party, the ideal moment to encounter it would be at 2nd level (at 450 xp, it'd be Moderate for a 4-man party in addition to some weaker mobs, such as CR 1/4 creatures or so). The Challenge Rating is a ballpark of how challenging the monster should be for an average party; the XP budget determines how many of them are enough for a challenge, and it also restrains the amount of XP you deliver. So it's a combination of the two.

Chances are the DMG will present a variant rule to deliver XP via the creature's Challenge Rating, but the XP is delivered via budget. Thus, if you plan to level up the party every session, you should plan your XP budget accordingly and then choose an amount of monsters whose total XP equals or exceeds the budget, then group them based on how many encounters of each type you want to have. The same column recommends, as a guideline, that a party can face a number of encounters whose total XP amount equals that of two Hard encounters before requiring a long rest; that's enough at 1st level to provide a level-up, and would require around 2 and a half days worth of adventuring to reach 3rd level. Thus, as a DM, you tailor encounters based on how many creatures fit the required number for each kind of encounter, THEN look at the CR to determine whether they are viable choices or might end up being a tad too challenging.

That's how I interpret it at the very least, and it also uses the notion of 3.5's CR, which ended up being deceptive at most (some creatures were under their CR, some creatures were way over their CR). There's a lot of emphasis on XP budget over CR, so for the most part use CR if you have doubts of whether the monster is viable or not. In the given example, chances are a single Ogre would be more than a Hard encounter for a party of three 1st level PCs, even if the XP budget would imply otherwise.

On the other hand, just about every CR has the same amount of XP. Thus, Challenge Rating could be used as a shorthand to aid with an XP budget (example: one CR 1/4 creature is a Moderate encounter for a 1st level character, so four CR 1/4 creatures are a Moderate encounter for a 1st-level party of four). There are modifiers for when the number of creatures exceeds the party (+50% fXP or a 2-to-1 ratio between monsters and characters, for example), so things may differ. A group of eight CR 1/8 creatures should give 50% more XP if facing a party of four 1st-level PCs, because they outnumber the party; however, if you happen to place six CR 1/8 creatures and one CR 1/4 creature on the same party, chances are you'll "fill" the budget without incurring on the modifier.