Small Parties and CRs

[Wamba the Fool]

I recall reading somewhere (DMG? MM?) that the Challenge Ratings given for monsters etc. assumed a party of 4-5 PCs with a variety of classes. If my party consists of a 6th-level Fighter and a 6th-level Sorcerer, should the difficulties then be CR 3? Higher? Lower?

Thanks in advance.

[The Glyphstone]

You might want to consider Gestalt rules if you've got a 2-man party.

[Saph]

The Challenge Rating system assumes a party of 4 PCs with a standard class mix.

For your party, the SRD Encounter Calculator places them at effective party level 4. So they should be fighting enemies of CR 4, which sounds about right to me (though healing will be an issue for more than one encounter per day).

- Saph

[Suvarov454]

That information is on pages 48 and 49 of the DMG. Basically, you apply the rules for multiple creatures of any given Challenge Rating to determine the Encounter Level, only in reverse. That is to say, one 6th level NPC has a fixed CR, but two 6th level NPCs are higher, and 4 are higher still. Just work down from 4 to 2 (or even 1) to figure out what EL the players should have (just as if you had 6 or 8 PCs).

If you are feeling lazy, you can use the following Encounter Calculator (http://www.d20srd.org/encounterCalculator.htm) to do the work for you, instead. It's based on the same principles as the DMG, but "smooths out the curve" from the values in the DMG's table.

[Wamba the Fool]

Thanks for the info, everyone!
I think a wandering friendly Cleric of Fharlanghn might be in these PCs future. ;-)

[Tommer_man]

Yeah that works only some times however...but then again I think the CR system is a little flawed, I just observe a monsters statistics and then throw them at pcs or make a dungeon with them. Then they would get experience based off of its CR with maybe a little lower or higher depending on what the DM feels apropriate.

[Thomas]

If you've got two PCs, drop the ELs by 1 or 2. (CRs have nothing to do with it, really.) Note the table in the DMG that tells you the approximate proportion of encounters that should be each EL (X-2, X-1, X, X+1, etc.).

[daggaz]

And be wary of monsters with dangerous special attacks, as your party has very little safety net. If one person goes down, it gets ugly fast. A good example would be undead with paralysis touch (ghouls ghasts etc..) They could easily destroy your party, as you have to roll charisma based fortitude save on every successful attack, or get paralysed. The next round, you are usually dead from a coup-de-grace, unless your DM pulls his punches. And with no cleric to either heal/remove paralysis/turn undead, well... yeah ouch.