Encounter and XP math

[rrwoods]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGjBMDg/mobilebasic?pli=1

This document suggests a way of picking your monsters for an encounter in a manner similar to buying an army in warhammer. Seems really useful (and obviously comes with all the caveats associated with how bad the CR system really is -- don't worry, I read the article and I understand that stuff at least conceptually).

But it's for pathfinder, and I play and run D&D. I figured it wouldn't be a problem, just fiddle with the numbers until you get the right ones for 3.5 and everything is fine -- but it doesn't even scale the same way? Or I'm missing something?

If I go to the encounter calculator on d20srd, 1 ECL 1 vs 1 CR 1 comes to 300 XP (which is in the "CR +3" column for character level 1), but 1 ECL 4 vs 1 CR 4 comes to 1,200 (which is apparently the amount for "CR +4"). What gives? Is the 3.5 CR system just even more unbearable than the pathfinder one?

[ZamielVanWeber]

CR assumes 4 people. 1 level one character is actually less than 1 effective party level (.3 IIRC). 4 level 1 characters, with an effective party level of 1 would receive that far more reasonable 75 experience.

[rrwoods]

Right, I understand that. Still, the table in the linked article tells me the total experience awarded to 4 ECL 1 characters for defeating a CR 1 monster is 400 (100 each), not 300 (75 each). But for 4 ECL 4 characters defeating a CR 4 monster, the table and the calculator agree on a value of 1200 (300 each).

[Surpriser]

Which is not really surprising considering that higher level characters also need more xp to reach a new level.
If anything, the ECL 4 party get less XP, because they need 4000 XP for the next level and get 300XP for a level appropriate challenge, while the ECL 1 party get 100XP while needing only 1000XP.