Appropriate Monsters for a c. 7th-level party

[VoxRationis]

I'm setting up an AD&D game, more or less for the first time, and, coming as I am from 3.5, I have no idea how to set up challenges appropriate to the party, and by that, I mean that while I understand that AD&D doesn't assume just-strong-enough-for-XP monsters like 3.5 does, I also need to figure out what sort of monsters are appropriate for a party of 75,000 XP each (so about 7th level for single-classed characters) so that, even if I'm going to throw it at them anyway, I still know whether they have a good shot at defeating it or not. The table in the Encounters chapter has a listing of dungeon level by XP value for monsters, but I think that's just for random encounters. There's a dragon I want to stick in this dungeon, and all the dragons I can see have XP values significantly higher than the 1,000--3,000 listed for the 7th level of dungeons, which adds to my confusion. Surely that means that 7th-level characters are expected to be able to face more than the monsters of the 7th level in a dungeon, right?

[Thrudd]

There's no hard and fast rule. Look at how many HP the monster is likely to have. Look at how much damage it can do and whether it has special abilities that will make things tougher. Look at how big the party is likely to be (including henchmen) and the HP of each party member and how much damage they can do (and what AC they can reliably hit). Then eyeball how tough you think the fight will be. In the end, you can never really know. That's the fun of it!

Remember that XP is going to be divided amongst the whole party, and their henchmen. If you go with a middle-of-the-road young adult green dragon and roll up its hoard (assuming you're using XP for gold), the whole thing could be 50,000 XP, or even less. This would obviously be the big end-of the dungeon encounter, nothing else they meet will be this tough or have this much treasure. divide that by four, five, six. Everyone gets 10,000 XP maybe. At 75,000 XP, a fighter needs another 30-50 k (can't remember) to hit level 8. So that dragon will definitely make a difference for their advancement, but not unreasonably so.

[LibraryOgre]

My rule of thumb is a bit weird, but I find it workable.

Take a look at your party, and then take a look at the DMG (if you have the black cover, it's table 31 on page 69; if you have the wizard cover, then look in Chapter 8), and figure out the XP value of each member of the party.

However much your party is worth should be your XP budget for a hard fight.

Let's say you have a human fighter, 7th level. Since levels are all X+ on the table, he starts as 7+1 to 8 HD, or 650 XP. He's got a 0 or lower AC, so that's +1. We'll say he has a high con, so that's another +1. Uses missile weapons, that's another +1. Has useful magical items, that's another +1. That gives him an XP value of about 2000 XP.

What should he face? A basilisk isn't a bad challenge, by this method... 1400 XP. He's got ranged weapons, so he might make easy work of it, but it's not going to calmly let itself get killed, so it'll do its best to change up and look him in the eye. Fighting a flesh golem (2000 xp) is going to be a challenge... it hits hard, and has more HD, but our fighter friend might be able to shoot it from a distance to get started, and it IS easier to hit than he is. But either of those fights would be fairly difficult for our fighter friend in the plane of emptiness on which theoretical fights usually happen.

What about multiples? Can a single fighter take on 10 Hook Horrors (175*10)? Maybe. They're tough, attack frequently, and do some decent damage. But he's tougher, and if he can bring his missile weapons to bear effectively on the fight (which his XP value suggests he can), then he's got a better chance, because they can't reach him to do damage until he does. If he CAN'T effectively use his missile weapons, or whatever magic items you have him carrying can't be used for some reason, it drops his effective XP value, and thus a reasonable XP budget... if he's going to get ambushed by these 10 hook horrors, then he can't bring his missile weapons to bear, and he's probably toast. If he starts standing on a high ledge, so has several rounds where they're climbing to shoot at them? He's got a better chance.

His XP value is fluid, so you need to consider that in encounter design. Technically, it's pretty easy for a mid-level thief to kill a high level wizard... if you strip the high level wizard of all his spells and magic items. Should that high level wizard still be worth as many XP as one who was armed and had a day's worth of spells in his head?

[VoxRationis]

Continuing the concept of this thread as 2e help, where are the rules for dragon magical resistance? The Monstrous Manual says "Young adult and older dragons radiate a personal aura that makes them partially resistant to harmful magic. A dragon's resistance to magic increases as it ages." However, I can't find any stats on that for the life of me.

[Lord Torath]

The table at the bottom of each dragon's entry should list MR (Magic Resistance) for each age category.

[VoxRationis]

Oh, "MR." Duh. I don't know how I missed that. Thanks a bunch!