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Laurellien
2008-10-26, 02:50 PM
Okay, I roll up a random encounter and want to put treasure on it, the encounter is four CR 4 creatures, do I calculate four lots of level 4 treasure, or one lot of level 6 treasure? Similarly, for experience point purposes, if the party defeats this encounter, do I award XP per monster (based on CR) or XP based on the encounter (EL)?

Please help!

Defiant
2008-10-26, 04:02 PM
One of the most priceless tools for a DM. When I started DMing, this already existed, so I've always had it easy:

http://www.penpaperpixel.org/tools/d20encountercalculator.htm

Laurellien
2008-10-26, 05:00 PM
I just favourited that, it is made of awesome and win.

Defiant
2008-10-26, 10:57 PM
You might also like this (so that you don't end up facing the players against dire camels in a swamp):

http://www.penpaperpixel.org/tools/d20monsterfilter/

And then there's the central hub that is the SRD:

http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm

Tsotha-lanti
2008-10-26, 11:37 PM
Treasure is based on Encounter Level, XP is based on Challenge Rating. (This can result in slight incongruities, but generally works out nicely and evens out over time.)

It's all very simple (yes, even the EL table is), and I can't see why anyone would need special calculators for it.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-10-26, 11:40 PM
I just throw random amounts at my players and see what they do with it. It's fun, and they've already got ludicrous equipment as part of the game's premise.

For more serious games, I just use that linked calculator. It's wonderful.

Gralamin
2008-10-26, 11:48 PM
Treasure and Challenge Rating (and thus XP) in 3rd edition is a rather loose fit. Try using those calculators if they help you, but always be ready to improvise if things don't go as planned.