Need help calculating CR

[stenver]

The CR and CL calculation described in DMG is just way too complicated and doesnt cover all the areas, so i would like to as your help in calculating my parties CL and their opponents CR

Party consists of 3 characters, with subpar equipment, since they havent had a chance to visit a town for 2 levels and have had to toss away a lot of equipment in various escapes and infiltration missions.

Level 5 (buffer mostly)Cleric (elf)
Level 5 (two handed) Ranger (elf)
Level 5 Psion Warrior (orc, yes, and orc, just because its so cool)

Accompanying them are 1 level 3 paladin, 2 level 2 rangers and 3 level 2 warriors with standard NPC equipment from DMG

Opposing them are, with standard NPC equipment from DMG and some extra gadgets:
2 Level 3 Clerics
3 Level 2 barbarians
2 Level 1 fighters
5 Dogs

With 3 level 1 fighters coming up as reinforcements

[Serpentine]

This very handy tool finds these results:

Party of 3x 5th level, 1x 3rd level, 2x 2nd level and 3x 1st level (I believe NPC classes are considered either half or -1 the ECL of character classes?) is a party level 5.5.

An encounter of 2x 3CR, 3x 2CR, 2x 1CR and 5x 1/3CR is an encounter level 8, and Very Difficult.

Experience distribution should be 456 for the 5th levels, and 522 for everyone else. Average treasure is about 3300.3gp worth.

If you include the reinforcements as part of that encounter, there's no change except that experience is now 556 and 662, and average treasure value is 3830.4.

If the PCs are significantly below their expected wealth-per-level, then the party level may be a bit lower and the encounter a bit harder.

[stenver]

Thank you very much. We will see how the party will fare. They handled the last similar encounter with impressive performance, taking almost no damage at all.

[Serpentine]

I really recommend that site. I pretty much always use it. Has a link to the DMG random treasure tables, too.

[Runestar]

While the combined EL of your foes seems quite high, bear in mind the foes are individually very weak. Assuming you spread them up fairly evenly and don't have them focus-fire on any 1 PC, your party should be able to tackle them without too many casualties.

Should more or less make for a decent fight, though with so many attack rolls being made, I wouldn't be surprised to see the odd crit swing the tide of battle now and then.

[stenver]

Heh, odd crits are the ultimates in these kind of battles. But spreading them out is rather, what is going to make the battles more difficult.

The previous encounter, almost the same kind, the opponents were in tight formation, inside obscuring mist, slowly advancing towards the PC, planning an all out charge all together, while clerics support them from the edge of the mist. But PC were clever enough to use their area spells and items in a way, that almost completely disabled them(read alchemist fire, wind wall and entangle)

This time around, the enemy isnt crumbled together, so a few area spells arnt going to disable the entire force.

@Serpentine

I am very grateful for this site, i will make good use of it, i promise. Thank you very much, you have been most kind.