Hey simple question but one i can;t find the answer to

The xp value given next to a monsters CR. is that per character or divided amonst the group.

E.G a Zombie is worth 50xp if a party of 4 defeats 4 zombies do they gain 50 exp each or 200xp each?

In reply to PushBarToOpen (msg # 1):

This is the total xp for the monster. So a party of 4 beating 4 zombies would gain 200 xp in total or 50 exp each. A party of 2 doing the same would gain 100 each and a party of eight characters doing the same should be reported for bullying the vitally impaired

Also slightly related. Are the CR's still balanced against a party of 4. e.g CR1 is an appropriate challenge for 4 lvl1 characters?

Determining an appropriate challenge in 5e is a combination of the CR as well as the overall XP value of the encounter. The free basic rules should have some more info this week about it, but for the meantime this article is helpful for encounter building - https://dnd.wizards.com/articl...uilding-adventures-0

I got the impression that 5e was more like 4e on this front.

At each level you are told what a reasonable amount of xp is for a challenging or average or easy encounter. You then go spend that xp to buy monsters to stock the encounter with. The xp is also how much the party earns for beating said monsters.

I'm not sure if the chart with the correct xp for various levels is out yet.

I don't know if this still applies to 5e, but part of CR in 3.x was not just how difficult a creature was but also based on the average expected numbers such as saves, DCs, etc as well as whether players were expected to be able to bypass certain defenses. So just because players were dealing lots of damage and killing creatures off quickly didn't mean that simply raising the CR was the answer, because raising the CR could completely unbalance other factors such as the chance for the caster to affect the monster, the chances of whether the players could resist the monster's abilities etc.

Thus the CR system broke down, because the players could overspecialize in one area to totally crush enemies while their other stats were still normal, and any monster that actually used that against the players would seem like it was too powerful when the ability was basically not resistible, yet the monster would still die too easy.

Not sure I explained it very well, but I hope you get what I mean.

More of the same CR is a different kind of difficulty increase then using a higher CR.

WotC has added some DM info to the basic rules, you can grab the free pdf here - https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

It has a good number of monsters in it as well as some encounter building guidelines (starting on page 56).

The idea is that the XP listed beside the Monster is then divided by 4 (the number of players in a group)

However if your group has more or less that XP changes as well.

 This took will help with that.
http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder


These then shows that if you have 6 lvl 1 characters the XP would change.

It is generally 700XP divided by 4 -
But you have 2 more players so the XP is adjusted as shown to 350xp (That is still divided by the number of players so 6 in this case.)

I just take the story teller approach and tell them when its ok to level up again.

Usually after a long beat.