New to C&C - Monster/Encounter question

[narpet]

Hi all...

So... I just finished reading my newly arrived soft-cover PH (which I love) and I am left with one feeling that I had with the original versions of D&D.

I know this will be easy for all of the C&C regulars here, so I apologize for such a "newb" question... but I didn't see an obvious answer here, so please bear with me.

The one thing that I really like about 3rd edition D&D was the addition of Challenge Rating. It was so nice to read about a monster in the MM and know instantly if it was something that my group of adventurers could handle at their current level or not.

I may have missed it in the new PH, but I'm not finding anything that gives me a good idea of the challenge of a given monster/encounter. I have the new C&C MM as well and found no help there.

Now, I know there is the obvious, like don't send your first level party against that ancient red dragon
But, is there a guide I can use that is something like Challenge Rating???

If I missed it, please excuse my reading skills
Either way... I would really appreciate a simple explanation of how to determine the "level" of a given monster/encounter (I know that a monster's HD acts as its level but that doesn't exactly make multiple or mixed monster encounters easy to figure out)... and I really appreciate the help!

As a side note... I'm really loving what I'm reading so far... I'm a 30 year RPG veteran (exclusively DM'ing that entire time), and I really love what I'm reading! My group can't wait to get started on our new C&C campaign, and I really think it's going to be something special...

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I can't reply in this forum, so I wanted to clarify the answer (thanks for the quick answer by the way)... So are you saying it's basically like old D&D where it's up to the DM to "wing" it when it comes to creating multiple monster encounters? I can deal with that, but I just want to make sure...

Thanks again!

[gideon_thorne]

The opponents level or # of HD is generally the indicator.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[serleran]

There is no developed system to determine the appropriate challenge for any given party. HD or level of the monster may, at first, seem proper, but there are a great many factors to consider -- some monsters are more powerful than their HD indicates, having regeneration, death attacks, high AC, multiple attacks, etc etc, and some have extremely high HD (like dragons) where its unlikely a 32nd level party would even exist... so, as the Castle Keeper, you use what seems right for the game, and leave it to the players to decide when to run, and what to fight. So, yeah... basically you wing it.
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