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I found the idea of an XP budget to be completely essential to building a combat encounter in 4E.  I have not gotten a chance to playtest the system yet but I really hope there is a system in place to work out the "correct" number of monsters to put out for the expected difficulty of the encounter/adventure.

It was/is important for 4E, no doubt.  But 4E is pretty rigidly controlled when it come to building encounters.  Not much of 4E is "just for fun."

I don't think Next should be like 4E, though.  The game shouldn't center around tight, well balanced and challenging combat.  I don't think game balance and combat mechanics should be 1a and 1b on their priority list in this edition.  4E really is a good RPG.... and solid throughout.  If they want to expand 4E, they should just do that.

I want 5E to be the throwback to simpler days with lessons learned from all editions along the way that it feels like it's headed towards.  To that ends, getting encounters balanced "just right" doesn't have to be so important.

Getting the feel of a real, living-world encounter right would be more important in my book.

Examples:
4E - You created an encounter to test players.  A good mix of XP budget creatures that include a nice mix of artillery, soldier, and skirmishers (for example).  It should put to test the group's skill and use up about 20% of their resources.

Next - You put together a handful of creatures that make sense for the adventure they are on.  Bugbears have been raiding a dwarven mine.  For the current level, I am going to say 4 bugbears who have half a dozen gnolls along to carry stuff if the from their typical raids.  Not worrying about making sure they have a controller, lurker, and artillery in there.  Just some creatures to give the PCs a modest challenge they should overcome unless they play foolishly or the die are very unkind.

You still need a rough estimation (creature level, damage, HPs, etc) of how tough they are (so it would be nice if XP reflected challenge), but making sure it is perfectly suited for the extact type of encounter you expect (aka 4E) isn't necessary.

+1 or -1 creature should throw everything out of whack like it did in 4E.

That said, a good XP chart and encounter creation rules would still benefit novice DMs and give a starting point for veteran ones, too.
 

You should also know what they can or can't handle as a group by now. If it seems like it's too strong, or not strong enough... Then you're absolutely right. Adjust it accordingly, for fun, not for XP. If you want to award them the correct XP for the encounter, throw in a mix of role play parts. Perhaps the boss gets a bit angry part way through and begins casting a spell that will threaten to instantly kill a party member unless the players focus their attention on damaging the holy symbol he uses while preparing the spell. Give them a round or two to do this; if it doesn't work a player gets dropped to -5 hp. If it does work, continue the fight as normal but have the boss take a round at a disadvantage ^^. Little things like that make a MASSIVE difference in combat... Especially when 4e didn't really allow for that when it came to balance... Put a boss on stop for a round and the players will just own him; or call cheats when for some reason he's invulnerable... Seems like Next is allowing for that roleplay/combat style we love so much.

Aug 21, 2012 -- 8:44PM, Karunake wrote:

I don't get it. What does having a XP budget and creating tightly planned encounters have in common? If you want to say: screw this, I put the monsters I want, say it. Tally the XP, and spread it around, just don't use it to *plan*.

Linking XP to challenge, and suggesting a budget, shouldn't turn anyone away from the game. Really. It just means that in the end, you don't need a supercomputer to give your players their reward. Even   in 4e, it was just a guideline, clearly stating that you should also eyeball the relative difficulty of monsters so the XP budget isn't filled with mooks or unkillable monsters.

I've played a lot, and still play, of 4E.  Let me tell you, it's very easy to make a little misjudgment in Encounter Creation to upset the cart.  I've had to fudge a lot of encounters that were simply ill-suited for the group.

4E might have called them guidelines, but with resource management and game balance was at the crux of the game, it was a very strong suggestion to design encounters within the boundaries.