Hey everyone! Like a lot of DMs, I've struggled to get CR to work reliably in my games. Unlike a lot of DMs, I can honestly claim that it's my fault.
5e drafts heavily off of 3e's core mechanics, so it made sense to recruit its encounter building tool. Rodney Thompson and Peter Lee both pushed...
He designed 5e, largely. Got laid off with most of the wizards staff just before Christmas. He created the 5e CR system. So now that he is independent, he wants to fix what he considers to be a broken thing that is his fault.
I haven't read this thread yet because it's not loading while I'm at work, but I've heard good things about the Flee, Mortals encounter building rules, a third party book by MCDM. Apparently the CR and encounter building rules work well there.