How do levels of wealth for NPCs/Monsters affect CRs?
- Thread starter Olive
- Start date
Simplicity
Explorer
I'm pretty sure that there are no rules for this, but they sure would
be useful. Clearly, a level 1 kobold sorcerer with a staff of power should
be a higher CR than a simple kobold sorcerer.
I would say that one way to do this is to find out what the EL the
treasure guideline would fall into. That the maximum of (the treasure EL
minus 2) and (the creature's CR).
be useful. Clearly, a level 1 kobold sorcerer with a staff of power should
be a higher CR than a simple kobold sorcerer.
I would say that one way to do this is to find out what the EL the
treasure guideline would fall into. That the maximum of (the treasure EL
minus 2) and (the creature's CR).
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It would have been nice if they provided guidelines in the DMG regarding not only the effects of wealth on effective party strength, but also abilities scores (using point cost equivalent) and party size/composition.
Of course, the true value of the CR/EL system is that if it is properly balanced to a single reference point (iconic four character party, standard wealth, etc.), once the DM gets a feel for how his group differs, it isn’t too hard to modify encounters accordingly.
Of course, the true value of the CR/EL system is that if it is properly balanced to a single reference point (iconic four character party, standard wealth, etc.), once the DM gets a feel for how his group differs, it isn’t too hard to modify encounters accordingly.
Matrix Sorcica
Hero
check out Upper Krust's CR Calculation system on in the House Rules Forum. Good stuff!
Later,
Later,
Garnfellow
Explorer
Olive said:
This is a great question, and as far as I know it has never been tackled properly in any published supplement. The impact of equipment on CRs is vitally important not only in balancing individual encounters, but also if you're designing a campaign that has significantly less or greater levels of magic than the baseline Greyhawk setting.
The most useful guidelines I have ever found on this subject popped up in this Usenet discussion:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...selm=b4iiql%24sce%241%40panther.uwo.ca&rnum=1
Doug Lampert offered a pretty handy rule of thumb: assume 1/3 of an NPC's CR value is due to gear. After fiddling around his formula for a while, I developed a simple Javascript calculator that guestimates the impact of gear on CR:
http://home.gwi.net/~rdorman/frilond/rul/dm/equip.htm
Let me know if you find this useful.
Altalazar
First Post
A very interesting question - one that is probably hard to abstract an answer to. For instance, a kobold with a staff of power that can't use the staff has a great deal of wealth, but that just increases the loot, not the difficulty of the encounter. And even if it COULD use it, with crappy init, it could be taken down with one sleep spell, or one arrow, meaning that the wealth didn't amount to much. I think this is something a DM will likely just have to ballpark. But then one probably needs to do that anyway, from time to time, when it comes to EXP.
