Does CR take treasure into account?

[Wippit Guud]

If I'm whipping up an encouter, say with a lich, and give all these magical items to it... well, he's going to use those items against the party, and that will increase his power... is that taken into account with assigning a CR?

 

[James McMurray]

Yep, at least for NPCs (such as liches). Vanilla monsters are probably not CRed based on optimal gear.

 

[trentonjoe]

If I'm whipping up an encouter, say with a lich, and give all these magical items to it... well, he's going to use those items against the party, and that will increase his power... is that taken into account with assigning a CR?

I think so.

 

[jgsugden]

CR takes into account the *expected* level of treasure for a monster. If you end up with drastically more or less useful treasure than normnal, you may want to adjust CR for circumstances.

Monsters in larger battle groups will have more powerful treasure than typically held by their species. A CR 2 monster usually doesn't have a strong magic weapon, but if there are enough of them, their collected Encounter Level may be sufficient to find a major item in their control. In situations such as this, it is often a good idea to bump up the abilities and CR of the creature with the strong item if they can make use of it.

A typical NPC class should have treasure typical of an NPC of that level as listed under NPCs, not treasure typical of its CR. It should also have ability scores typical of an NPC of that level and class (modified for race) as per the DMG NPC section.

 

[Korak]

Also, please note that dragons are assumed to have very little, if anything that they can use in their treasure hoards. If you want to give your dragon a number of really useful items in his hoard, you should bump the CR. I don't have a handy page reference, but this issue is discussed in the Draconomicon.

 

[frankthedm]

page 281

More wotc player babying IMHO

 

[shilsen]

page 281

More wotc player babying IMHO

Pg.281 of...?

 

[Christian]

Pg.281 of...?

In the context of the previous post, I'd guess the Draconomicon ...

 

[frankthedm]

In the context of the previous post, I'd guess the Draconomicon ...

yep!

I would of scanned the page but this board is a bit too favorable to copyreich