How to remove character levels from NPCs?

[Dungeon Miser]

Hi everyone! I'm a new DM. I've been playing 3.5 for the past three years, and I'll be taking some doughty PCs through a Dungeon Crawl Classics module (The Dragonfiend Pact). Trouble is I'll have to alter the module so it suits 1st level characters, and I've never scaled down stat blocks per the scaling information in the DCCs. I'm looking for some help from more experienced DMs, especially any who have run DCCs.

What do I need to do to drop (for example) a Fighter2/Rogue2 character to one level of each class? I know this much: I want to reduce the Hit Dice to the new lower character level, and I want to trim the appropriate number of skill points off skills, and if an NPC is at 4th level or more I want to drop an ability score down a point. What am I missing? Thanks a lot!

 

[Asmor]

If I may make a suggestion, why not just bump the characters up to an appropriate level and save yourself a headache?

 

[Dungeon Miser]

Hi! I could do that, or just rebuild the NPCs to a new lower level. But what I'd really like to do is be able to look at a complete stat block and be able to drop (say) a 5th level cleric down to a 3rd level cleric, and I'm hoping some people who have more experience (points?) doing that sort of thing can let me know how they've gone about it.

Edit: Put another way, in the example above, is it safe to say I need to: remove 2d8 HP, alter the BAB, saving throws etc.? You just go through the class info in the PHB and work backwards to whatever your target level is? The trick is there's not much of a trick?

 

[IamTheTest]

Not that I'm especially experienced with this sort of thing, but I'd definitely just reverse engineer the whole thing. Or perhaps just build a lvl3 Cleric with the same fluff as the lvl5 Cleric. No sense making it harder than it needs to be.

 

[GMVictory]

A quick way I sometimes use is to slap negative levels on the NPCs I want to reduce.

The F2/R2 example with 2 negative levels would have -10hp, -2 (BAB, Saves, and skill checks).

Cleric 5 would have -10hp, -2 (BAB, Saves, and skill checks), and lose the two highest level spells.

 

[Dungeon Miser]

Thanks, GMVictory. One thing - where are you getting the totals for how many HP you remove? It seemed to me that you have to remove (for example) 2d8 hp for the 2 lost Cleric levels. Where does a flat -10hp come from? (here I suppose it may just be easier to re-roll for a new total, instead of shaving off numbers as with BAB, etc)

I appreciate the help, guys. I certainly wouldn't want to reverse engineer a 17th level character down to a 4th level character, but I'd like to get familiar with ways to drop a couple levels here or there for quick CR tweaking. If nothing else it helps me think about the rules in a different light....

 

[GMVictory]

Thanks, GMVictory. One thing - where are you getting the totals for how many HP you remove? It seemed to me that you have to remove (for example) 2d8 hp for the 2 lost Cleric levels. Where does a flat -10hp come from? (here I suppose it may just be easier to re-roll for a new total, instead of shaving off numbers as with BAB, etc)

I appreciate the help, guys. I certainly wouldn't want to reverse engineer a 17th level character down to a 4th level character, but I'd like to get familiar with ways to drop a couple levels here or there for quick CR tweaking. If nothing else it helps me think about the rules in a different light....

From the SRD a negative level bestows a -1 to BAB, skill checks, ability checks and saving throws, -5hp, spellcasters lose one of the highest level spellcasting slot they possess and have -1 to the effective level of the spell (for save DC, damage, etc).