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Monster damage realization - DPR per CR diminishes across the game
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 9211098" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>Been making higher challenge monsters, and was noticing I had to really tune up their offenses compared to the existing monsters I've seen to feel like I was designing a suitable threat. That made me wonder what sort of benchmarks are built into the existing monsters as far as DPR per CR. I know damage isn't the only thing to consider, but it is A thing, and this is interesting...</p><p></p><p>I took the monster chart from <a href="https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/forge_of_foes_preview.pdf" target="_blank">Forge of Foes</a> - they use a DPR (damage per round) which is <em>mostly</em> the average of the damage ranges given in the 2014 DMG page 274. It's worth noting that these values assume a monster is roughly equally balanced between defensive and offensive capability (at least whatever that means in game's maths).</p><p></p><p>I divided DPR by CR, organized the monster CRs by tier, leaving off the CR 21+ monsters for now, and here's what I found...</p><p></p><p>Tl;dr Average Damage per CR at Tier 0 (CR 1/8 to 1/2) is <span style="color: rgb(251, 160, 38)">21 damage</span>... then at Tier 1 (CR 1 to CR 4) it drastically drops to about <span style="color: rgb(251, 160, 38)">8 damage</span>... at Tier 2 (CR 5 to CR 10) it drops further to about <span style="color: rgb(251, 160, 38)">7 damage</span>... at Tier 3 (CR 11 to CR 16) it drops further to about <span style="color: rgb(251, 160, 38)">6 damage</span>... and at Tier 4 (CR 17 to CR 10) it stays about <span style="color: rgb(251, 160, 38)">6 damage</span> with a minuscule drop. I'll post maths in spoilers.</p><p></p><p>This was fascinating to me, as my expectation would be the trend should go in the opposite direction – i.e. <em>increasing</em> damage per CR for monsters intended to challenge high-level characters.</p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="My Maths"]</p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td><strong>CR 1/8 to 1/2</strong></td><td><strong>DPR</strong></td><td><strong>DPR per CR</strong></td></tr><tr><td>0.125</td><td>3</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>0.25</td><td>5</td><td>20</td></tr><tr><td>0.5</td><td>10</td><td>20</td></tr><tr><td></td><td><strong>AVERAGE</strong></td><td>21.3333333333333</td></tr></table><p></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td><strong>CR 1 to 4</strong></td><td><strong>DPR</strong></td><td><strong>DPR per CR</strong></td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>12</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>17</td><td>8.5</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>23</td><td>7.66666666666667</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>29</td><td>7.25</td></tr><tr><td></td><td><strong>AVERAGE</strong></td><td>8.85416666666667</td></tr></table><p></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td><strong>CR 5 to 10</strong></td><td><strong>DPR</strong></td><td><strong>DPR per CR</strong></td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>35</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>41</td><td>6.83333333333333</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>47</td><td>6.71428571428571</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>53</td><td>6.625</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>59</td><td>6.55555555555556</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>65</td><td>6.5</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td><td>6.70469576719577</td></tr></table><p></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td><strong>CR 11 to 16</strong></td><td><strong>DPR</strong></td><td><strong>DPR per CR</strong></td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>71</td><td>6.45454545454545</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>77</td><td>6.41666666666667</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>83</td><td>6.38461538461538</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>89</td><td>6.35714285714286</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>95</td><td>6.33333333333333</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>101</td><td>6.3125</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td><td>6.37646728271728</td></tr></table><p></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td><strong>CR 17 to 20</strong></td><td><strong>DPR</strong></td><td><strong>DPR per CR</strong></td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>107</td><td>6.29411764705882</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>113</td><td>6.27777777777778</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>119</td><td>6.26315789473684</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>132</td><td>6.6</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td><td>6.35876332989336</td></tr></table><p>[/SPOILER]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 9211098, member: 20323"] Been making higher challenge monsters, and was noticing I had to really tune up their offenses compared to the existing monsters I've seen to feel like I was designing a suitable threat. That made me wonder what sort of benchmarks are built into the existing monsters as far as DPR per CR. I know damage isn't the only thing to consider, but it is A thing, and this is interesting... I took the monster chart from [URL='https://slyflourish_content.s3.amazonaws.com/forge_of_foes_preview.pdf']Forge of Foes[/URL] - they use a DPR (damage per round) which is [I]mostly[/I] the average of the damage ranges given in the 2014 DMG page 274. It's worth noting that these values assume a monster is roughly equally balanced between defensive and offensive capability (at least whatever that means in game's maths). I divided DPR by CR, organized the monster CRs by tier, leaving off the CR 21+ monsters for now, and here's what I found... Tl;dr Average Damage per CR at Tier 0 (CR 1/8 to 1/2) is [COLOR=rgb(251, 160, 38)]21 damage[/COLOR]... then at Tier 1 (CR 1 to CR 4) it drastically drops to about [COLOR=rgb(251, 160, 38)]8 damage[/COLOR]... at Tier 2 (CR 5 to CR 10) it drops further to about [COLOR=rgb(251, 160, 38)]7 damage[/COLOR]... at Tier 3 (CR 11 to CR 16) it drops further to about [COLOR=rgb(251, 160, 38)]6 damage[/COLOR]... and at Tier 4 (CR 17 to CR 10) it stays about [COLOR=rgb(251, 160, 38)]6 damage[/COLOR] with a minuscule drop. I'll post maths in spoilers. This was fascinating to me, as my expectation would be the trend should go in the opposite direction – i.e. [I]increasing[/I] damage per CR for monsters intended to challenge high-level characters. [SPOILER="My Maths"] [TABLE] [TR] [TD][B]CR 1/8 to 1/2[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR per CR[/B][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]0.125[/TD] [TD]3[/TD] [TD]24[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]0.25[/TD] [TD]5[/TD] [TD]20[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]0.5[/TD] [TD]10[/TD] [TD]20[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][B]AVERAGE[/B][/TD] [TD]21.3333333333333[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE] [TR] [TD][B]CR 1 to 4[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR per CR[/B][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]1[/TD] [TD]12[/TD] [TD]12[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2[/TD] [TD]17[/TD] [TD]8.5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]3[/TD] [TD]23[/TD] [TD]7.66666666666667[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]4[/TD] [TD]29[/TD] [TD]7.25[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][B]AVERAGE[/B][/TD] [TD]8.85416666666667[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE] [TR] [TD][B]CR 5 to 10[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR per CR[/B][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]5[/TD] [TD]35[/TD] [TD]7[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]6[/TD] [TD]41[/TD] [TD]6.83333333333333[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]7[/TD] [TD]47[/TD] [TD]6.71428571428571[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]8[/TD] [TD]53[/TD] [TD]6.625[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]9[/TD] [TD]59[/TD] [TD]6.55555555555556[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]10[/TD] [TD]65[/TD] [TD]6.5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD]6.70469576719577[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE] [TR] [TD][B]CR 11 to 16[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR per CR[/B][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]11[/TD] [TD]71[/TD] [TD]6.45454545454545[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]12[/TD] [TD]77[/TD] [TD]6.41666666666667[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]13[/TD] [TD]83[/TD] [TD]6.38461538461538[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]14[/TD] [TD]89[/TD] [TD]6.35714285714286[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]15[/TD] [TD]95[/TD] [TD]6.33333333333333[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]16[/TD] [TD]101[/TD] [TD]6.3125[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD]6.37646728271728[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE] [TR] [TD][B]CR 17 to 20[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR[/B][/TD] [TD][B]DPR per CR[/B][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]17[/TD] [TD]107[/TD] [TD]6.29411764705882[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]18[/TD] [TD]113[/TD] [TD]6.27777777777778[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]19[/TD] [TD]119[/TD] [TD]6.26315789473684[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]20[/TD] [TD]132[/TD] [TD]6.6[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD]6.35876332989336[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/SPOILER] [/QUOTE]
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