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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
[3.5] CRs still out of whack?
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<blockquote data-quote="Jhyrryl" data-source="post: 1050098" data-attributes="member: 6406"><p>Yes.</p><p></p><p>A brute creature is going to deal damage - that's what makes them brutes. You can expect a brute creature like an elemental, a hydra, a dragon, etc., to dish out damage roughly equal to 25% of the party's hit points. In a party of 4, that's a full character's hit points, and if it happens to be one of the PCs on the lower side of average, you're going to see a character die if the party's other abilities (i.e., magic) can't mitigate that loss. When a character dies, the party looses 25% of it's firepower, or more. Suddenly the encounter is lop-sided in favor of the monster, and if the PCs can't force a change in the situation, more PCs are going to die.</p><p></p><p>That's not power-gaming, that's simply the way the game works. If, as the DM, you have decided that you're running a magic-weak campaign, as it sounds like you have by denying clerics and wizards, then you are the one responsible for making sure that you take that into account when you present challenges to your group.</p><p></p><p>In short, you assumed that you could change the rules of the game without having to account for those changes across the board. That simply doesn't work. Each creature is its own set of rules, so when you use a given creature in your altered game, you have to do the work of evaluating what kind of impact using the unmodified rule in conjunction with your modified rules is going to have on the outcome of the encounter.</p><p></p><p>Having changed the rules, you are right, CR is a worthless number to you because the number makes some assumptions about the PCs. Those assumptions were invalidated by your PC requirements.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jhyrryl, post: 1050098, member: 6406"] Yes. A brute creature is going to deal damage - that's what makes them brutes. You can expect a brute creature like an elemental, a hydra, a dragon, etc., to dish out damage roughly equal to 25% of the party's hit points. In a party of 4, that's a full character's hit points, and if it happens to be one of the PCs on the lower side of average, you're going to see a character die if the party's other abilities (i.e., magic) can't mitigate that loss. When a character dies, the party looses 25% of it's firepower, or more. Suddenly the encounter is lop-sided in favor of the monster, and if the PCs can't force a change in the situation, more PCs are going to die. That's not power-gaming, that's simply the way the game works. If, as the DM, you have decided that you're running a magic-weak campaign, as it sounds like you have by denying clerics and wizards, then you are the one responsible for making sure that you take that into account when you present challenges to your group. In short, you assumed that you could change the rules of the game without having to account for those changes across the board. That simply doesn't work. Each creature is its own set of rules, so when you use a given creature in your altered game, you have to do the work of evaluating what kind of impact using the unmodified rule in conjunction with your modified rules is going to have on the outcome of the encounter. Having changed the rules, you are right, CR is a worthless number to you because the number makes some assumptions about the PCs. Those assumptions were invalidated by your PC requirements. [/QUOTE]
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[3.5] CRs still out of whack?
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