[3.5] Did they lower the Dragon CRs?

[Simplicity]

It looked like WotC lowered the CRs for dragons in the MM.
Personally, I would be very happy if this were the case,
since I know that the old CRs were about 2 too low. The reasoning behind this was that dragon battles were supposed to be epic... but DM's were put in charge of the ELs for a reason...

If a DM put a dragon boss into an adventure, and used the rule of EL=party level +4 for a final dragon boss... It would wind up being a TPK every time in 3e because the CRs were too low.

I think it's been fixed now though (or at least the CRs were lowered by 1). Am I right about this?

 

[coyote6]

IIRC, the CRs were (mostly) raised by one -- a dragon that used to be CR 8 is now CR 9. That's from memory, though -- I don't have a copy of the 3.0 SRD handy to check.

 

[Arnwyn]

That is correct - the dragons have all gone up +1 CR.

 

[Simplicity]

Oh... You're right, and I'm dyslexic or something. (Though
I guess if I could tell you were right, then I'm not that
dyslexic.)

Dragon CRs went UP 1, and that means that EL+4 is no longer
as bad for dragon encounters (still a theoretical TPK, but that'll
teach em for going after a dragon).

 

[Swack-Iron]

Dragon CRs went UP 1, and that means that EL+4 is no longer
as bad for dragon encounters (still a theoretical TPK, but that'll
teach em for going after a dragon).

Not necissarily a TPK. At the higher levels, there are plenty of critters other than dragons that could slaughter a party, or that a party could wipe out in less than a round. High level play is just like that.

The dragon CRs in the 3.0 MM were artificially low. The design staff justified this by saying that most parties, when they encountered a dragon, went in prepared for the specific dracotype they had researched they were about to fight. But this was the only monster in the MM that had an artificially modified CR, so they changed it to a more realistic CR in the 3.5 MM. A much better idea too, IMO.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Except that the CRs are still pretty unrealistic. IMHO, dragon CRs need a boost of +2-+4 from 3.0 values (corresponding to +1-+3 for 3.5 values). Then again, they're slightly nerfed in 3.5 (blindsight changed to 60' blindsense), so maybe that justifies a lowered CR.