D&D 5E 5E Challenge Ratings

[Talaeden_Denthiir]

Huge Adult Red Dragon 19HD CR17
Large Young Green Dragon 16HD CR8

What the? This sux. Too much of a disparity. If CR is gonna be this wonky, they should leave it out.
I would be optimistic and say, no worries, the rules aren't finalized but,
AFAIK, the MM already gone to the printers .

P.S. - I KNOW CR, is not just about HD, but the disparity is pretty huge.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Huge Adult Red Dragon 19HD CR17
Large Young Green Dragon 16HD CR8

What the? This sux. Too much of a disparity. If CR is gonna be this wonky, they should leave it out.
I would be optimistic and say, no worries, the rules aren't finalized but,
AFAIK, the MM already gone to the printers .

P.S. - I KNOW CR, is not just about HD, but the disparity is pretty huge.

Sounds like CR is quite useful here. Without it I'd assume that green dragon could challenge a level 16 party, when it clearly can't.

 

[Savage Wombat]

If CR is supposed to represent only the minimum level of opposition, rather than actual threat - there should not be a fixed correlation between CR and EXP value.

 

[Mistwell]

Huge Adult Red Dragon 19HD CR17
Large Young Green Dragon 16HD CR8

What the? This sux. Too much of a disparity. If CR is gonna be this wonky, they should leave it out.
I would be optimistic and say, no worries, the rules aren't finalized but,
AFAIK, the MM already gone to the printers .

P.S. - I KNOW CR, is not just about HD, but the disparity is pretty huge.

I'm not really understanding your complaint. Why is the small disparity in HD relative to the large disparity in CR bothering you? How is that "wonky"? They have roughly similar hit points, but one is much harder to hit, much harder to damage thanks to it's resistances and immunities, and deals a LOT more damage. So what is the issue? Seems very internally consistent to me - dragons tend to have roughly the same hit points, but get harder to hit and much deadlier as they get bigger and nastier.

 

[Boarstorm]

Here's what I think based on the info we have so far.

There are various "gauges" you can turn to fine tune your monster. Turn up the HD dial, you get a creature with more Hit Points (in other words, a longer battle). Turn up the CR dial and you get a monster with a higher proficiency bonus (and thus dealing more damage).

Obviously the two are somewhat connected, but as the OP's example shows, it's not exactly a direct connection.

 

[SilverBulletKY]

A young dragon being about half as tough as an adult dragon makes sense to me.

 

[Paraxis]

A young dragon being about half as tough as an adult dragon makes sense to me.

I think the OP's point is that the adult dragon only having 3 more hit dice makes no sense at all.

 

[Curmudjinn]

A Bugbear has 4HD and a CR 1, yet a Commoner has 1HD and a CR of 0. That is only a difference of 1, and a massive difference in the scale of life or death for a character. The proof is in the pudding.

 

[Mistwell]

I think the OP's point is that the adult dragon only having 3 more hit dice makes no sense at all.

Why not? What assumptions are you using that tell you that makes no sense? It makes perfect sense to me, so obviously we're working with different assumptions about what it means to be an adult dragon vs. a young dragon.

 

[Tony Vargas]

While 5e doesn't come out and say it that I've noticed, it has at least two distinct types of monsters other than Legendary. The kind that are supposed to be rank-and-file, and the kind that are supposed to be bosses. A boss will have more hps for it's level than a rank-and-file, but not overwhelmingly more attack power. The CR 8 dragon might be intended as a boss type, useable at a lower level, in spite of it's high hps. You might want to check their exp value, too, they might be closer to eachother than the CR.