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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 3768502" data-attributes="member: 710">That's a good point. Since this is the case, I will assume that the designers also found a way to circumvent this. If the actions of the creature are not always on the same (its own) initiative count, the PCs have time to act between.The Dragon Encounter example might give some ideas here: The Dragon did several things in reaction to others (breathing fire because its hit point were reduced below a certain threshold). I am not sure when it did its tail sweep attack, but it seemed limited so that it couldn't be used on just any PC, which means that while it had many actions, it couldn't spend them all on the same creature.A Beholder for example might be able to take 10 actions, one for each ray. But during any given round, it can fire only 1 or 2 at a specific PC. Because they are usually encountered solitary. Beholders, Dragons, Ettins, they are all some kind of "boss" monsters (to use the video game term). You don't really expect to fight multiple of them (well, maybe in the case of the Ettin). So, currently you typically use them against a party with a average level 2 to 4 points below their CR. The game assumes that each doubling of the number of creatures increase the EL by +2 (IIRC). This implies he reserve is also true - if you increase a monsters CR by 2, it becomes twice as powerful. But this is only "roughly" true. There are many cases in which it doesn't work that way. If a monster doesn't happen to have a few weak spots, it works fine, i guess. But if it has a single weak Saving Throw or Armor Class, or not enough hit points, the fact that a party has 4 times as much actions as the NPC will shine through a lot more, because this gives them 4 opportunities to exploit its weak spot. The problem here is that the weak aspects usually do not scale that well with CR. (Weak Saves increase slower than the typical spell level advancement, meaning that the chance to resist a spell of equal level decreases with level/CR)If you increase a Beholders HD to remove the disparity of Offense and Defense, you still increase its Offense, because its attacks hit even easier. Suddenly, even its Bite might become dangerous. And it's weak saves stay weak.And, if monsters should be the same as PCs, why isn't its HD equal to its CR?The Dragons are actually already designed as the functional equivalent of 4-5 PCs. They are stronger than their CR indicates. They manage to be this equivalent by their massive amount of meelee attacks at high attack bonuses and a powerful breath weapon. They also have high hitpoints, good saves and Spell Resistance.</blockquote>

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