Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3276743" data-attributes="member: 2067">Compare it to the Efreeti, and you'll find it much more on par. The rules state that CR is a guideline and that assigning them is an art, not a science. It's a judgement call made by designers based on what they know a party of 8th level characters may have at their disposal. Knowing that 8th level PC's probably have about +8-+13 to hit, probably deal about 8-15 damage per attack, and have spell DC's in the range of 15-20, AC's around 18-22, both creatures seem like an appropriate challenge for 8th level characters. Are they equal in every way? Of course not. But as far as rating their challenge goes, this is a judgement call is one I can agree with.Now, as characters, their powers would be much more divergent -- the NPC would be slightly weak, while the stone giant would be fairly strong. And the stone giant is obviously more potent than the NPC in melee combat. Enough to bump it up to a level 9 challenge? Debatable. Or to bump the NPC down? Probably not. But that's why CR's are a judgement call and a guideline, not a hard-and-fast rule. And showing a slight range within the span of a single CR rating does nothing to show that the CR's are wildly inaccurate or totally worthless or any of the other spuriously exaggerated claims I'm hearing. Even if some are off, they're still close enough to pretty much go either way between two numbers that are right next to each other, at least judging by this example. That's still a useful guideline for rating their challenge, because it means that the 8th level party might have a different time of it in different encounters, even within their own level -- some will be maybe 15% of their rescources, some 25%, but that's pretty acceptable (even desirable) variation in my book.</blockquote>

Verification