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<blockquote data-quote="Grog" data-source="post: 3281525" data-attributes="member: 6183">Yes, it most certainly does. They are both meele combatants, thus their meele ability is extremely relevant for calculating how much challenge they'll provide to a PC party.Yes, it's true that not everyone in a PC party is going to be doing straight-up meele with the stone giant. The rogue will be flanking/sneak attacking, the cleric will be healing, the wizard will be casting spells.But here's the thing. They'll all be doing those same things in the fight with the NPC fighter, too. And they'll be vastly more effective against the fighter than they will against the stone giant. The rogue's sneak attacks will be more effective because the NPC fighter has a lower AC and doesn't have as many hit points to chew through. The cleric's heals will be more effective because the NPC fighter won't be doing nearly as much damage as the stone giant. And the wizard's spells will be more effective because the NPC fighter's saving throws are substantially worse than the stone giant's.In fact, the PC party has a lot more options in combat against the fighter than they do against the stone giant. They can do things like bull rushing, tripping, or grappling against the fighter, things which wouldn't be very likely to work against the stone giant because of its large size and high strength score.All these things add up to the fact that the 8th level NPC fighter won't be nearly as much of a challenge to and won't drain nearly as many resources from an 8th level PC party. That's what CR is supposed to measure, and it fails miserably in this (and many other) case(s).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Grog, post: 3281525, member: 6183"] Yes, it most certainly does. They are both meele combatants, thus their meele ability is extremely relevant for calculating how much challenge they'll provide to a PC party. Yes, it's true that not everyone in a PC party is going to be doing straight-up meele with the stone giant. The rogue will be flanking/sneak attacking, the cleric will be healing, the wizard will be casting spells. But here's the thing. [i]They'll all be doing those same things in the fight with the NPC fighter, too.[/i] And they'll be vastly more effective against the fighter than they will against the stone giant. The rogue's sneak attacks will be more effective because the NPC fighter has a lower AC and doesn't have as many hit points to chew through. The cleric's heals will be more effective because the NPC fighter won't be doing nearly as much damage as the stone giant. And the wizard's spells will be more effective because the NPC fighter's saving throws are substantially worse than the stone giant's. In fact, the PC party has a lot [b]more[/b] options in combat against the fighter than they do against the stone giant. They can do things like bull rushing, tripping, or grappling against the fighter, things which wouldn't be very likely to work against the stone giant because of its large size and high strength score. All these things add up to the fact that the 8th level NPC fighter won't be nearly as much of a challenge to and won't drain nearly as many resources from an 8th level PC party. That's what CR is supposed to measure, and it fails miserably in this (and many other) case(s). [/QUOTE]

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