D&D 5E CR for NPCs

[UngeheuerLich]

The difference between a fighter and an NPC warrior is huge:

- no action point
- no subclass abilites
- often lesser armors and/or weapons
- only d8 hp
- only average attributes
- not a lot of "bonus feats" (usually defensive duellist)
- comparably lower proficiency bonus because of being low CR (recursive adjustments)

So not a lot is left of the fighter class.

The difference between wizard and mage is very small:

- same level of spells per HD
- even higher HD
- comparable stats
- losing subclass bonuses and arcane recovery (not worth a lot)

So very comparable, and thus nearly at the same power level.

A fighter NPC built as fighter will stand against a lower level party. A party of NPCs lacking a fighter consisting only of wizards could get in trouble, as noone will take the hits. Shield spell is helping a lot, but a single silence spell will counter that tactic...

 

[I'm A Banana]

Is it stated anywhere what level of character equates to what CR?

in PF your CR is one level lower...but HD seem much higher in 5e

HD are MUCH higher.

But the ultimate answer is that it depends upon their damage output and their defensive ability. A wizard full of utility spells isn't going to have as high a CR as a greatsword-wielding fighter. DMG has pretty explicit numbers for what a critter of a given CR can do, so to determine the CR of an NPC, you determine what they can do, and you assign them a CR based on that. It's not a symmetrical 1-for-1 thing or anything.

 

[johnse]

It seems that a character of any level would be equal to a character of any other class of the same level. If that weren't true then it would mean the classes aren't balanced (which is definitely possible but not what the designers are trying for). Working from that it would seem that a party of 4 1st lvl npc's would be equal to a party of 4 1st lvl PC's. But I'm not sure if that means they are a "Moderate", "Hard", or "Deadly" difficulty.

The acolyte looks like a 2nd level cleric, he's only missing the extra domain spells and the Wis/Cha saves. They gave him a CR1/4 (50xp). 4 acolytes would be 400 xp (because of the x2 modifier for being 4 of them). That's a "Deadly" encounter for 3rd level characters. I would think if you're evenly matched it would be a deadly encounter because you have the same chance of dying as your opponent.

In the end it doesn't seem to make much sense. They're saying that 4 3rd level characters fighting 4 2nd level characters is a deadly encounter when it seems pretty obvious that the 3rd level characters should win the battle (barring bad luck with dice).

I'm using the basic DMG download but I'm assuming that the numbers didn't change in the full DMG.

You seem to be reading the XP Thresholds by Character table incorrectly. The 400 modified XP being "deadly" is if a single 3rd level character is facing those 4 acolytes. For a party of 4 third-level characters, the difficulty thresholds would be 300, 450, 675, and 1200--making that encounter an easy encounter.

Having the table be per character allows you to properly determine the XP budget for a party of mixed levels.