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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
do CRs seem a bit arbitrary?
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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6573471" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>The problem with CR is that it's a linear metric for a sometimes non-linear quantity. Take Banshees for example. Because Banshees are CR 2, the encounter guidelines predict that 2 Banshees will be a Hard challenge for 4 5th level Fighters, but an Easy challenge for 4 8th level fighters. Between 5th and 8th level, fighters pick up +0 to Con saves and no extra attacks. They do pick up some ASIs, but the core dynamics of the Banshee-vs-Fighters fight hardly change: Banshees both get to force a DC 13 Con save to cause instant "death", and a DC 13 Wis save to cause Fear, then they finish you off with a Corrupting Touch for moderate damage. Only that last feature (corrupting touch) gets substantially boosted in 8th level fighters. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that that the 5th level group will take about as many casualties as the 8th level group against two Banshees, in spite of the fact that CR ratings say the 8th level group should handle twice the XP value of Banshees.</p><p></p><p>The real difficulty factor for Banshees has very little to do with PC level. It is, "Is the Banshee in sunlight?", because in sunlight her wail doesn't function and she is just a double-strength zombie. It is in this sense that I claim that 5E is robust and CR can be largely ignored: due to Bounded Accuracy, player smarts (research/intel/tactics) tends to dominate the relatively minor bonuses that come from PC level. Banshees are hard when you meet them in the dark, and easy when you meet them in sunlight. No CR needed, unless you are using it as a relatively arbitrary metric for handing out XP gains.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6573471, member: 6787650"] The problem with CR is that it's a linear metric for a sometimes non-linear quantity. Take Banshees for example. Because Banshees are CR 2, the encounter guidelines predict that 2 Banshees will be a Hard challenge for 4 5th level Fighters, but an Easy challenge for 4 8th level fighters. Between 5th and 8th level, fighters pick up +0 to Con saves and no extra attacks. They do pick up some ASIs, but the core dynamics of the Banshee-vs-Fighters fight hardly change: Banshees both get to force a DC 13 Con save to cause instant "death", and a DC 13 Wis save to cause Fear, then they finish you off with a Corrupting Touch for moderate damage. Only that last feature (corrupting touch) gets substantially boosted in 8th level fighters. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that that the 5th level group will take about as many casualties as the 8th level group against two Banshees, in spite of the fact that CR ratings say the 8th level group should handle twice the XP value of Banshees. The real difficulty factor for Banshees has very little to do with PC level. It is, "Is the Banshee in sunlight?", because in sunlight her wail doesn't function and she is just a double-strength zombie. It is in this sense that I claim that 5E is robust and CR can be largely ignored: due to Bounded Accuracy, player smarts (research/intel/tactics) tends to dominate the relatively minor bonuses that come from PC level. Banshees are hard when you meet them in the dark, and easy when you meet them in sunlight. No CR needed, unless you are using it as a relatively arbitrary metric for handing out XP gains. [/QUOTE]
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Community
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do CRs seem a bit arbitrary?
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