ECL vs CR - Please Help

[RJSmalls]

Quick question (I think):

Hill Giant is a CR 7.

I want to add 4 levels of fighter to him. His advancement is 'by class.' At first blush I thought his new CR with 4 levels of fighter would be: CR 7 + Ftr4 = CR 11.

But I see his suggested ECL is 12. This is prior to getting any class levels.

So....(deep breath)...is there a short & sweet way to determine a modified (advanced) creature's CR? Are either of the two methods above correct?

The MM just multiples the Experience award without changing the CR for Advancement which, IMO, just seems like a bit of a cop-out.

Help?

Thanks!
RJ

 

[Crothian]

ECL and CR are not really related. The CR of a hill giant with 4 levels of fighter would be 11.

 

[RJSmalls]

Thanks!

Thanks Croth.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

The MM just multiples the Experience award without changing the CR for Advancement which, IMO, just seems like a bit of a cop-out.

Actually they realized later on that that was really stupid (or maybe it actually was just freakin huge typo) and changed it.

The Exp award increases based on the CR.

The CR of a monster advanced by class levels is just the original CR + the number of PC levels (or level -1 if any of the levels are NPC classes).

The CR of a monster advanced by HD advancement increases by +1 for every 50% increase in HD. (ie. an 8 HD monster that was advanced to 16 HD has its CR increased by 2)