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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6665375" data-attributes="member: 6787650">I've created horribly broken monsters using DMG rules as a proof-of-concept for how strong you can make a CR 1/4 monster; I've used the DMG quick-create rules as a guideline for XP adjustments when I changed a monster's stats (double HP and size); I've totally ignored the DMG guidelines for NPCs in favor of a simple CR = level heuristic; and of course I've used MM monsters that were created using DMG guidelines. Occasionally I'll reference the DMG rules when modifying a monster just to make sure it doesn't change XP totals, e.g. adding Blindsight is free but if I give something avoidance I should lower AC by 1 to compensate (because that's easier than recalculating CR).Therefore, I agree with Evenglare. CR is a hopelessly simplistic metric, useful only for calculating kill XP, but not something you should ever use to estimate difficulty in any real sense. The variance of deadliness within a CR range is gigantic, and the potential variance in deadliness of a given creature type over a range of tactical behaviors and terrains is almost as huge. (I.e. how smart do you play these orcs? Are they led by an experienced warchief who exploits his warriors' darkvision by attacking at night and smashing lanterns, or are they just a mindless horde? Do these bad guys know enough about the PCs personally to specifically counter their abilities, or are they just using generic &quot;kill the humans&quot; tactics? Do the monsters automatically know who the wizard is in the party?) Just eyeball it and you'll get better predictions than the CR tables give you. Use CR only for determining kill XP.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6665375, member: 6787650"] I've created horribly broken monsters using DMG rules as a proof-of-concept for how strong you can make a CR 1/4 monster; I've used the DMG quick-create rules as a guideline for XP adjustments when I changed a monster's stats (double HP and size); I've totally ignored the DMG guidelines for NPCs in favor of a simple CR = level heuristic; and of course I've used MM monsters that were created using DMG guidelines. Occasionally I'll reference the DMG rules when modifying a monster just to make sure it doesn't change XP totals, e.g. adding Blindsight is free but if I give something avoidance I should lower AC by 1 to compensate (because that's easier than recalculating CR). Therefore, I agree with Evenglare. CR is a hopelessly simplistic metric, useful only for calculating kill XP, but not something you should ever use to estimate difficulty in any real sense. The variance of deadliness within a CR range is gigantic, and the potential variance in deadliness of a given creature type over a range of tactical behaviors and terrains is almost as huge. (I.e. how smart do you play these orcs? Are they led by an experienced warchief who exploits his warriors' darkvision by attacking at night and smashing lanterns, or are they just a mindless horde? Do these bad guys know enough about the PCs personally to specifically counter their abilities, or are they just using generic "kill the humans" tactics? Do the monsters automatically know who the wizard is in the party?) Just eyeball it and you'll get better predictions than the CR tables give you. Use CR only for determining kill XP. [/QUOTE]

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