HD Advancement and Caster Level

[Crust]

Hey, all,

I've never been able to find anything about this in the MM. Maybe I'm blind, maybe it's not there. It's not jumping out at me, and that annoys me, so I thought I'd ask:

When adding HD to a creature with a caster level, does the caster level increase with the HD advancement, or does caster level remain static regardless of HD?

 

[blargney the second]

Technically, caster level remains the same. Personally, I bump up caster level as CR increases, rather than HD.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Technically, caster level remains the same. Personally, I bump up caster level as CR increases, rather than HD.

I agree, although in some rare cases a change in caster level (and ability) is specifically mentioned. These usually correspond to class levels, though, such as the rakhshasa.

 

[Crust]

Caster level jumps as the CR jumps. I like that idea. Thanks.

 

[Angrydad]

You might have CL increase by one for every two HD you give the creature. I forget if the CR also increases every two HD, but if so, then it's the same progression.

 

[Runestar]

Generally, you will at least not want caster lv to scale with HD, especially for monsters with HD-related SLAs like blasphemy. 1-for-1 with cr seems the most fair.

 

[milo]

Most of the time D&D uses formulas for things like this. If you wanted to take the time you could look at the creature on an individual basis and see how his CL corresponds to his HD and increase accordingly, or just go with CR increase.