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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 6730696" data-attributes="member: 12731">Thank you but you make way too much of CRs. The important criteria for NPCs isn't "how dangerous would they be against a party of PCs".The important criteria for NPCs is "how fragile are they compared to an individual PC". Their offensive ability isn't nearly as important as the NPCs ability to fend for itself in combat - as soon as it would die way before the PCs it becomes a burden and a liability. Therefore the single-most important aspect of a NPC is its hit points, since in 5E hp is paramount in signaling "level". Then and only then, if the NPC can actually contribute to defeating the enemy, that's nice <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> But the PCs have no use for a hypotetical NPC that would hit as hard as any PC but be far weaker on defense. No player likes it when their allies die on their watch; and if the PCs need to actively pamper their NPCs they have no place in the party any longer. Nobody likes a WoW-style escort quest, after all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />When it comes to your examples, I would treat a 9 HD Mage as level 9. After all, he is a level 9 spellcaster with access to level 5 spells.As for the Gladiator, yes, he does soft damage for a level 15 character (monsters generally do that), but he does have 112 hit points.So I know the scheme isn't perfect - spellcasters get a good deal with full spellcasting and d8 hit dice while bruisers get shafted with dealing damage as poorly as monsters. Thanks for bringing this up, but I would be more inclined to bling up the Gladiator than to conclude the scheme isn't working.And besides, this scheme only needs to hold together for the first few levels. In all likelyhood, the NPCs will be gone no later than level 8, when the adventure switches gears.Regards,Zapp</blockquote>

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