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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6597968" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Brief tangent: Back in my AD&amp;D (very munchkin) days, we would hunt down mekillots for XP because they have high HD (and thus high XP) and an incredibly weak attack. 5E still has monsters like that, as well as the converse: incredibly dangerous monsters that grant you no XP worth mentioning due to low CR. 20 hobgoblins gives you the only 70% of the same XP as a Blue Slaad, but I know which of the two I'd rather fight, and it's not the Slaad. Drow in the Underdark are even worse than hobgoblins due to darkvision, stealth and poison crossbows.CR and threat level don't correlate well. Therefore, I try to give my players a mix of tasty treats (big dumb straightforward brutes that you can kill, if you have the right tools, and feel powerful/gain XP) and veggies (experienced foes that use terrain/tactics to punch out of their weight class; often gives little XP but may give roleplaying opportunities like intel or even alliance-forming). I like that better than the approach of playing every random myconid or aurumvorax like a veteran githyanki battlemaster. Having a high CR doesn't mean you've been in a lot of fights, or spent a lot of time thinking about fighting. Of course, it also doesn't mean you haven't, so players beware...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6597968, member: 6787650"] Brief tangent: Back in my AD&D (very munchkin) days, we would hunt down mekillots for XP because they have high HD (and thus high XP) and an incredibly weak attack. 5E still has monsters like that, as well as the converse: incredibly dangerous monsters that grant you no XP worth mentioning due to low CR. 20 hobgoblins gives you the only 70% of the same XP as a Blue Slaad, but I know which of the two I'd rather fight, and it's not the Slaad. Drow in the Underdark are even worse than hobgoblins due to darkvision, stealth and poison crossbows. CR and threat level don't correlate well. Therefore, I try to give my players a mix of tasty treats (big dumb straightforward brutes that you can kill, if you have the right tools, and feel powerful/gain XP) and veggies (experienced foes that use terrain/tactics to punch out of their weight class; often gives little XP but may give roleplaying opportunities like intel or even alliance-forming). I like that better than the approach of playing every random myconid or aurumvorax like a veteran githyanki battlemaster. Having a high CR doesn't mean you've been in a lot of fights, or spent a lot of time thinking about fighting. Of course, it also doesn't mean you [I]haven't[/I], so players beware... [/QUOTE]

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