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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7540061" data-attributes="member: 20323">I'll focus on your question about Gorth's CR for now... Tl;dr he's probably more like CR 5.Before I start, the attack/damage is wrong on his Mace +1. It should be: Mace +1. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage.Also, for flavor purposes, I suggest changing his Divine Smite to dealing necrotic damage. Up to you.Lastly, because you insist on presenting your NPC using PC rules, it makes CR calculation much more difficult. Why? Simple, because player-facing rules are more complicated with more to keep track of. Because DMs run more monsters, the DM-facing monster/NPC rules are simpler with less fiddly bits. Thus informed, let's dive in...-----------Since monsters/NPCs typically don't usually have Feats, we need to evaluate how Savage Attacker and War Caster affect CR. War Caster I'd treat as proficiency in the Constitution saving throw – thus, with 3 proficient saves that is a +2 effective AC when calculating Gorth's Defensive CR. Savage Attacker is probably worth +1 damage since he fights with a d6 mace (I'm eyeballing, not running actual dice odds here).Now we need to figure out Gorth's 3-round spell strategy. IME his maximum bang-for-his-buck will be silence and/or spirit guardians, possibly with dispel magic if there's a golden opportunity. For CR calculation purposes, I'm going to assume he casts spirit guardians on round#1, and it lasts till the end of round #2 (when his concentration gets broken).-----------Let's start with his Defensive CR. 48 HP starts us at CR 1/4. His AC is 21, but proficiency in 3 saves bumps that up to an effective AC of 23. That bumps his Defensive CR up to 4.-----------What about his Offensive CR? Round #1! With spirit guardians, I'd guess he'd catch 2 PCs on Round #1 and he'd be lucky to get 1 PC on Round #2 (but let's give him the benefit of the doubt), so that is 3 * 13.5 average damage = 40.5 damage over Rounds #1 and #2.But he also gets a bonus action mace+1 attack thanks to his War Priest trait, and I'm going to assume for these bonus action attacks he buffs them with Divine Smite using a 2nd-level spell slot, dealing 1d6+2+3d8 damage, which averages to 19, but remember his Savage Attacker feat, so that'll be about 20 damage.So, 60.5 damage on Round #1.On Round #2, he attacks with his mace +1 buffed with Divine Smite using a 3rd-level spell slot, dealing 1d6+2+4d8 damage, which averages to 23.5, but remember his Savage Attacker feat, so that'll be 24.5. He also makes his bonus action attack with Divine Smite using a 2nd-level spell slot, for 20 damage.So, 40.5 damage on Round #2.Round #3 is the exact same as Round #2, so another 40.5 damage.Thus, his DPR over 3-rounds = (60.5 + 40.5 + 40.5) / 3 = 141.5 / 3 = 47 damageThat starts his Offensive CR at 7. His attack bonus +5 and his save DC of 13 mean I'd drop this down to CR 6. So it's Offensive CR 6.-----------Thus, Gorth's total CR = (4 + 6) / 2 = 10 / 2 = 5As stated above, the CR system is not an exact science. There's a lot of art hidden in monster maths, and a different spell strategy or different targeting assumptions could change his CR by +/-2.</blockquote>

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