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Modifying an Aboleth: How to determine damage output and CR?
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6746699" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>I'm running my players thru <em>Night Below</em> and it includes several Aboleth Savant monsters. Basically, they're aboleths with more hit points, spellcasting, wounded fury, and the out-of-combat ability to create special aboleth glyph rituals.</p><p></p><p>It occurred to me as I was attempting to determine their CR, that the damage numbers I was getting from offensive spells seemed unusually high.</p><p></p><p>How exactly does one calculate average damage from spells? Particularly where you need to make assumptions about how many targets are hit by the spell?</p><p></p><p>I've been using DMG pages 278 (Overall Damage Output) and 249 (Adjudicating Areas of Effect), which I've attached as images for clarity, along with my example spell - <em>Vitriolic Sphere</em> - from the Elemental Evil Player's Companion page 23.</p><p></p><p><em>Vitriolic Sphere</em> deals a total of 15d4 damage per target on a failed save. It explodes in a 20-foot radius sphere, so according to DMG 249 I divide the radius by 5 to get the number of targets likely to be caught within: 4 targets.</p><p></p><p>DMG 278 makes it clear that when calculating average damage the MM/DMG doesn't factor in hit probabilities (in the sense of "multiply %chance to hit by damage to get DPR"). Hit probabilities only come into play as an adjustment of the offensive CR later on if they deviate from the expected attack/save DC values.</p><p></p><p>Ok, so average damage from a <em>Vitriolic Sphere </em>is 15d4 = 15 * 2.5 = <strong>37.5 average damage</strong></p><p></p><p>Now apply that to 4 targets. 37.5 * 4 = <strong>150 damage</strong>. Is that right?</p><p></p><p>So a caster who was able to launch 3 <em>Vitriolic Spheres </em>over the course of a battle would have an offensive CR of 21 (referencing DMG page 274 Monster Stats by CR)? Of course, that's barring their attack bonus and/or save DC being higher or lower than normal for CR 21.</p><p></p><p>I feel like the target assumptions (intended for Theater-of-the-Mind) from DMG page 249 lead to inflated damage numbers for area effect spells/powers. Anyone else?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 6746699, member: 20323"] I'm running my players thru [i]Night Below[/i] and it includes several Aboleth Savant monsters. Basically, they're aboleths with more hit points, spellcasting, wounded fury, and the out-of-combat ability to create special aboleth glyph rituals. It occurred to me as I was attempting to determine their CR, that the damage numbers I was getting from offensive spells seemed unusually high. How exactly does one calculate average damage from spells? Particularly where you need to make assumptions about how many targets are hit by the spell? I've been using DMG pages 278 (Overall Damage Output) and 249 (Adjudicating Areas of Effect), which I've attached as images for clarity, along with my example spell - [i]Vitriolic Sphere[/i] - from the Elemental Evil Player's Companion page 23. [I]Vitriolic Sphere[/I] deals a total of 15d4 damage per target on a failed save. It explodes in a 20-foot radius sphere, so according to DMG 249 I divide the radius by 5 to get the number of targets likely to be caught within: 4 targets. DMG 278 makes it clear that when calculating average damage the MM/DMG doesn't factor in hit probabilities (in the sense of "multiply %chance to hit by damage to get DPR"). Hit probabilities only come into play as an adjustment of the offensive CR later on if they deviate from the expected attack/save DC values. Ok, so average damage from a [I]Vitriolic Sphere [/I]is 15d4 = 15 * 2.5 = [B]37.5 average damage[/B] Now apply that to 4 targets. 37.5 * 4 = [B]150 damage[/B]. Is that right? So a caster who was able to launch 3 [I]Vitriolic Spheres [/I]over the course of a battle would have an offensive CR of 21 (referencing DMG page 274 Monster Stats by CR)? Of course, that's barring their attack bonus and/or save DC being higher or lower than normal for CR 21. I feel like the target assumptions (intended for Theater-of-the-Mind) from DMG page 249 lead to inflated damage numbers for area effect spells/powers. Anyone else? [/QUOTE]
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