ZEITGEIST Monsters CR in Zeitgeist are weird?

[kirtimlak]

Those are stat blocks from Zeitgeist Chapter 6 - Revelations from the Mouth of a Madman (on the left) and from Adventures in Zeitgeist.
Both are CR 10 monsters... accept of the following:

• 30% more HP
• 370% more dammage
• Ranged option
• Regarging abilities
• Bonus actions options
• Dammage imunitiesm
• Saves
• Conditions immunities.....
• etc.

Yeah, i know that one is from 502 a.o.v. and the second one - from 522.
Which wonw do you think suits best for CR 10 monster and which one would you use in the Labirinth and/or in the Tinker Odcog`s appearance scene ?

 

[RangerWickett]

The one from the adventure was converted from I think the Pathfinder version of the same creature into 5e, and so it was, well, very simplified.

The one from AiZ was built for Level Up, which has more complexity and maybe some slightly different guidance on suggested damage.

 

[RangerWickett]

Are you running standard 5e, or A5E?

At the risk of speaking ill of another game designer, I was not involved in the conversion of the adventures to 5e, and I think they often erred far too much toward simplicity and low-difficulty. I think the more complicated and powerful version is more fun to use for both players and GM.

 

[kirtimlak]

Are you running standard 5e, or A5E?

At the risk of speaking ill of another game designer, I was not involved in the conversion of the adventures to 5e, and I think they often erred far too much toward simplicity and low-difficulty. I think the more complicated and powerful version is more fun to use for both players and GM.

i use A5e + some monsterts` abilities from 4e ;-)

 

[Chaltab]

I would note that while it is more powerful the damage in the A5E version isn't 3.7 times as much. It's 5 weak attacks at a higher to hit that add up to 62 DPR vs two stronger attacks that add to 74 DPR.

But yeah I wouldn't rate the 5e version more than CR5 or 6 even in o5e.

 

[Faolyn]

To be fair, monster CR is often very weird. There are creatures in the MM or AC who don't have nearly enough hit points to justify their CR. Their abilities probably make up the lack, but there's very little guidance on how to calculate them.