Mook CR?

[interwyrm]

This goes along with a thread I made in the general rpg forum.

Basically, the idea is that I only stat out 'bosses' and 'minibosses'. The majority of foes will be mooks with 1 hp, +0 on all saves, and no damage bonus on attacks. I might give them a higher attack bonus at later levels just so that the players don't totally ignore them.

So, the question here is? How much would each of these guys add to an encounter CR?

 

[Stalker0]

This goes along with a thread I made in the general rpg forum.

Basically, the idea is that I only stat out 'bosses' and 'minibosses'. The majority of foes will be mooks with 1 hp, +0 on all saves, and no damage bonus on attacks. I might give them a higher attack bonus at later levels just so that the players don't totally ignore them.

So, the question here is? How much would each of these guys add to an encounter CR?

Depends on the original encounter. If the fight is against a level 2 fighter, a fair amount. Against a 19th level wizard, you could have 1000 and they wouldn't change anything.

 

[frankthedm]

CR 1's stop giving XP to 9th level characters. After a while, mooks are beneath contempt.

 

[interwyrm]

Well, I'm more inclined to think that a single mook would likely be around a CR 1/4 than CR 1.


As far as CR 1's not being a concern though... isn't there a doubling rule? Like... 16 CR 1 creatures would constituted a CR 9 encounter? x2 4 times -> +2CR 4 times.

 

[Li Shenron]

So, the question here is? How much would each of these guys add to an encounter CR?

I think that the "CR combination" rule (+2 every doubling) is just the consequence of the XP/CR chart, but shouldn't be taken as a general rule.

So if the CR of a single creature is so small to give 0 xp, then you don't just use the "doubling" rule to get the total xp.

OTOH I neither think that 1000 creatures worth 0 xp should still give 0 xp. For instance, 1000 commoner archers CAN be a challenge for a 20th level wizard: they are going to hit him only on natural 20s, but that still means 50 arrows per round, it could be 200 damage per round.

Obviously a 20th level wizard might cast spells which give DR or complete protection from arrows etc... but he has to consume resources and needs to make the right choice (and could be caughts unprepared), so some xp reward may be appropriate in this case, unless he can withstand the attack by doing nothing.