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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Farquhar" data-source="post: 7770467" data-attributes="member: 6906155">It may be that the spy has an important role to play, and the DM has reason to want them to be hard to kill, despite their low CR indicating they are a minimal threat in a fight. Consider The Two Towers movie. The DM wants the orc berserker not to die before they can detonate the explosives under the wall. So the DM gives the orc relentless endurance. The DM can do this even though the orc is not a half orc, because the DM can give NPCs whatever abilities he likes.Alternatively, if the spy is not an important NPC and a player chooses to blow a high level spell on them, the DM will likely rule them disintegrated without even bothering to roll the damage dice. The DM is the arbiter, not the rulebook. That is something the rulebook makes abundantly clear.As for challenge ratings, these are intended as a guide for designing encounters of appropriate difficulty. They are not holy writ. If the DM decides an alteration makes something significantly more or less dangerous they can adjust the CR accordingly. It's called the Dudgeon Master's Guide, not the Dungeon Master's Dictum.</blockquote>