Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="bganon" data-source="post: 6512697" data-attributes="member: 60886">CR is not really additive, so I don't think that's a great guideline.The main issue is that NPCs built with PC rules make for weird encounters.&nbsp; Offensively, a PC's CR tends to a few above their level (a level 1 fighter is probably around CR 1 in terms of overall DPR but CR 4 in terms of attack bonus), but PCs' defensive CR is very weird because PCs have far fewer HP than monsters &quot;should&quot;, but much higher AC.&nbsp; A 20th level barbarian would technically only be CR 9 or so by hp, but by AC they're off the chart.You're supposed to basically average all these together to get final CR, which will tend to be around the PCs level (maybe plus a few).&nbsp; But the numbers are so far apart it basically means that NPCs built with PC rules may give results wildly off from their &quot;CR&quot; depending on how the encounter goes.&nbsp; Basically such an NPC will hit hard like a monster of its CR, but abnormally high AC combined with abnormally low HP means the fight will be very swingy.&nbsp; Lob the right debuff and the &quot;proper&quot; CR might be more like half NPC level.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bganon, post: 6512697, member: 60886"] CR is not really additive, so I don't think that's a great guideline. The main issue is that NPCs built with PC rules make for weird encounters. Offensively, a PC's CR tends to a few above their level (a level 1 fighter is probably around CR 1 in terms of overall DPR but CR 4 in terms of attack bonus), but PCs' defensive CR is very weird because PCs have [i]far[/i] fewer HP than monsters "should", but much higher AC. A 20th level barbarian would technically only be CR 9 or so by hp, but by AC they're off the chart. You're supposed to basically average all these together to get final CR, which will tend to be around the PCs level (maybe plus a few). But the numbers are so far apart it basically means that NPCs built with PC rules may give results wildly off from their "CR" depending on how the encounter goes. Basically such an NPC will hit hard like a monster of its CR, but abnormally high AC combined with abnormally low HP means the fight will be [b]very[/b] swingy. Lob the right debuff and the "proper" CR might be more like half NPC level. [/QUOTE]

Verification