Question about CR:s

Asmo

First Post
I´m preparing a short adventure for a 14 lvl party with 5 players. I will have them fight 4 trolls and an ogre mage. I want to buff them a little bit. I want to have the ogre mage cast Mage Armor on the trolls and buff them with Bulls strenght from a wand. The trolls will have weapon foucus:claw and Ironwill.
I will give the Ogre mage 1 lvl of sorcerer.
What will the CR be for each troll? And the ogre mage? Is there any formula one can use for calculating these sort of things? What would the total EL be?
I read the section in the DMG about CR:s,but didn´t find anything useful.
Glad for any help.

Asmo
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

Assuming we're talking about Version 3.5, you also want to check out the section near the end of the 3.5 Monster Manual about improving monsters by class (also in the 3.5 SRD here: http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/v35/Improving_Monsters.rtf )
The CR for the Ogre Mage Sor-1 would be 9, 1 greater than that for a regular Ogre Mage, assuming you consider Sorcerer to be an "associated class" for Ogre Mages (i.e., one which works well with their strengths). If not (and I think the MM example doesn't), the Sorcerer level would add +1/2 CR, which I'd tend to round up to +1, though you could add 2 levels instead and still get the +1 CR (and that's what I'd do, considering the PCs are 14th level). Remember that as a Sor-2, the Orge Mage would get +8 skill points (counting Int bonus), 2d4+6 hp, and a familiar (if he wants one), and for increasing from 5 HD to 7 HD he'd
get another Feat (at 6 HD/levels).
For the Trolls, assuming that they're fought as part of ultimately defeating the Ogre Mage, they don't get any CR or EL increase for the Mage Armor and Bull's Strength; that's covered by the increased CR of the Ogre Mage for being able to cast the spells. For their Feats, Trolls (3.0 and 3.5) already have Iron Will, and they wouldn't get any benefit from having it a second time. If Weapon Focus: Claw was replacing one of their other standard feats (such as Alertness), their CR wouldn't be affected. If they were getting it for free, that *might* be worth +1 CR, for a total of CR 6, although they'd do a *lot* better to take 1 level of Fighter (also +1 CR), which would get them +1 BAB, +2 Fort save, a d10 HD, 1 skill point (down from the Fighter's 2 due to their low Int), and a fighter bonus feat (which could be Weapon Focus). Going up to 7 HD wouldn't give them any extra level-dependent feats or ability increases, though if they kept adding levels they'd get an ability incraese at 8 HD and a feat at 9 HD, as per the table in the PHB.

For the Encounter Level, if they're all showing up at once, you've got four CR 6 minions and a CR 9 boss. Four CR 6 creatures would make an EL 10 encounter. Adding a CR 9 boss would roughly bump that up 1, to EL 11. Since you've got a party of 14th-level PCs (and 5 of them at that, rather than the assumed 4), you can expect the players to plow through the monsters without even slowing down. If the goal is make an EL 14 encounter instead, I recommend boosting the Ogre Mage to a Sor-10 (or Sor-5 if you deem Sorcerer to be an "associated class"), raising his CR to 13, and the Trolls to Fighter-2, raising their CR to 8. Remember to add skills, feats and ability scores for the increased Hit Dice.
 
Last edited:

Thanx allenw for the quick reply!
As indicated with the Icon, this is 3.0 only, but as I understand it, it will not affect the CR:s.
This is an most exellent answer,just what I wanted.
I will give the trolls 1 lvl of fighter each and make the ogre mage a 2 lvl sorcerer and their CR will only increase by 1, sounds nice :D
Asmo
 
Last edited:

allenw wrote:

"you can expect the players to plow through the monsters without even slowing down"

This is probably true for most partys,but my players aren´t like the average bunch :D
They will get cocky,and when they let their guards down..well.. it´s then the fun starts ;)

Asmo
 

allenw wrote:

"assuming you consider Sorcerer to be an "associated class" for Ogre Mages (i.e., one which works well with their strengths). If not (and I think the MM example doesn't)"

Wich class do you think is a good "associated class"?
Fighter?
Would be nice to hear your thoughts about this,how to make the ogre mage an even more formidable opponent.

Asmo
 

Classes for Ogre Mage

Fighter, possibly Cleric or Monk (if Monk, the OM's Chain Shirt is Light armor, so the Evasion will still work, although most other Monk abilities won't; or lose the armor and boost Dex and Wis enough to bring the AC back up. An Ogre Mage with Evasion and Deflect Arrows could be amusing.). Not Barbarian, as raging would probably prevent the use of spell-like abilities. Assassin could be useful for something with at-will Invisibility, but you'd need some other classes first to make the skill prereqs. Likewise Blackguard.
 

Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Top