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<blockquote data-quote="neroden" data-source="post: 337394" data-attributes="member: 6063">My considered opinionOn SKR's actual topic: I agree that the &quot;immune to X, Y, Z, resistant to everything else&quot; trend is no fun.On the topic of CR:Tactics and adjustment notes for each monster would be invaluable for any DM running a monster for the first time.&nbsp; I'd like to see, for instance, &quot;This monster is twice as hard if you can't turn undead&quot;; &quot;This monster is three times as hard if you have no magic weapons&quot;; &quot;This monster's greatest weakness is X, so is very easy if your party is especially good at dealing with X&quot;; &quot;This monster is designed for parties which can deal out lots of melee damage, and is nearly impossible for other parties&quot;; etc.Certain monsters in the MM have CRs which are wildly off because the monsters are *very* specialized.&nbsp; For example, the shrieker.&nbsp; If there are no other monsters in the area, the lone shrieker can deal NO damage, and is no challenge.&nbsp; If there are twenty strong monsters nearby, the shrieker forces the party to face them all at once rather than one at a time, which may be a tremendous challenge.&nbsp; And yet it is listed as having &quot;CR 3&quot;.&nbsp; That's a joke.&nbsp; The shrieker should have a section explaining how to determine its challenge based on its surroundings, since a fixed CR is worthless.There are other creatures where the situation is less extreme, but where the difference by situtation or type of party is still very significant, warranting more than the generic comments in the DMG on adjusting CR, EL, and XP.&nbsp; But these detailed comments do not exist, leaving DMs to guess or ask others.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="neroden, post: 337394, member: 6063"] [b]My considered opinion[/b] On SKR's actual topic: I agree that the "immune to X, Y, Z, resistant to everything else" trend is no fun. On the topic of CR: Tactics and adjustment notes for each monster would be invaluable for any DM running a monster for the first time. I'd like to see, for instance, "This monster is twice as hard if you can't turn undead"; "This monster is three times as hard if you have no magic weapons"; "This monster's greatest weakness is X, so is very easy if your party is especially good at dealing with X"; "This monster is designed for parties which can deal out lots of melee damage, and is nearly impossible for other parties"; etc. Certain monsters in the MM have CRs which are wildly off because the monsters are *very* specialized. For example, the shrieker. If there are no other monsters in the area, the lone shrieker can deal NO damage, and is no challenge. If there are twenty strong monsters nearby, the shrieker forces the party to face them all at once rather than one at a time, which may be a tremendous challenge. And yet it is listed as having "CR 3". That's a joke. The shrieker should have a section explaining how to determine its challenge based on its surroundings, since a fixed CR is worthless. There are other creatures where the situation is less extreme, but where the difference by situtation or type of party is still very significant, warranting more than the generic comments in the DMG on adjusting CR, EL, and XP. But these detailed comments do not exist, leaving DMs to guess or ask others. [/QUOTE]

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