D&D 5E What is a PC's "CR"?

[Charlaquin]

No, because that would make the battle an even match: ie, the monsters are just as likely to win as the PCs.

D&D’s encounter building guidelines aren’t designed to produce even matches. They’re designed to produce matches the PCs are favored to win, but will nonetheless have a few tense moments and maybe a small chance of a character death. If you’re matching a PC up to what CR they would be an even match with, you’re not accurately determining what that PC’s equivalent CR would be, because that’s not what CR is designed to measure.

 

[Stalker0]

I think 2/3s level is a reasonable spitball for just standard old PCs.

But the only true way to do it is to CR them just like you do monsters. Get their average damage (including all of their nova tricks), get their HP, modify by attack/AC....and then throw in some adjustments for any special crazy abilities they have.

 

[Clint_L]

The Tal'Dorei Reborn sourcebook has the level 20 members of Vox Machina as CR 18. Each of them has a legendary magic item and is fairly tricked out, but not extraordinarily so, and they are using the 2014 rules.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

XP in 2014 is close to 1/12 * HP * DPR * 2^((AC+ATK)/10)

I would give you 10 thumbs up for finding that formula.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

D&D’s encounter building guidelines aren’t designed to produce even matches. They’re designed to produce matches the PCs are favored to win, but will nonetheless have a few tense moments and maybe a small chance of a character death. If you’re matching a PC up to what CR they would be an even match with, you’re not accurately determining what that PC’s equivalent CR would be, because that’s not what CR is designed to measure.

Yes, CR isn't designed to compare PC level to monster power. But the point of this thread is to determine what CR a PC would convert to if it was treated like a monster and the math was run--which can be done. If you do that, then a PC of the same CR as the monster should be an even 50/50 chance of success failure (within margin of error), because it is then literally being rated on exactly the same scale.

 

[Clint_L]

Yes, CR isn't designed to compare PC level to monster power. But the point of this thread is to determine what CR a PC would convert to if it was treated like a monster and the math was run--which can be done. If you do that, then a PC of the same CR as the monster should be an even 50/50 chance of success failure (within margin of error), because it is then literally being rated on exactly the same scale.

It's complicated, though, because there is a lot of variability amongst PCs and creatures, even ones of the same CR. The PC's gear makes a huge difference, and so do their stats. Players that roll for stats and HP generally have higher than standard array or point buy in both (they should be broadly similar, but let's be honest).

So what's a baseline level 20? Standard array and HP? What items? And what creature would be a good benchmark?

 

[Machiavelli24]

The mapping of PC Level to Monster CR is...convoluted. It's not exactly linear because there are a handful of power spikes on both sides. It is also different between 2014 and 2024. It is roughly (in 2024):

Lvl CR
1 1/2
2 1
3 1.5
4 2.2
5 4
6 4.6
7 5
8 6
9 6.5
10 7.2
11 8
12 9
13 9.5
14 10
15 12
16 13
17 14
18 16
19 17
20 19

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The mapping of PC Level to Monster CR is...convoluted. It's not exactly linear because there are a handful of power spikes on both sides. It is also different between 2014 and 2024. It is roughly (in 2024):

Lvl CR
1 1/2
2 1
3 1.5
4 2.2
5 4
6 4.6
7 5
8 6
9 6.5
10 7.2
11 8
12 9
13 9.5
14 10
15 12
16 13
17 14
18 16
19 17
20 19

This is as good as you are going to get. Remember CR can only ever be a vague approximation.