How do the unique features of swarms (i. e. being unable to heal and dealing less damage at half hit points) factor into determining a monster's CR? I didn't find any information about this in the DMG.
So, CR is a bit of a joke TBH. I would assume that those things would lower the CR since they are purely negative but im also not sure how often a swarm of creatures would be in a situation where that negative is really something that could be taken advantage of. I would assume that if someone is dealing with a swarm of nonintelligent creatures, like insects, those factors of being a swarm wouldn't effect the CR at all.
How do the unique features of swarms (i. e. being unable to heal and dealing less damage at half hit points) factor into determining a monster's CR? I didn't find any information about this in the DMG.
They probably eyeballed it, but I would expect 'cannot heal' to have no effect, and 'reduced damage at half hp' to be 'use the average of full health damage and half health damage'.
Unless a monster has regeneration or an ability where they can heal as a bonus action (Like knowing Healing Word) then being unable to heal will not affect their Challenge Rating.
A creature under an effect that halves the amount of damage they deal per turn will have their CR reduced by roughly 25% (Can be higher) unless that creature has a CR above 20, but the CR calculator in the DMG ignores abilities that reduce a creatures effectiveness in combat under certain conditions (like Sunlight Sensitivity) so this is not factored into the calculation for a swarms challenge rating.
Swarm's do gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing as well. If you're following the CR calculator in the DMG, this effectively doubles the swarm's hp at Challenge Ratings 0 - 4, increases the swarm's hp by 50% at Challenge Ratings 5 - 10 and increases the swarm's hp by 25% at Challenge Ratings 11 - 16 (No change above CR 16).
Swarms are basically a small mob encounter treated as a single creature. Such encounters rarely bother with healing, and scaling damage is par for the course. (Any given individual is likely to be taken out in a single round.)
Taking as an example an encounter with 2 Acolyte (~CR 1/2), if you kill one of them, you're also going to see their overall damage output decreased by half, and the Max HP of that encounter is permanently cut in half.
That said, if a BBEG-class monster, say.... an Adult Green Dragon, was unable to heal, there would similarly not be much difference in a single encounter, since a green dragon has no natural means of regenerating within combat. However, a party of players may opt to harry the dragon over several hours/day/weeks to deliberately whittle it down. This makes their CR the same during a traditional encounter, but creates an opportunity to change a combat encounter into something more equivalent to an environmental hazard. "Adventure Montages" don't earn exp, no matter the CR of the creature slain.
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How do the unique features of swarms (i. e. being unable to heal and dealing less damage at half hit points) factor into determining a monster's CR? I didn't find any information about this in the DMG.
So, CR is a bit of a joke TBH. I would assume that those things would lower the CR since they are purely negative but im also not sure how often a swarm of creatures would be in a situation where that negative is really something that could be taken advantage of. I would assume that if someone is dealing with a swarm of nonintelligent creatures, like insects, those factors of being a swarm wouldn't effect the CR at all.
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They probably eyeballed it, but I would expect 'cannot heal' to have no effect, and 'reduced damage at half hp' to be 'use the average of full health damage and half health damage'.
Unless a monster has regeneration or an ability where they can heal as a bonus action (Like knowing Healing Word) then being unable to heal will not affect their Challenge Rating.
A creature under an effect that halves the amount of damage they deal per turn will have their CR reduced by roughly 25% (Can be higher) unless that creature has a CR above 20, but the CR calculator in the DMG ignores abilities that reduce a creatures effectiveness in combat under certain conditions (like Sunlight Sensitivity) so this is not factored into the calculation for a swarms challenge rating.
Swarm's do gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing as well. If you're following the CR calculator in the DMG, this effectively doubles the swarm's hp at Challenge Ratings 0 - 4, increases the swarm's hp by 50% at Challenge Ratings 5 - 10 and increases the swarm's hp by 25% at Challenge Ratings 11 - 16 (No change above CR 16).
Swarms are basically a small mob encounter treated as a single creature. Such encounters rarely bother with healing, and scaling damage is par for the course. (Any given individual is likely to be taken out in a single round.)
Taking as an example an encounter with 2 Acolyte (~CR 1/2), if you kill one of them, you're also going to see their overall damage output decreased by half, and the Max HP of that encounter is permanently cut in half.
That said, if a BBEG-class monster, say.... an Adult Green Dragon, was unable to heal, there would similarly not be much difference in a single encounter, since a green dragon has no natural means of regenerating within combat. However, a party of players may opt to harry the dragon over several hours/day/weeks to deliberately whittle it down. This makes their CR the same during a traditional encounter, but creates an opportunity to change a combat encounter into something more equivalent to an environmental hazard. "Adventure Montages" don't earn exp, no matter the CR of the creature slain.