I just ran my party of five 4th level characters(Warlock, Barbarian, Fighter, Druid, Ranger) against four 3rd level mages. Other than the DMG section on creating monsters and starting with HP as the base CR(then the following note about class levels) I can't seem to find a solid way to determine cr for an encounter for starting race NPCs with class levels. Is there some resources I could be directed to or does anyone know if it's just "on the fly?" Cheers.
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"Games are like dessert. Everyone can have their opinion on what they like. Thankfully we all like Dungeons and Dragons."
The only rules I am aware of are the Creating a Monster rules from the DMG. Something like a level 3 Wizard would probably end up in the CR 1-2 rating.
To be absolutely sure, you would need to follow the process in the DMG for custom monsters to determine the CR. When I've done this, I usually wind up with a CR around 2 levels lower than their character level so that might be a useful "quick" rule (so a lvl 1 PC roughly equals a CR 1/4 creature, lvl 2 = CR 1/2, lvl 3 = CR 1, etc...). This can get thrown way out of sync at higher levels and if magic items are involved though.
Hmmm. That seems like such a straight forward thing they'd be able to have especially if you're trying to scale non-monstrous encounters or hell even monstrous class level encounters. Thanks for the tips.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Games are like dessert. Everyone can have their opinion on what they like. Thankfully we all like Dungeons and Dragons."
I just ran my party of five 4th level characters(Warlock, Barbarian, Fighter, Druid, Ranger) against four 3rd level mages. Other than the DMG section on creating monsters and starting with HP as the base CR(then the following note about class levels) I can't seem to find a solid way to determine cr for an encounter for starting race NPCs with class levels. Is there some resources I could be directed to or does anyone know if it's just "on the fly?" Cheers.
"Games are like dessert. Everyone can have their opinion on what they like. Thankfully we all like Dungeons and Dragons."
The only rules I am aware of are the Creating a Monster rules from the DMG. Something like a level 3 Wizard would probably end up in the CR 1-2 rating.
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To be absolutely sure, you would need to follow the process in the DMG for custom monsters to determine the CR. When I've done this, I usually wind up with a CR around 2 levels lower than their character level so that might be a useful "quick" rule (so a lvl 1 PC roughly equals a CR 1/4 creature, lvl 2 = CR 1/2, lvl 3 = CR 1, etc...). This can get thrown way out of sync at higher levels and if magic items are involved though.
Hmmm. That seems like such a straight forward thing they'd be able to have especially if you're trying to scale non-monstrous encounters or hell even monstrous class level encounters. Thanks for the tips.
"Games are like dessert. Everyone can have their opinion on what they like. Thankfully we all like Dungeons and Dragons."
I created an equation by using a scatter plot it is cr=0.6644*Level - 0.8234 it's not perfect but it's a start and just round as you see fit
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