Did.. anyone... playtest this? The Wayward Haint says 3d6 for damage.. Um at level 1 that can kill any char on average chars have 10 hp at level 1 and it's CR is level 1
Did.. anyone... playtest this? The Wayward Haint says 3d6 for damage.. Um at level 1 that can kill any char on average chars have 10 hp at level 1 and it's CR is level 1
That's pretty normal damage for a CR 1? And no, it can't kill a character on average, 'reduce to 0 hp' is not 'kill'.
Did.. anyone... playtest this? The Wayward Haint says 3d6 for damage.. Um at level 1 that can kill any char on average chars have 10 hp at level 1 and it's CR is level 1
That's pretty normal damage for a CR 1? And no, it can't kill a character on average, 'reduce to 0 hp' is not 'kill'.
It's an anomaly on the low side (also, it's CR 1/2 and does 1d6+2). If we look at the CR 1 creatures in the basic rules more than half of them have an action that does more than 10.5 damage. The largest multiattack is the ghoul at 4d6+4 (18), the largest single attack is the giant spider at 3d6+3 (13), the largest other ability is the copper dragon wyrmling doing 4d8 (18) with its breath.
While I don't have access to the Crooked Moon books, so I'm not able to review the creature you mentioned in your original post, so I will not address that specifically.
I did want to mention something that you said in your original post, and that is when you were talking about the creature and stated "and it's CR is level 1" when comparing it to a Level 1 Player Character.
The Challenge Rating of a creature is not equal to the Level of a Player Character. You wouldn't typically pair a CR1 against Level 1 PCs.
Typically Level 1 PCs fight monsters like Goblins and such that are CR 1/8, and so on.
Breathe, dragons; sing of the First World, forged out of chaos and painted with beauty. Sing of Bahamut, the Platinum, molding the shape of the mountains and rivers; Sing too of Chromatic Tiamat, painting all over the infinite canvas. Partnered, they woke in the darkness; partnered, they labored in acts of creation.
Typically a CR n is expected to be a challenge for a level n party, though in practice it's more like a challenge for two level n PCs (solo killing an equal CR foe is possible for some builds, but hard; at first level, barbarian/fighter/paladin are all over 50% against a CR 1).
If we do the math for this, it's actually quite balanced. Here's the breakdown:
A level one character has about 10 HP, so one hit from the monster drops a character.
The monster, being CR 1, probably has about 25-30 health.
Level 1 characters can typically make 1 attack per turn that deals about 6-10 damage, depending on the weapon. 4-5 hits on the monster will kill it.
At level 1, the characters and monster will probably have about a 50% hit chance, so it takes two rounds for the monster to drop a character and 2+ rounds for the characters to kill it.
So the characters should kill the monster in about 2 1/2 rounds, with one of them dropping to zero health.
Seems fine to me, but if you fight multiple of them in a day you might have problems.
If we do the math for this, it's actually quite balanced. Here's the breakdown:
It's actually easier than that. A typical CR 1 is on the order of AC 12, 30 HP, Attack +4, Damage 12, with significant variance. That damage might come from multiattack, which significantly reduces the one hit KO issue. A very traditional first level party might look like:
Cleric (Thaumaturge): AC 18 (Dex 14, Scale, Shield), 10 HP, Attack +4/1d4+2 or spells
Fighter (Dueling): AC 18 (Chainmail, Shield), 12 HP, Attack +5/1d8+5
Rogue: AC 14 (Dex 16, Leather), 10 HP, Attack +5/1d6+3 (shortbow or shortsword; +sneak attack)
Wizard: AC 12 (Dex 14), 8 HP, Attack +5/1d8+3 (crossbow or staff with true strike) or spells
There's a good chance the the CR 1 will only get one turn before dying (assume 2 PCs go before it, it gets an action, then everyone attacks again; most characters are at 70% to hit and party potential damage per round is 31), though average is more like 1.5. If it's attacking a front line character (a lot of CR 1s have limited ranged options) it's only 35% to hit, so the mean outcome is that a monster with one attack has about a 50% chance to score a hit, and that hit will on average drop a PC; a monster with multiattack is likely to damage a PC but unlikely to drop one. Given that PCs have spells and death saves, multiple encounters like that are not particularly challenging.
It's an anomaly on the low side (also, it's CR 1/2 and does 1d6+2). If we look at the CR 1 creatures in the basic rules more than half of them have an action that does more than 10.5 damage.
But you also have to remember that the shadow is very powerful in other ways like how in 5e the shadows attack lowers the characters strength score which has a max of 20 and most classes don't have a lot of, and on top of that the shadow is resistant or immune to almost all damage types and isn't effected by most if not all effects, plus most of the time when fighting this thing you are in dark or dim lighting it can hide as a bonus action. So the shadow is not a light weight in any sense.
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Did.. anyone... playtest this? The Wayward Haint says 3d6 for damage.. Um at level 1 that can kill any char on average chars have 10 hp at level 1 and it's CR is level 1
That's pretty normal damage for a CR 1? And no, it can't kill a character on average, 'reduce to 0 hp' is not 'kill'.
A shadow also a cr 1 and does '1d6' in damage
It's an anomaly on the low side (also, it's CR 1/2 and does 1d6+2). If we look at the CR 1 creatures in the basic rules more than half of them have an action that does more than 10.5 damage. The largest multiattack is the ghoul at 4d6+4 (18), the largest single attack is the giant spider at 3d6+3 (13), the largest other ability is the copper dragon wyrmling doing 4d8 (18) with its breath.
Greetings OccultantNate,
While I don't have access to the Crooked Moon books, so I'm not able to review the creature you mentioned in your original post, so I will not address that specifically.
I did want to mention something that you said in your original post, and that is when you were talking about the creature and stated "and it's CR is level 1" when comparing it to a Level 1 Player Character.
The Challenge Rating of a creature is not equal to the Level of a Player Character.
You wouldn't typically pair a CR1 against Level 1 PCs.
Typically Level 1 PCs fight monsters like Goblins and such that are CR 1/8, and so on.
CR and Character Levels are not a 1:1 comparison.
Cheers!
Breathe, dragons; sing of the First World, forged out of chaos and painted with beauty.
Sing of Bahamut, the Platinum, molding the shape of the mountains and rivers;
Sing too of Chromatic Tiamat, painting all over the infinite canvas.
Partnered, they woke in the darkness; partnered, they labored in acts of creation.
Typically a CR n is expected to be a challenge for a level n party, though in practice it's more like a challenge for two level n PCs (solo killing an equal CR foe is possible for some builds, but hard; at first level, barbarian/fighter/paladin are all over 50% against a CR 1).
If we do the math for this, it's actually quite balanced. Here's the breakdown:
A level one character has about 10 HP, so one hit from the monster drops a character.
The monster, being CR 1, probably has about 25-30 health.
Level 1 characters can typically make 1 attack per turn that deals about 6-10 damage, depending on the weapon. 4-5 hits on the monster will kill it.
At level 1, the characters and monster will probably have about a 50% hit chance, so it takes two rounds for the monster to drop a character and 2+ rounds for the characters to kill it.
So the characters should kill the monster in about 2 1/2 rounds, with one of them dropping to zero health.
Seems fine to me, but if you fight multiple of them in a day you might have problems.
It's actually easier than that. A typical CR 1 is on the order of AC 12, 30 HP, Attack +4, Damage 12, with significant variance. That damage might come from multiattack, which significantly reduces the one hit KO issue. A very traditional first level party might look like:
There's a good chance the the CR 1 will only get one turn before dying (assume 2 PCs go before it, it gets an action, then everyone attacks again; most characters are at 70% to hit and party potential damage per round is 31), though average is more like 1.5. If it's attacking a front line character (a lot of CR 1s have limited ranged options) it's only 35% to hit, so the mean outcome is that a monster with one attack has about a 50% chance to score a hit, and that hit will on average drop a PC; a monster with multiattack is likely to damage a PC but unlikely to drop one. Given that PCs have spells and death saves, multiple encounters like that are not particularly challenging.
But you also have to remember that the shadow is very powerful in other ways like how in 5e the shadows attack lowers the characters strength score which has a max of 20 and most classes don't have a lot of, and on top of that the shadow is resistant or immune to almost all damage types and isn't effected by most if not all effects, plus most of the time when fighting this thing you are in dark or dim lighting it can hide as a bonus action. So the shadow is not a light weight in any sense.