Hi there! So, I wanted to make a stupid home brew creature for lore purposes. Can someone help me find what CR it is?
Goblin Guardian
Large Construct, Lawful Neutral
Armor Class: 27
Hit Points: 542 (30d12)
Speed 35ft
STR:18 (+4)
DEX: 19 (+4)
CON: 20 (+5)
INT: 14 (+2)
WIS: 14 (+2)
CHA: 8 (-1)
Senses Blindsight 70ft (blind beyond this radius), Passive Perception 19
Languages: Telepathy 30ft, Common, Goblin, Orc
CR: ???
Damage Immunities: Psychic, Poison, Piercing, Bludgeoning, and Slashing from non-magical non-adamantine non-silvered weapons.
Attack Redirection: When an Attack misses the Goblin Guardian, the Goblin Guardian can redirect the attack to any creature within 5ft of it.
Critical Immunity: The Goblin Guardian is immune to Critical Hits. If the dice roll (after adding the appropriate modifiers) is less than the Goblin Guardians AC, it misses.
Opportunity Taker: The Goblin Guardian may take an Attack of Opportunity when a creature Disengages before leaving its reach. In addition, the Goblin Guardian has advantage on Attacks of Opportunity.
Actions
Multiattack: The Goblin Guardian makes 2 Steel Strike attacks.
Steel Strike: melee Weapon Attack +4 to hit, reach 5ft, one target, hit 2 damage (1d4) bludgeoning
Reactions
Attack Absorb: Once per Turn, when a creature hits the Goblin Guardian with a melee attack, it may use a Reaction to reduce the damage taken to zero and heal an amount equal to the damage that would have been dealt.
So? How is it? And what CR is it? If you can’t tell, it’s built for Defense, not Offense, and isn’t built to be fought, but I need a CR and Stat block, just in case.
Before I get started, there are a handful of mistakes. The biggest one is HP, you forgot to add CON bonus, also 30d12 can't add to 542 (even with the 150 CON bonus it should have), also also large creatures use a d10 hit die, 30d10+150 averages 315, 50d10+250 averages 525 (rather than have so many hit dice, you could raise its CON to 30). Another mistake is its attack doesn't include ability modifiers, it should be +8~9 to hit and 1d4+4 damage.
And this creature has absurdly high defenses (I haven't checked, but it is probably a defense CR of 30 or higher). You should really balance it more. Have its HP only be in the 300s and lower its AC. And negating critical damage is fine, but making a critical still have a chance to miss is too much. And the bonus to attacks of opportunity don't amount to much with the weak attacks.
Alright. Please, I just want to figure out how to find this thing’s CR. That’s why I’m here. I’m not looking for suggestions, because this’s isn’t meant to be fought in the first place.
Now, onto the problems.
I didn’t notice you could raise CON to 30! That’s cool.
I didn’t realize that specific sizes use specific hit die. I’m sorry for that.
The to hit and damage modifiers are on purpose. It’s supposed to be a giant, defensive construct built to guard- makes sense it’s not built to fight. If you can’t see my reasoning, better way if putting it- If i gave this super powerful attacks, it would be well over CR 30.
The bonus to AoO is more for saying ‘Hey! This is built for this! If you fight it, you can’t try to run!’. In other words, it’s more there to show what it can do, rather than to break something. After all, why would you run from something that has a +4 to hit and deals 2 damage? ;)
Using current stats, by the book, its defensive CR is 34 (honestly it should probably be higher, but the chart doesnt go high enough), its offensive CR is roughly 1, averaging to CR 18.
If you dont want it to be strong, make its STR 10, that would be how much damage it deals with that stat (except it would have a +6 to hit from its proficiency mod due to high CR).
Being able to do 2 damage to something as it gives up is more of an annoyance than anything. But if You combine it with the fact that its speed is higher than most PCs, and it can just catch up to you and get another AoO and repeat until you die or go somewhere it can't reach.
Also, another way to boost this thing's defense without the absurd numbers is to give it a damage threshold where damage less than a certain value is negated.
Exactly. I mainly built this stat block because my party enjoys fighting things they shouldn’t, and it’d be easier to keep note of it’s abilities. Everything from Beehives I put there for flavor, to entire villages they have been convinced are possessed by demons. I just wanted a CR for reference.
Whats even the point of this? This is a glorified brickwall. Anything past level 2 doesnt even need to acknowledge this thing.
No this is worse than a brick wall. A brick wall wouldn't make you do math (with dice averages higher than maximum possible...).
Moreover this monster is a potential nightmare. Any sub-level 7 party without a means of escape could be hounded by this thing for days until one side eventually dies (probably of exhaustion before damage).
It is a poorly balanced poorly designed monstrosity that can't be killed by a level 20 paladin, but a level 7 cleric, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard can turn it into a non-issue.
In all seriousness, would it hunt them? You don’t know the campaign I’m running, the history, why this is a thing. You'd need a pretty good reason to have this chase someone for a week.
so your point is that your players are having fun the "wrong" way and instead of trying to address this with the group, you pull a childish prank on them. Why bother even giving this thing stats?
No! No, no, no! This is a monster, it requires a stat lock! This isn’t a childish prank! I have talked to them, it’s more of an inside joke then something to take seriously. It has stats because it needs stats, the same way a Commoner needs stats, or an important NPC, or even a Warlock of the Great Old One. There is no wrong way to have fun, and I never said that. Maybe before you accuse someone of saying ‘My party’s dumb so I made this monster to kill them, blehhh’, you should read what has been posted.
It's very difficult cuz it's not really made in a way similar to any existing creature in 5e. Defensively it's way up there, it can take hits like a creature above CR 20, even when just looking at the AC and HP and forgetting all it's other defensive shenanigans, stats wise it's more like a good CR 8 or average CR 9 enemy, offensively it's around a CR 1/2. So if we say that it's a CR 25 defensively (that's an extreme guess based on more HP than an Kraken, more AC than a Tarasque, and a bunch of decent defensive abilities to boot), CR 8 stat wise and CR 1/2 offensively, the average is just above a 11. So i'd call it a CR 11, very roughly.
Edit: I tried to put the stats into a CR calculator (couldn't do most of the abilities since they are homebrewed) and it put it at a CR 15, but i don't think it knew how to handle it cuz even after just HP and AC it was at a 14. Also I misread the immunities as resistances, cuz why would you give it that many immunities you absolute monster, taking that into consideration, i'd put it above higher defensively, so all in all it'd come out at a CR 13 by my new calculations.
In terms of balance I would HIGHLY recommend you change at least some of those immunities to resistances. But it's your game so do what you will :P That being said even with the immunities I think it could be fun IF, it's relatively slow and/or doesn't have any desire to chase. Basically a huge wall that a lower level party run into and after a few rounds just run from and can plan to take down at a later date.
Hi there! So, I wanted to make a stupid home brew creature for lore purposes. Can someone help me find what CR it is?
Goblin Guardian
Large Construct, Lawful Neutral
Armor Class: 27
Hit Points: 542 (30d12)
Speed 35ft
STR:18 (+4)
DEX: 19 (+4)
CON: 20 (+5)
INT: 14 (+2)
WIS: 14 (+2)
CHA: 8 (-1)
Senses Blindsight 70ft (blind beyond this radius), Passive Perception 19
Languages: Telepathy 30ft, Common, Goblin, Orc
CR: ???
Damage Immunities: Psychic, Poison, Piercing, Bludgeoning, and Slashing from non-magical non-adamantine non-silvered weapons.
Attack Redirection: When an Attack misses the Goblin Guardian, the Goblin Guardian can redirect the attack to any creature within 5ft of it.
Critical Immunity: The Goblin Guardian is immune to Critical Hits. If the dice roll (after adding the appropriate modifiers) is less than the Goblin Guardians AC, it misses.
Opportunity Taker: The Goblin Guardian may take an Attack of Opportunity when a creature Disengages before leaving its reach. In addition, the Goblin Guardian has advantage on Attacks of Opportunity.
Actions
Multiattack: The Goblin Guardian makes 2 Steel Strike attacks.
Steel Strike: melee Weapon Attack +4 to hit, reach 5ft, one target, hit 2 damage (1d4) bludgeoning
Reactions
Attack Absorb: Once per Turn, when a creature hits the Goblin Guardian with a melee attack, it may use a Reaction to reduce the damage taken to zero and heal an amount equal to the damage that would have been dealt.
So? How is it? And what CR is it? If you can’t tell, it’s built for Defense, not Offense, and isn’t built to be fought, but I need a CR and Stat block, just in case.
Before I get started, there are a handful of mistakes. The biggest one is HP, you forgot to add CON bonus, also 30d12 can't add to 542 (even with the 150 CON bonus it should have), also also large creatures use a d10 hit die, 30d10+150 averages 315, 50d10+250 averages 525 (rather than have so many hit dice, you could raise its CON to 30). Another mistake is its attack doesn't include ability modifiers, it should be +8~9 to hit and 1d4+4 damage.
And this creature has absurdly high defenses (I haven't checked, but it is probably a defense CR of 30 or higher). You should really balance it more. Have its HP only be in the 300s and lower its AC. And negating critical damage is fine, but making a critical still have a chance to miss is too much. And the bonus to attacks of opportunity don't amount to much with the weak attacks.
Alright. Please, I just want to figure out how to find this thing’s CR. That’s why I’m here. I’m not looking for suggestions, because this’s isn’t meant to be fought in the first place.
Now, onto the problems.
I didn’t notice you could raise CON to 30! That’s cool.
I didn’t realize that specific sizes use specific hit die. I’m sorry for that.
The to hit and damage modifiers are on purpose. It’s supposed to be a giant, defensive construct built to guard- makes sense it’s not built to fight. If you can’t see my reasoning, better way if putting it- If i gave this super powerful attacks, it would be well over CR 30.
The bonus to AoO is more for saying ‘Hey! This is built for this! If you fight it, you can’t try to run!’. In other words, it’s more there to show what it can do, rather than to break something. After all, why would you run from something that has a +4 to hit and deals 2 damage? ;)
You can calculate CR using a chart in the DMG (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#CreatingaMonster). If its CR doesn't matter because it is not meant to be fought, then it doesn't matter what its CR is.
Using current stats, by the book, its defensive CR is 34 (honestly it should probably be higher, but the chart doesnt go high enough), its offensive CR is roughly 1, averaging to CR 18.
If you dont want it to be strong, make its STR 10, that would be how much damage it deals with that stat (except it would have a +6 to hit from its proficiency mod due to high CR).
Being able to do 2 damage to something as it gives up is more of an annoyance than anything. But if You combine it with the fact that its speed is higher than most PCs, and it can just catch up to you and get another AoO and repeat until you die or go somewhere it can't reach.
Also, another way to boost this thing's defense without the absurd numbers is to give it a damage threshold where damage less than a certain value is negated.
Whats even the point of this? This is a glorified brickwall. Anything past level 2 doesnt even need to acknowledge this thing.
Exactly. I mainly built this stat block because my party enjoys fighting things they shouldn’t, and it’d be easier to keep note of it’s abilities. Everything from Beehives I put there for flavor, to entire villages they have been convinced are possessed by demons. I just wanted a CR for reference.
No this is worse than a brick wall. A brick wall wouldn't make you do math (with dice averages higher than maximum possible...).
Moreover this monster is a potential nightmare. Any sub-level 7 party without a means of escape could be hounded by this thing for days until one side eventually dies (probably of exhaustion before damage).
It is a poorly balanced poorly designed monstrosity that can't be killed by a level 20 paladin, but a level 7 cleric, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard can turn it into a non-issue.
Don’t insult my baby!
In all seriousness, would it hunt them? You don’t know the campaign I’m running, the history, why this is a thing. You'd need a pretty good reason to have this chase someone for a week.
so your point is that your players are having fun the "wrong" way and instead of trying to address this with the group, you pull a childish prank on them. Why bother even giving this thing stats?
No! No, no, no! This is a monster, it requires a stat lock! This isn’t a childish prank! I have talked to them, it’s more of an inside joke then something to take seriously. It has stats because it needs stats, the same way a Commoner needs stats, or an important NPC, or even a Warlock of the Great Old One. There is no wrong way to have fun, and I never said that. Maybe before you accuse someone of saying ‘My party’s dumb so I made this monster to kill them, blehhh’, you should read what has been posted.
It's very difficult cuz it's not really made in a way similar to any existing creature in 5e. Defensively it's way up there, it can take hits like a creature above CR 20, even when just looking at the AC and HP and forgetting all it's other defensive shenanigans, stats wise it's more like a good CR 8 or average CR 9 enemy, offensively it's around a CR 1/2. So if we say that it's a CR 25 defensively (that's an extreme guess based on more HP than an Kraken, more AC than a Tarasque, and a bunch of decent defensive abilities to boot), CR 8 stat wise and CR 1/2 offensively, the average is just above a 11. So i'd call it a CR 11, very roughly.
Edit: I tried to put the stats into a CR calculator (couldn't do most of the abilities since they are homebrewed) and it put it at a CR 15, but i don't think it knew how to handle it cuz even after just HP and AC it was at a 14. Also I misread the immunities as resistances, cuz why would you give it that many immunities you absolute monster, taking that into consideration, i'd put it above higher defensively, so all in all it'd come out at a CR 13 by my new calculations.
In terms of balance I would HIGHLY recommend you change at least some of those immunities to resistances. But it's your game so do what you will :P That being said even with the immunities I think it could be fun IF, it's relatively slow and/or doesn't have any desire to chase. Basically a huge wall that a lower level party run into and after a few rounds just run from and can plan to take down at a later date.