This is calculated to be barely a CR 1 enemy, not a CR 2. 

Yeah, only being able to do 2d8+4 plus another 1d6 Necrotic (regular attack plus Spiritual Weapon). Then causing someone to flee, and doing another 1d8+2 as a Bonus Action. Then paralysing someone. Not a threat at all. Especially with regular cultist backup. Useless clearly.

Quote from Soggy2002 >>

Yeah, only being able to do 2d8+2 plus another 1d6 Necrotic (regular attack plus Spiritual Weapon). Then causing someone to flee, and doing another 1d8+2 as a Bonus Action. Then paralysing someone. Not a threat at all. Especially with regular cultist backup. Useless clearly.

 Where are these stats you're coming up with here. None of that is in this "enemies" stat block. Using the CR system promoted as bounded accuracy here is how it breaks down. 

Defensive CR= 1/4 (44 HP and AC 13)
Offensive CR =2  (Damage 15 average [pact blade = 9 + Spriritual Weapon 6]
CR = Average of the DCR + OCR = which is more like 3/4 but lets round that to 1. 

If we max damage OCR = 3 (26 damage) then that for sure makes CR 1

Can't cause them to flee in the same round as attack and isn't used to calculate CR because its a save or suck. Same with paralyzing as it's a save or suck and it would take 2 rounds to set up any benefit. 

But for SG lets say CR is calculated with the paralyze 

OCR damage for that round on average would be 26 damage so still OCR of 3 making the CR still a 1, and max would have a damage of 48 then OCR would be (DMG/RND 7 but go down 1 for only a +4 to hit = OCR 6) With that the average CR is then 3 still not 2 so likely its not intended to be calculated with perfect situations. 

WoTC admitted to the failure to calculate the CRs accurately presenting very weak enemies for parties of suggested level. Using CR is horrible and they advertised the new monsters to be better. So far not even close. 

Just to explain where my stats came from, "2d8+4 plus another 1d6 Necrotic" comes from their Pact Blade (1d8+2+1d6) plus Spiritual Weapon (1d8+2). Then on their next turn, as a separate sentence, Command and Spiritual Weapon, "causing someone to flee, and doing another 1d8+2". Final sentence, their next turn, Hold Person to paralyse. I didn't even add in yet another 1d8+2 for Spiritual Weapon, taking into account they might have lost concentration by that point.

Add onto that the swarm of cultists they'd have to deal with at the same time, and you have yourself a delightful encounter with cultists (hopefully) dying left and right while giving the party at least some challenge. Maybe throw in a hungry beast or two for fun.

Quote from Amalica >>

Quote from Soggy2002 >>

Yeah, only being able to do 2d8+2 plus another 1d6 Necrotic (regular attack plus Spiritual Weapon). Then causing someone to flee, and doing another 1d8+2 as a Bonus Action. Then paralysing someone. Not a threat at all. Especially with regular cultist backup. Useless clearly.

 Where are these stats you're coming up with here. None of that is in this "enemies" stat block. Using the CR system promoted as bounded accuracy here is how it breaks down. 

Defensive CR= 1/4 (44 HP and AC 13)
Offensive CR =2  (Damage 15 average [pact blade = 9 + Spriritual Weapon 6]
CR = Average of the DCR + OCR = which is more like 3/4 but lets round that to 1. 

If we max damage OCR = 3 (26 damage) then that for sure makes CR 1

Can't cause them to flee in the same round as attack and isn't used to calculate CR because its a save or suck. Same with paralyzing as it's a save or suck and it would take 2 rounds to set up any benefit. 

But for SG lets say CR is calculated with the paralyze 

OCR damage for that round on average would be 26 damage so still OCR of 3 making the CR still a 1, and max would have a damage of 48 then OCR would be (DMG/RND 7 but go down 1 for only a +4 to hit = OCR 6) With that the average CR is then 3 still not 2 so likely its not intended to be calculated with perfect situations. 

WoTC admitted to the failure to calculate the CRs accurately presenting very weak enemies for parties of suggested level. Using CR is horrible and they advertised the new monsters to be better. So far not even close. 

 The average damage for the pact blade is actually 13 (1d8+2 slashing damage plus 2d6 necrotic damage). Adding the spiritual weapon’s 6 average makes the ADPR 19. This damage is split between three damage types, and the cultist has access to two fairly debilitating spells (command and hold person). The damage and the spellcasting (I haven’t done the actual calculation) make it seem like a reasonable threat for level 2 players. To put the damage into context, a level 2 barbarian that rolled the maximum on hit dice and had a 20 Con would have 29 hit points. This means that the ADPR from this cultist likely exceeds the hit point maximum of most level 2 characters.

This statblock was released in a preview, and in that preview it was 1d6. When the full book came out, rather than making a new entry for the 2024 cultist fanatic, they just updated the preview, and in the final book the damage was upped to 2d6. Amalica was correct when they made their comments

For anyone too lazy like me to look up Spiritual Weapon, you can use the pact blade stats for your spiritual weapon attack and ignore the necrotic damage.

Another artwork thats...ok i guess, not a big fan but thats just my taste.

For stats he got 11 hp lost 1 CHA but got 1 WIS and a WIS save. 

They lost inflict wounds and shield of faith. And savred flame and can only attack ones now. (And not ranged).

But instead of 4 piercing the weapon does 6 slashing and 7 necrotic damage + tve bonus action 1d8 force dmg.

Overall its a great change in my opinion show how "strong" they can get for their beliefs 

Thank God they at least Kept the Cult fanatic as an evil cleric in its spellcasting 

And yet like idiots they gave them pact blades as if they're warlocks

They're kinda a multiclass cleric/warlock in my opinion, so Pact Blade seemed fitting.