Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Onelostroad Mar 09, 2015 18:05:11	My fifth party is going up against NPCs in PC classes. For purposes of balance and awarding experience, I was wondering how to calculate the challenge rating for a PC class. This is a general question, but below I have included one example that is upcoming in our campaign:   I followed the advice on pg. 274 in the DMG.    So I'm planning on having the party go up against an 11th level rogue and five 2nd level rogues. The 11th level rogue will flee combat easily, leaving his henchmen to cover his retreat and take the fall for him.   So for the 11th level rogue, here's what I did:    Hit Points - 91, CR 2 Armor Class - 17, 8 levels higher than CR 2, +4 to Defensive CR  Defensive CR - 6   Damage/Round - This one's tricky and totally dependent upon use of sneak attack. I'm guessing with use of his allies he'll be able to sneak attack most rounds... two weapon fighting, 7d6+5 dmg + 1d6+1 = 30 dmg/rnd, CR 4 Attack Bonus - +9, +6 to Offensive CR Offensive CR - 10   Average CR - (6+10)/2 = 7.5, rounds to CR 8 (3,900 XP). This seems a bit high... certainly a party of level 5 characters could take a single opponent with 91 HP with ease. What do you think?   The Level 2 rogues each would end up at CR 4 using the same method. That seems a bit high to me... 1,100 XP for a level 2 rogue? I was thinking more along the lines of CR 1 - 200 XP. Thoughts?   Bonus question: Since the high level rogue is willingly fleeing combat at the first sign of trouble, how should that impact the XP award for that character?
#2 AaronOfBarbaria Mar 09, 2015 18:42:42	I think you have misdone some of your math: 7d6+5 + 1d6+1 is 34 average damage per round AC adds +1 to defensive CR per 2 points higher than listed for the CR of the HP of the monster. Attack bonus adds +1 to offensive CR per 2 points higher than listed for the average damage/round of the monster. As a result, your rogue NPC appears to be a CR 5.   As for XP award, I say give full XP no matter how the players get through the challenge so that you don't end up creating a situation in which your players feel like they have to force an encounter to reach a specific conclusion in order to get full credit for it, and are otherwise punished - i.e. that they should just kill anything/everything because that's the way to get the good XP.
(Reply to #2) Onelostroad	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#4 AaronOfBarbaria Mar 10, 2015 1:57:23	The problems you are still having seem to be that you are not calculating average damage correctly as 1d6 is 3.5, but once you've added all the dice and modifiers you round down, and that when comparing AC and attack bonus it is every 2 points over the value, not every 2 higher CR the value would be normal for. As such AC 17 is 4 higher than the 13 expected of CR 2, and thus a plus 2 to defensive CR.
(Reply to #3) AaronOfBarbaria	Onelostroad wrote: