Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 blake_marlowe Jan 10, 2015 16:41:14	so i've been adapting my 4e game to 5e. it's been interesting and fun and thanks to the help i got in my previous thread, it was less odious than i feared.   i'm in the process of converting my antagonist species (sorta drow meet melnibone evil humanoids). i'm kinda fuzzy on how many HD these guys should have. it looks like class levels add to CR 1:1, with a few levels of CR granted for being drow.    is there a clear guideline re: class levels, hit dice and CR? they appear tenuously but not directly correlated. have i missed something?
#2 AaronOfBarbaria Jan 10, 2015 19:05:38	Page 283 of the DMG talks about adding class levels to monsters, and it is not at all a 1 class level to 1 CR ratio - you add in the class levels, which add 1 of the monster's size-based hit dice (not the class hit die) for each level, but then you have to use the CR calculations to figure out what (if anything) has changed about the creature's CR.   The whole monster creation section is a bit disorganized, but once you read through a couple times (second half of page 273 through the first half of page 283) and get it all straight in your mind, you'll see it's pretty simple.   And this nifty tool helps out a lot with the calculation part, you just have to figure out how to get the right numbers to enter into it.
#3 mictrepanier Jan 10, 2015 19:08:52	No, 1 level does not equal 1 CR. You figure out CR from offense (damage from mundane or magical means) + defense (AC, HP) CR  /2 , with some specials, like surprise capability, etc.. DMG p274
#4 blake_marlowe Jan 11, 2015 4:48:19	oy...that's what i get for posting while multitasking.   my question should have been: how many HD should i be assigning to new critters? should it just be whatever hits the (seemingly way inflated) HP range without any direct correlation to other factors?
#5 AaronOfBarbaria Jan 11, 2015 9:22:15	the number of hit dice a creature has is entirely about hitting the HP total they need based on their intended CR and other defensive features.   Those "inflated" ranges are as they are so that minor differences, like a +25% effective hit points from a special ability such as frightful presence on creature meant to face 10th level or lower characters, don't result in an immediate change of CR when they really aren't worth an entire point of CR by themselves with the actual impact they have on an encounter.   So you basically look at how many HP you think the monster should have, find out what you feel it's constitution should be, and then set the number of hit dice so that the end result average is on-target - resulting in a situation such as the version of Orcus I have made for my own uses having 595 hit points by way of having 41d12 hit dice, where other CR 30 creatures typically have less hit dice (like the 30d20 which Tiamat has) because they are larger size and you don't need as many d20s as you do d12s when trying to hit roughly the same number.