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Epinephrine
2009-11-25, 01:51 PM
I noticed, when advancing a Mind Flayer (I assume I can refer to them, even if they aren't OGL?), that their Spell Resistance (SR) advances with character level. I like this - SR that doesn't advance as one levels is relatively meaningless, as it quickly falls behind and provides no protection.

If a portion of the Challenge Rating (CR) for an encounter is in fact based on the creature's SR, not advancing the SR when the creature advances reduces the creature's effective CR. I don't think that it is RAW to advance SR for creatures (I can't find any reference to it), but does it seem reasonable to other DMs to bump SR of advanced creatures by the CR they advance? (The closest thing I found was the instruction to "Make sure to "scale" your evaluation of these abilities by the monster’s current CR," in reference to adding special abilities, including special qualities that, "seriously diminishes the monster’s vulnerability to common attacks," which could include SR.)

If the CR 8 version has about 50% protection from a level 8 party, should the CR 13 version get about 50% protection from a level 13 party?

jiriku
2009-11-25, 02:05 PM
As with all things involving monster advancement, it depends. And how much do you improve it? Upgrading monsters is an art, not a science, and there's no easy way to decide when and how much to improve spell resistance.

For example, say I take that mind flayer and give him 4 levels of psion, an associated class. This mindflayer has CR 12, 12 HD, and SR +4.

Now say I take a mindflayer and give him 8 levels of cleric, a non-associated class. This mindflayer has CR 12, 16 HD, and SR +8.

Now say I take a mind flayer and give him the fiendish and shade templates. This mindflayer has CR 12, 8 HD, and SR +0.

Three ways to advance a creature by +4 CR. Three different tiers of improved base attack, saves, hit points, and spell resistance. Which is "balanced"? There's no simple answer.

Epinephrine
2009-11-25, 04:03 PM
Thanks, your example with the mind flayer puts the issue with just using class level in perspective.

I guess it's up to me to judge whether to increase SR or not; I suspect I'll lean toward increasing it by the CR increase (or thereabouts), to ensure that an advanced foo is still at least somewhat spell resistant.