Challenge Ratings

[Mad Gene Vane]

From what I understand, the Challenge Rating (CR) of a character means it would take a group of that level CR to bring the beastie down.

So a CR9 monster, would require a party of character level 9 PC's to take it down.

Is there a way to figure out, when you've advanced enough levels to take out a certain CR monster.

For example, would a character level 16 PC be able to go solo against a CR12 monster.

Just wondering, if anyone has any rules of thumb for this going solo against a lower CR monster.

[Greenish]

A lone level X character should have 50:50 shots at beating an EL X encounter.

A party (of four) of average level X is assumed to burn 1/4th of their resources to beat an EL X encounter.


That said, CR/EL are pretty poor indicators of actual power. A shadow or a monstrous crab is pretty overwhelming encounter for many/most APL 3 parties, for example, and APL 9 party going against Adamantine Horror would get off easier committing a group suicide.

[Mad Gene Vane]

A lone level X character should have 50:50 shots at beating an EL X encounter.

A party (of four) of average level X is assumed to burn 1/4th of their resources to beat an EL X encounter.


That said, CR/EL are pretty poor indicators of actual power. A shadow or a monstrous crab is pretty overwhelming encounter for many/most APL 3 parties, for example, and APL 9 party going against Adamantine Horror would get off easier committing a group suicide.

Sigh...I'm not up on my acronyms.

What does EL, EL X and APL stand for?

[Absol197]

Basically what Greenish said.

To state things another way, hopefully to make things clearer:

A character has a CR equal to its level, and so (supposedly) is an even match for a creature with the same CR. In an even match, it all comes down to the dice.

That does not mean, however, that a party (or even a single character) cannot defeat a monster of a higher CR than the party's average level, it's just more difficult, and will expend more resources, and there will be a higher probablility of character death (although at higher levels, character death is expected, and the diamonds to bring them back are considered to be a part of "expended resources"). In fact, the DMG recommends that partys be occasionally given challenges of a CR higher than their APL.

Of course, it can be difficult to determine a creature's CR in a consistent manner throughout all the various sourcebooks. This is what Greenish is getting at at the end of his post: don't just rely on the listed CR; the DM has to make some judgement calls, as not all the monsters in all the books are measured properly.

EDIT: EL is Encounter Level, EL X is Greenish's way of saying "an Encounter Level of difficulty 'X'", it's not a general term in and of itself, and APL stands for Average Party Level.

[Zaydos]

In theory an EL (Encounter Level) X encounter requires approximately 20% of a Lv X party's resources. 1 CR X creature is EL X, 2 CR X creatures = EL X+2, or in general 2X = X+2. 3X = X+3. 4X = X+4 (5X = X+5, 6X = X+5, 7X = X+6, 8X = X+6, 9X = X+6, 10-12X = X+7).

If you have a 2 person party they should fight encounters where the EL = party level -2 for it to be equivalent. A 1 person party it's EL = their level -4. 6 person party EL = character level +1, 8 person party EL = character level +2.

So a 1 Lv 16 character is supposed to have as much trouble with 1 CR 12 creature as a party would with 4 of them or with a CR 16.

In practice it very rarely works out that way.

[Greenish]

EL stands for Encounter Level (which is based on CR or CRs of the enemies), EL X is Encounter Level X (where X stands for a number), and APL is Average Party Level.

[crazyhedgewizrd]

In theory ... out that way.

the math is a little wrong, it should have been 2X= X+1, 4X= X+2, 8X= X+3 it should get expansional harder.

2 person party is X-1, and one person is X-2. a Lvl 16 should easy take on a CR 14 creature.

[Douglas]

the math is a little wrong, it should have been 2X= X+1, 4X= X+2, 8X= X+3 it should get expansional harder.

2 person party is X-1, and one person is X-2. a Lvl 16 should easy take on a CR 14 creature.
No, his math is completely right. The official system in the DMG is that it takes a 2 level difference to equal a doubling in number of creatures.