Afgncaap5
2013-12-29, 10:11 PM
I was wondering if anyone had any general guidelines they use for CR or XP calculations for fights that get altered in unusual ways. At a certain point it's admittedly more trouble than it's worth to recalculate CR based only on factors like that, but a few questions like these always come to mind (I think my earliest thoughts on this involved what happens to the CR of a level 1 Warrior Kobold who gets his hands on the Sword of Kas.)
A more specific example that I'm working on right now is trying to balance a customized minotaur in a labyrinth-style conclusion to someone new to gaming who wants a solo session before joining a regular gaming table. Starting at level 1, I'm making the significantly weaker minotaur have fewer hitpoints and capable of dealing less damage. Its lair, an ancient maze of mirrors, is something that I want to make cause a kind of non-magical effect like the Blur spell, but with a lower percentage of missing if a successful perception check gets rolled.
Two abilities I'd like the minotaur to have would be a variation of Tree Stride (basically a "Mirror Walk" that lets it step into one mirror and instantly out of another mirror within thirty feet), the ability to cast mirror image on himself once a day, and a masterwork-ish weapon that has the ability to create an illusory double of the target that it strikes (usually a useless ability, but one that will gradually increase the probability of failing a perception check in the mirror maze as the player no longer has just her own mirror reflections seeming to interact with the minotaur images, but also 3D holograms of herself doing the same thing.) Admittedly, this weapon is an exception to the rule that all magic weapons need to have a +1 enhancement.
A fear I have is that these abilities together might make the creature too difficult to reasonably call the creature CR 2, even if this mini-taur only has one or two hit dice. On the other hand, given the very narrow range of ways that these abilities would be used by the creature in this location, the specificity might keep it down. (And might be offset by as much as a single potion of Truestrike found earlier in the adventure.)
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on balance in terms of this, or for location and equipment modifications to CR in general.
A more specific example that I'm working on right now is trying to balance a customized minotaur in a labyrinth-style conclusion to someone new to gaming who wants a solo session before joining a regular gaming table. Starting at level 1, I'm making the significantly weaker minotaur have fewer hitpoints and capable of dealing less damage. Its lair, an ancient maze of mirrors, is something that I want to make cause a kind of non-magical effect like the Blur spell, but with a lower percentage of missing if a successful perception check gets rolled.
Two abilities I'd like the minotaur to have would be a variation of Tree Stride (basically a "Mirror Walk" that lets it step into one mirror and instantly out of another mirror within thirty feet), the ability to cast mirror image on himself once a day, and a masterwork-ish weapon that has the ability to create an illusory double of the target that it strikes (usually a useless ability, but one that will gradually increase the probability of failing a perception check in the mirror maze as the player no longer has just her own mirror reflections seeming to interact with the minotaur images, but also 3D holograms of herself doing the same thing.) Admittedly, this weapon is an exception to the rule that all magic weapons need to have a +1 enhancement.
A fear I have is that these abilities together might make the creature too difficult to reasonably call the creature CR 2, even if this mini-taur only has one or two hit dice. On the other hand, given the very narrow range of ways that these abilities would be used by the creature in this location, the specificity might keep it down. (And might be offset by as much as a single potion of Truestrike found earlier in the adventure.)
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on balance in terms of this, or for location and equipment modifications to CR in general.