[PF] Should the Kech be CR 3?

[Palanan]

I'm looking at the Kech (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary3/kech.html) from Bestiary 3, and I'm not seeing how it qualifies as CR 3. A minor SLA, darkvision, some skill bonuses related to stealth and arboreal life. That's about it.

Now, I'm not really familiar with Pathfinder, and hardly an expert on CR, so I may be missing something here. But what, exactly? Are the several HD of monstrous humanoid enough to raise it that far?

[Sayt]

Comparing it to the bestiary monster stats by CR on Bestiary 1 pg. 291, it's... slightly low, but relatively consistently over CR2

HP are below, AC are above, high attack is over, off hands are under, damage is way down, saves are basically on the ball.

[Tessman the 2nd]

Climb speed plus longbows can be pretty lethal to level 3 characters

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Sayt
Comparing it to the bestiary monster stats by CR on Bestiary 1 pg. 291, it's... slightly low, but relatively consistently over CR2

HP are below, AC are above, high attack is over, off hands are under, damage is way down, saves are basically on the ball.

Okay, thanks. Would stripping out the darkvision and the camo bonus, and maybe toning down the saves, be enough to slip it down to CR 2 territory?

I'd like to use this race, but at CR 3 they'd be a little strong for what I had in mind.

[Sayt]

Darkvision is not a huge thing, to be honest. To tone it down, the first thing I'd do is take away a hit dice. You lose attack bonus and saves.

The thing you also have to take into account if you want to play a Kech PC, is the stat array and feat choices. Trading out dodge or Mobility for say, weapon finess would increase accuracy, and taking piranha strike would increase damage.

[Keneth]

Worrying whether something is or isn't supposed to a specific CR is pretty pointless. The system is so abstracted and dysfunctional that even those CR values that are consistent are worthless for anything other than a rough estimation of what a party should be facing. You simply cannot condense the efficacy of a monster into a single number.

The point I'm trying to make is, if you think the party can defeat it, then use it. Disregard the CR. If you're worried about the rewards, simply reward the players according to the actual challenge, without looking at the numbers. I constantly engage my players with encounters 3 or more ratings above their level and they deal with them easily, but I can just as easily lay waste to them with a single monster below their level that abuses their weaknesses.