Wyvern Riders Challenge Rating

[dukeofwolfsgate]

The heroes in an upcoming campaign are going to be facing off against an expansionist goblinoid empire, and I'm wondering about CR for a Hobgoblin Wyvern-Rider. He would probably have a longbow or crossbow rather than javelins, and maybe a lance. Not sure yet.

I know that the CR for a Hobgoblin Captain is 3 and a Wyvern is 6, but does their combined CR of 9 change if the first is riding the second? Since they could both be flying, it seems like this might give the Hobgoblin Captain a definate advantage in combat.

Thoughts?

btw, I would love it if someone could tell me if this is already covered in either the MM or DMG. I've perused both, but didn't see anything about special mounts affecting CR yet.

[Envyus]

The heroes in an upcoming campaign are going to be facing off against an expansionist goblinoid empire, and I'm wondering about CR for a Hobgoblin Wyvern-Rider. He would probably have a longbow or crossbow rather than javelins, and maybe a lance. Not sure yet.

I know that the CR for a Hobgoblin Captain is 3 and a Wyvern is 6, but does their combined CR of 9 change if the first is riding the second? Since they could both be flying, it seems like this might give the Hobgoblin Captain a definate advantage in combat.

Thoughts?

btw, I would love it if someone could tell me if this is already covered in either the MM or DMG. I've perused both, but didn't see anything about special mounts affecting CR yet.

When building an encounter you would just take them both into account. The swapped out weapons would not really effect the Hobs CR so here is what a so the two of them would have an exp total of 3000 which would multiply to 4500. When building encounters with them just remember they add that much to the encounter budget.

Pretty much it does not affect the CR you just build the encounter as normal.