PDA

View Full Version : How would one put a CR on their homebrew monster?



johnswiftwood
2016-05-13, 07:31 PM
I really need to know, since i plan on one day doing a full fledged DM thing ( my current party is rotating the duty) i need help finding how much XP my bosses would give when killed.

Arkhios
2016-05-14, 01:48 AM
By calculating from overall damage per round and overall defense, using the guidelines in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Ninja_Prawn
2016-05-14, 03:19 AM
using the guidelines in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Specifically, the table on page 274 is the heart of the calculation.

It might take a bit of time/effort to wrap your head around it - I know it did for me - but once you get the hang of it, it's really easy. the only problems come when monsters have strong abilities that don't deal direct damage (such as a touch that inflicts paralysis), since the calculation doesn't really take them into account. Then you might need to use a bit of discretion.

RakiReborn
2016-05-14, 06:33 AM
http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1189
On my mobile, so i cant make the link fancy. The above link is for a creature CR calculator, and it uses the table from the DMG. Just fill in all the things you can and it gives the CR. Increase the cr how you see fit if you have special things like stun or paralyze as mentioned above. Hope this helps :)

Arkhios
2016-05-14, 06:37 AM
Specifically, the table on page 274 is the heart of the calculation.

Thanks for covering up with the page, as I was afb, and could only give general directions.

quinron
2016-05-14, 06:50 AM
I'll drop this Angry GM link here (http://theangrygm.com/monster-building-201-the-dd-monster-dissection-lab/). It greatly helped me to understand how monster-making works in 5e.

Triaxx
2016-05-14, 06:54 AM
I always built a point scale for the party I'm using the monster against. Every 50 points is an additional CR. The trouble is that the scale has to be adjusted depending on the party. A party with some protection against paralysis might incur only 15 points on that scale instead of the normal 30. But if it's got something that can rapidly interrupt, would get a bonus against a party with a lot of casters. Say 20 instead of the normal 10.

On the other hand, you can mitigate some of the impact by foreshadowing it's powers. Say having them find a corpse that a spot check shows has been paralyzed before being killed.

DeadpanSal
2016-05-14, 03:37 PM
Pretty much everything I did as a DM was tweaked up. You'll get better at it as you go along and figure out how monsters are made and things like that and can make them on the fly, but it saves a lot of overhead to just flavor text differences. Not every monster has to be something different. If you want to, for instance, make a swordmaster general with a sword that stretches and incredible reflexes, there's no reason he can't be a heroslayer hyrda. Just find different ways of expressing the mechanics as they are (bites don't have to be bites specifically, anything can be a sword if you take out the flavor text). And if any players figure out what you're doing, just kill their characters.

So see if something that exists meets your criteria first. As a new DM, it might help to use mechanics that exist and have been tested against a party instead of eyeballing something that can be too easy or too hard.

johnswiftwood
2016-05-14, 07:15 PM
http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1189
On my mobile, so i cant make the link fancy. The above link is for a creature CR calculator, and it uses the table from the DMG. Just fill in all the things you can and it gives the CR. Increase the cr how you see fit if you have special things like stun or paralyze as mentioned above. Hope this helps :)

Not sure how useful that scale is since it put this guy at CR five

[ the Greenspire Lurker, undead ,true neutral with chaotic evil leanings.]
Hp:95
AC:18
Passive perception:18
STR:20(+5)
DEX:18(+4)
CON:20(+5)
Int:7(-2)
Wis:16(+3)
cha:3(-4)
Skills:stealth,athletics,animal handling,perception.
Items:common clothing, plague doctor's mask, Scimitar,

Abilities:

Unarmored defense (same as barbarian)
Slash(+12 to hit, 1D6+15 damage)
Hack(+7 to hit, 1d6+20 damage)
resists:blunt, piercing, and slashing damage.
Regenerate 5 (does not apply against radiant damage)
Unholy return (revives from death every 1D6 months)

Ninja_Prawn
2016-05-15, 05:51 AM
Not sure how useful that scale is since it put this guy at CR five

[ the Greenspire Lurker, undead ,true neutral with chaotic evil leanings.]
Hp:95
AC:18
Passive perception:18
STR:20(+5)
DEX:18(+4)
CON:20(+5)
Int:7(-2)
Wis:16(+3)
cha:3(-4)
Skills:stealth,athletics,animal handling,perception.
Items:common clothing, plague doctor's mask, Scimitar,

Abilities:

Unarmored defense (same as barbarian)
Slash(+12 to hit, 1D6+15 damage)
Hack(+7 to hit, 1d6+20 damage)
resists:blunt, piercing, and slashing damage.
Regenerate 5 (does not apply against radiant damage)
Unholy return (revives from death every 1D6 months)

Yeah... by hand I make that CR 7, assuming it doesn't have multiattack.

On the other hand, I just downloaded the calculator, and that gives me 7 as well, so I think you might have input the data incorrectly.

johnswiftwood
2016-05-15, 09:58 AM
Yeah... by hand I make that CR 7, assuming it doesn't have multiattack.

On the other hand, I just downloaded the calculator, and that gives me 7 as well, so I think you might have input the data incorrectly.

Maybe. I don't seally have any clue how to input regeneration.

Ninja_Prawn
2016-05-15, 10:44 AM
Maybe. I don't seally have any clue how to input regeneration.

It's effectively +15 HP (added before the 1.5x multiplier), so I put it in the 'False Life, etc.' slot.

johnswiftwood
2016-05-18, 05:54 PM
only brought it up to six.