Advice from Experience DM's about Xanather's solo Mon cr table.

[Throne12]

So in Xanather's guild there is a solo monster challenge rating table laying out a 4 pc, 5 pc, 6 pc party compare to what cr level monster is a good solo fight so let use my party of 6 players at level 5. This chart shows if I want to do a solo monster it should be a cr 9 monster. Now I'm not a Expert with the cr system so is this about right?

[Ganymede]

It might be too easy.

My group of 5 level 6 PCs curb stomped a Glabrezu and five Manes. That's a CR 9 with some extra fodder, and they still won pretty handedly.

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

Lv 5 characters are powerful little buggers, 5 is a very important level for combat ( extra attack, 3rd level spells ). A level 5 fighter does twice as much damage as a level 4 fighter.

It is going to be 6 on 1. Your cr 9 creature is going to get overwhelmed and died. ( be careful about AoE abilities as they may turn the tide of action economy in the favor of the baddie)

[Throne12]

So the chart in Xanather's guild to everything is not correct?

[Malifice]

Don't underestimate magic items also. Each magic weapon or similar adds a levels worth of power to the Pcs.

For each magic weapon or attuned item, their effective level is 1 higher.

[mephnick]

So the chart in Xanather's guild to everything is not correct?

Nothing is correct about single monster CR in D&D. It's meaningless. Action economy alone can have the PCs besting monsters 2 tiers above their level with ease. Just don't use single monsters unless you customize a bunch of legendary/lair actions (this is not enough in my experience) or using another way to build solo encounters like Angry's Paragon monsters.

[JackPhoenix]

Solo monster difficulty is uncertain even with standard, 4-man group. With 6 players, it's basically "Yeah, don't bother".

[Kuulvheysoon]

Indeed, this is a harsh lesson to learn.

[8wGremlin]

Solo monster is basically saying "focus fire" which is alway the better strategy for D&D.
so Solo monsters are basically 1 monster turn vs X player turns, where X is the number of players...

I now never have a single monster, I always have some low level mooks around as well... or something else, like hazardous terrain, traps etc.

[mephnick]

Indeed, this is a harsh lesson to learn.

It's almost like a DM rite of passage. Learning how your awesome Anti-Paladin is no match for blessed Action Economy.

Thankfully I went through mine roughly 15 years ago.

[Kuulvheysoon]

It's almost like a DM rite of passage. Learning how your awesome Anti-Paladin is no match for blessed Action Economy.

Thankfully I went through mine roughly 15 years ago.

Man, I hit this wall every edition of the game. It's annoying. I skipped 4e, so I see these legendary actions and these lair actions and I'm all "Finally, I can actually have a solo encounter that won't get pooped on by action economy!"

...that evening did not end well for the beholder.