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View Full Version : Help on CR w/ Scaling back a Monster?



F.H. Zebedee
2008-02-05, 08:58 PM
I stumbled across this monster, and was struck by curiosity as to how much of its strength depended on some extraneous attributes (at least by my opinion).
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/tayellah.htm
So, how much do you think its CR should be, if it were:
Only one head/bite, instead of 3.
No sting attack.

Would it be a major change? Eyeballing it, I'm guessing -2 CR, maybe 3. Am I right?

Yakk
2008-02-05, 09:09 PM
The sting is a main part of what makes it deadly.

Claw damage: 21 each x2
Bite damage: 12 each x3
Rake damage: 19 each x2
Sting attack: 15.5 each x1 + ~11 con x2 damage (DC 39)

It lacks power attack. So the base creature has 131.5 melee damage output per round, and a rather high initiative.

Your change removes the massive con damage poison, and reduces it's damage to 92 per round.

Defensively, it is unchanged.

At this point, I'd be tempted to just simulate a fight between your PCs and the creature?

tyckspoon
2008-02-05, 09:14 PM
It's an Epic monster that doesn't fly and has no ranged attacks. If your entire party isn't regularly flying by level 20+, you deserve to get eaten by it.. similarly, I would say that if you haven't found some way to make yourself immune to poisons and/or ability damage by the point you would be fighting this thing, you deserve the death you get. I would say dropping the sting and a couple of the heads gets maybe -1 CR. Not that it matters, because this thing has the Tarrasque problem- it's a big melee bruiser at a stage of the game where no PC with any sense is going to engage it in melee.