keith battle's page

Thanks, @SuperJedi224! This is super helpful!

Hi, All. I am about 6 sessions in to a homebrew campaign. So far, so good. This is my first campaign and all of my players are new players so we're still too ignorant to know all the things we're doing wrong. In other words, we're having a great time! :)

My PCs have recently acquired Level 2 and, although I could start throwing higher CR monsters at them, I want to zerg them with a bunch of kobolds... for narrative reasons. Yeah. It's for the narrative. Anyway, I've been building out a kobold warren complete with well-defended brood chamber and, according to the bestiary, I should be setting up a mini-society with non-combatants and sergeants and lieutenants and a leader. Sounds cool. I may just be sleep deprived but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around:
a) calculating CR for CR 1/4 monster mobs - and -
b) calculating CR for the level 3 sergeant, level 4 lieutenants and level 6-8 leader

I've been using this CR calculator (https://juneberryjournal.weebly.com/cr-calculator.html) and I can't make sense of the formula it's using to calculate CR for these CR 1/4 critters.

1 x kobold = CR 1/4
2 x kobold = CR 1/2
3 x kobold = CR 1/2
4 x kobold = CR 1
5x kobold = CR 1
6 x kobold = CR 2
7 x kobold = CR 2
8 x kobold = CR 3 (???!!??)

Likewise, I see from this calculator that 2 x CR 2 = CR4, 2 x CR 8 = CR 10 and 3 x CR 8 = CR 11. This looks to me like CR = Monster CR + # of monsters of that CR. However, I'm sure there's more to it than that.

I found some templates for the above mentioned sergeant, lieutuenants but I would love some guidance on how to roll up a level 6-8 leader, which will be a more fleshed-out NPC that the party will have to decide to confront or convince.

My goal is to populate the warren with some nasty traps, a few CR 2-3 zerg encounters where my level 2 party is greatly outnumbered and being attacked at range from partial cover, and a mini-boss fight that'll leave the party bloodied but breathing. I've been following the general guideline of building my encounters to be CR = APL+1 so as to make them "tough". However, and this may just be some weird mix of my ignorance, good character builds on my players' part and good old lucky dice rolls, this party has cake-walked through encounters I thought would have them running (or limping) back to safety with their bodies and egos bruised. The temptation is to throw something really tough at them but I don't want a TPK. At least not yet. An help and insight y'all can provide is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, All, for the really great responses. @Mysterious Stranger, your explanation of how the rule as currently being interpreted will be detrimental to the group at higher levels is spot-on. I think that just explaining to this player that I have been doing it wrong (I'm a newb GM!) and I have to refine how the rule is implementing it from here forward should be enough. However, if they whine... I'll give them something to ponder. Heheheh. The fighter in question has taken the Power Attack feat but never invokes it for the reason that @Hendelbolaf has mentioned. The idea of taking a -1 to attack seems distasteful at face value.

Thanks again for the very helpful answers. We'll have this campaign balanced in no time! Famous last words.

Hi, all. Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere but I have not found a definitive answer.

I am a newb GM having a great time with my party of rogue, cleric, sorcerer and fighter. Good balance of talents, etc. and it's made for some fun game sessions. However, I think I have been too lax with a rule interpretation for my fighter and that is making my CR calculations feel pointless. Here's the specific issue:

My level 1 fighter has wisely chosen to wield a falchion and take the falchion weapon focus. It is my understanding that, while wielding the falchion two-handed they should add 1.5x their Strength modifier (+3 in this case) to damage rolls. They have been taking (and I have been allowing) damage rolls of 2d4+4, which seems straightforward. The +3 Strength modifier x 1.5 and rounded down to 4, yes? However, they are rolling (1d4+4)+(1d4+4). I think it should be (1d4+1d4)+4.

I love the crits they make but, coming back to my original point, it seems like that interpretation breaks my CR calculations in a very real way. Fights that should be challenging, with 1 of the 4 PCs getting seriously injured, turn out to be a walk in the park (when the dice are willing).

At the end of the day, if I have been too lax thus far I want to nip it in the bud so we don't have other loose interpretations slip into the campaign in level 2 and beyond. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!