I'm not sure if I'm just not looking in the right place, but...
In "The Obsidian Eye," the three Jackalweres seem to be set wrong on their CRs.
A Jackalwere is a CR 2 (fiend folio), and they advance by character class. So shouldn't Khalogo (jackalwere sorceror 4) and Ahln-Veer (jackalwere druid 4) both be CR 6, not CR 4 as listed? Mahlmet (jackalwere ranger 2) is listed as CR 4, which makes sense to me.
Unless I've missed something somewhere...
Creative Director
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Jackalweres do indeed advance by character class. But their CRs are still figured the same way; if they take levels in non-associated class levels (like sorcerer or druid), the levels count as .5 CR until the number of levels equals the creature's racial hit dice.
Even if they advanced simply by hit dice, their CR wouldn't increase by +1 with each new hit die.
Ranger levels play more strongly to the jackalwere's strengths, though, and that's why those levels equal a 1 to 1 ratio for CR increases.
Of course, figurig CR values isn't an exact science. An allip is a pushover for a party with a cleric, but for a party of low Dex, low Will save fighters? An allip can tear things apart!
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I may be wrong, but if jackelweres have at least 4 racial HD, then the four caster levels are "nonassociated" and thus worth 1/2 CR per HD until they equal the creature's racial HD. Thusly, the druid and sorceror are CR 4 as 4th level casters. It's a rough guess on CR *shrug* as that sorceror is going to be better in melee than the std. member of its race, but also tougher than your avg. base race sorceror.
It's a rare occurence when the nonassociated class levels "catch up" with the CR... it usually only happens in creatures w/ high racial HD and comparatively low CRs (i.e. monstrous humanoids and giants).
Hope this helps.
Jackalweres do indeed advance by character class. But their CRs are still figured the same way; if they take levels in non-associated class levels (like sorcerer or druid), the levels count as .5 CR until the number of levels equals the creature's racial hit dice.
Even if they advanced simply by hit dice, their CR wouldn't increase by +1 with each new hit die.
That I get, but I think I've missed something in my reading - how does one figure out "associated" vs "non-associated" classes? In the DMG, it says "Some creatures have monster levels in addition to their class levels, such as a centaur ranger. In this case, add the creature's base CR to its total class levels to get its overall CR. For example, a Centaur is CR 1, so a centaur who's also a 7th level ranger is CR 8.
Ranger levels play more strongly to the jackalwere's strengths, though, and that's why those levels equal a 1 to 1 ratio for CR increases.
I guess where I'm lost is how Sorceror and Druid levels only equate to a half-jump in CR, given the spells and abilities they grant - would a Jackalwere Sorceror 10 be only worth CR 7? That doesn't make sense - a human Sorceror 10 is worth CR 10...
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Creative Director
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A 10th level jackalwere CR would be xxx.
Start with the jackalwere's base CR of 2.
Add 4 levels of sorcerer; each of these adds .5 to the CR and brings the jackalwere's sorcerer Hit Dice equal to its racial Hit Dice. It's CR is now 4.
Add those last 6 levels of sorcerer. It's now a CR 10 creature, since the last six sorcerer levels were on a 1 for 1 basis.
So in the end, a human sorcerer 10 is the same CR as a jackalwere sorcerer 10. While that may seem strange, it's not, really. Rembember that CR is a representation of the threat a creature gives to a party of four. The majority of the human sorcerer 10 and the jackalwere sorcerer 10 threat comes from those ten sorcerer levels. The monster's jackalwere benefits are going to be marginalized by its ten levels of sorcerer spellcasting.
I agree that it's kinda strange and weird, but them's the way the rules work.
The best thing to do is to keep in mind that a creature's CR does not equal its effective character level.
Or put another way... A party of four 10th level characters are going to be about equally challenged by a human sorcerer 10 as they are by a jackalwere sorcerer 10. But played over the course of a campaign, a jackalwere sorcerer is in all ways better than a human sorcerer.
Never mind - I found it in the MM. I was looking in the wrong place. I be dumb.
The Jackalwere Sorceror 10 would be worth CR 10 - 2 from its Jackalwere status, +2 more from the first 4 levels of Sorceror (.5 per non-associated class level) +6 for the other 6 levels (which go beyond it's hit dice).
I was missing where to find the bit about the Hit Dice/associated levels. I'd read the part in the DMG, and never noticed the part in the MM.
Thanks for the answer, as always.