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(A big thanks to the brilliant remarks from the posters in the Sneak attack - weak spot - immunities - p. 23 and 26 and Sneak Attack & Monsters)
Sneak Attack: [..]
The rogue's training allows him to deal sneak attack damage automatically to living creatures with discernible anatomies.
In order to affect other creatures, the rogue must have invested the specified number of ranks in the relevant Knowledge skill. The rogue's Knowledge check is always assumed to be 10 + skill rank. The DC of the check is 10 + 1/2 of the target's CR. (a) For instance, the rogue with 1 rank in Knowledge (religion) may sneak attack CR 1 and CR 2 undead.
Characters with more ranks in the relevant Knowledge skill may use the Aid another option to grant the rogue a +2 to the rogue's Knowledge check. The DC for the aiding character's Knowledge check is 10 + target's CR.
For instance, a cleric with 4 ranks in Knowledge (religion) engaged in the same encounter may allow the rogue to sneak attack CR 1, CR 2, CR 3 and CR 4 undead on a successful Knowledge (religion) check.
Note
(a) The lower DC reflects the targeted nature of the Knowledge check.
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(A big thanks to the brilliant remarks from the posters in the Sneak attack - weak spot - immunities - p. 23 and 26 and Sneak Attack & Monsters)
Sneak Attack: [..]
The rogue's training allows him to deal sneak attack damage automatically to living creatures with discernible anatomies.
In order to affect other creatures, the rogue must have invested the specified number of ranks in the relevant Knowledge skill. The rogue's Knowledge check is always assumed to be 10 + skill rank. The DC of the check is 10 + 1/2 of the target's CR. (a) For instance, the rogue with 1 rank in Knowledge (religion) may sneak attack CR 1 and CR 2 undead.Characters with more ranks in the relevant Knowledge skill may use the Aid another option to grant the rogue a +2 to the rogue's Knowledge check. The DC for the aiding character's Knowledge check is 10 + target's CR.
For instance, a cleric with 4 ranks in Knowledge (religion) engaged in the same encounter may allow the rogue to sneak attack CR 1, CR 2, CR 3 and CR 4 undead on a successful Knowledge (religion) check.Note
(a) The lower DC reflects the targeted nature of the Knowledge check.
Basing rules on CR is traditionally held to be a bad idea. How about DC 10 + 1/2 minimum Hit Dice + 1/2 turn resistance? Natural Armor is another quality that scales with CR, might have something to do with sneak attacks and isn't undead-specific, but I don't have my books here so can't confirm whether this makes a sensible progression for various types.
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Basing rules on CR is traditionally held to be a bad idea.
In 3.5, the DC of a Knowledge check was 10 + the monster's HD. In Alpha 2, it's 10 + monster's CR. I went along with that, as I guess the difficulty of studying a monster is better reflected by its overall power than its beefiness.
An owlbear skeleton is 5 HD, but is a CR 2 monster. See [url]http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/skeleton.htm[/url]It seems that HD progress faster than CR and using HD as the basis for the Knowledge check assumes that bigger monsters are more obscure than smaller ones.
How about DC 10 + 1/2 minimum Hit Dice + 1/2 turn resistance? Natural Armor is another quality that scales with CR, might have something to do with sneak attacks and isn't undead-specific, but I don't have my books here so can't confirm whether this makes a sensible progression for various types.
The rule is not undead-specific. It works with any monster which is not a living creature with a discernible anatomy, as long as the rogue has the relevant Knowledge skill or can be helped by a more knowledgeable character.
I think you have it reversed... it's a bad idea to base it on HD, not CR. CR is at least relevant to the character attempting it: it's likely to be in a level range close to him.
HD can be all over the map. As an example, advancing undead HD is 4 HD per CR. This means a CR 6 zombie can have 20 HD (see the Gray Render).
It's the same reason the Turning mechanic is considered broken in RAW for 3e.