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I got the Bestiary and I was very happy to see that they standardized
the hit point values per base creature die (Ex: 5.5 per die if the
creature is based on a d10 advancement. ) The part that REALLY throws
me for a loop is the Hit Die advancement for creatures and increasing
the CR.
Example: Looking at the Bestiary the Otyugh is still a CR 4 monster
as it was in 3.5 D&D. In the old edition, the way to advance an
aberration (which is what a otyugh is) was 1 CR per every 4 HD added
and a +1 CR increase if it changed size from Medium to Large. In
Pathfinder, the charts that state how many HD per creature type equals
to a CR increase is no longer available, replaced by another chart
that I vaguely remember as increases in hit points of 10 or 15 per
HD. If I wanted to add let's say 8 HD to an otyugh under the
Pathfinder system what would be the otyughs new CR and can some one
detail the math that goes along with the new CR and explain why. I'm
a bit of a stat addict when it comes to advancing monsters because of
my experince in writing mods for Living Greyhawk and this confusion is
really frustration to me. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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I got the Bestiary and I was very happy to see that they standardized
the hit point values per base creature die (Ex: 5.5 per die if the
creature is based on a d10 advancement. ) The part that REALLY throws
me for a loop is the Hit Die advancement for creatures and increasing
the CR.Example: Looking at the Bestiary the Otyugh is still a CR 4 monster
as it was in 3.5 D&D. In the old edition, the way to advance an
aberration (which is what a otyugh is) was 1 CR per every 4 HD added
and a +1 CR increase if it changed size from Medium to Large. In
Pathfinder, the charts that state how many HD per creature type equals
to a CR increase is no longer available, replaced by another chart
that I vaguely remember as increases in hit points of 10 or 15 per
HD. If I wanted to add let's say 8 HD to an otyugh under the
Pathfinder system what would be the otyughs new CR and can some one
detail the math that goes along with the new CR and explain why. I'm
a bit of a stat addict when it comes to advancing monsters because of
my experince in writing mods for Living Greyhawk and this confusion is
really frustration to me. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I would try to use the chart on page 291 myself of the Bestiary. Otyugh is a CR4 6HD creature, and aberrations are normally CR4 at 5HD or CR5 at 7HD. At 14 HD an aberration should be CR9. So I'd go with 9. Just don't forget to give it new feats and its ability score adjustments and so on associated with more HD.
If you want to increase its size then just apply the "giant" simple template. This gives a total CR of 10 for a Huge size 14HD otyugh. Also, don't forget to adjust the DC for filth fever since I believe the giant template changes their Con score, which the DC is based on.
Creative Director
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One thing that's important to note: ALL of the charts and tables and advice in Appendix 1 are there to help you build your monster, but once you've got your stats, the best thing to do is to take what you've created and compare its final stats to Table 1–1 on page 291. At that point, you should make adjustments to ability scores and Hit Dice to fine tune your creation so that it falls roughly into the zone that's best suited for its CR. It's cool if one of your monster's qualities (hp or AC or attack or damage or whatever) is higher than normal, since all monsters should excel at something, but if in your fine tuning of the monster to make most of it fit the CR on table 1–1 means that it's ability scores or HD don't exactly match up with the values on table 1–2 or table 1–3 and so on... that's perfectly fine.