2 questions here.
first how do you advance a peon? i got quite stumped on this. say i want to use the advanced templet which adds +1 CR. if i apply that to a 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8th CR monster. WTF is it's CR?! o_O
second how do other DM's feel about advancing human or humanoid characters with class levels? the reason im asking is i remember James Jacobs saying something to the effect that advancing all monsters when dealing with parties with more than 4 players or with exceedingly high stats work good to bring CR's back to where they should be. I've been doing this and it's working great for my campaign involving 5 players with very high stats. But advancing humans with class levels seem dirty some how lol. Now i could easily just add another level to the enemy but the advanced template seem more on par in keeping them in line with the player characters and +4 to all stats is way more power than +1 lvl. also when advancing humanoids should i keep the +4 to all stats caped to there max racial stats allowed or just let stats fall where they may? i can already see the player anger when they get hit by a human with 24 strength and he has no magical gear lol. what about the bonus to natural armor? should i give races with no natural armor an armor bonus or up there armor or gear instead?
first how do you advance a peon? i got quite stumped on this. say i want to use the advanced templet which adds +1 CR. if i apply that to a 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8th CR monster. WTF is it's CR?! o_O
+2 to CR should double the XP award, +1 to CR is something in between. It doesn't work well for those CR's.
Do the following: Calculate the CR of the group of creatures with fractional CRs, then add the +1 to CR.Humans can have 24 Str without carrying any magical gear: permanent Stat enhancing books/tomes :)
Humans can have 24 Str without carrying any magical gear: permanent Stat enhancing books/tomes :)
Those are still magic.
But you could have a human commoner who never saw magic in his life, much less benefited from it in any way have str 25 (18 base +2 race +5 levels). Yes, that would be a human commoner 20 (not the most likely thing, I'll give you that, but theoretically possible).
first how do you advance a peon? i got quite stumped on this. say i want to use the advanced templet which adds +1 CR. if i apply that to a 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8th CR monster. WTF is it's CR?! o_O
+2 to CR should double the XP award, +1 to CR is something in between. It doesn't work well for those CR's.
Do the following: Calculate the CR of the group of creatures with fractional CRs, then add the +1 to CR.Humans can have 24 Str without carrying any magical gear: permanent Stat enhancing books/tomes :)
i'm not sure what your saying. are you saying that if you advance a 1/8 CR creature +1 CR it's cr would be 1/4? Or are you saying i should total ALL the 1/8 cr monsters up then figure in +1 cr for each one?
Humans can have 24 Str without carrying any magical gear: permanent Stat enhancing books/tomes :)Those are still magic.
But you could have a human commoner who never saw magic in his life, much less benefited from it in any way have str 25 (18 base +2 race +5 levels). Yes, that would be a human commoner 20 (not the most likely thing, I'll give you that, but theoretically possible).
im not saying what a human COULD have during his whole lifetime. maybe this will explain it. my party is all level 3 and in the adventure there running through the next encounter has 4 bandits (level 1 rogue) and a bandit leader level 3 fighter. i advance all of them boosting the bandits say from 12 strength to 16, no problem there. the leader has 18 strength (20 is max for humie at that level) would boosting him to 22 strength be cheating the players somehow?
i'm not sure what your saying. are you saying that if you advance a 1/8 CR creature +1 CR it's cr would be 1/4? Or are you saying i should total ALL the 1/8 cr monsters up then figure in +1 cr for each one?
A 1/8 CR creature advanced +1 would become a 1/6 CR creature.
1/6 becomes 1/4, 1/4 becomes 1/3, 1/3 becomes 1/2, and 1/2 becomes 1.At least I seem to remember that's how it goes. Can't find the rule quote right now though.
the leader has 18 strength (20 is max for humie at that level) would boosting him to 22 strength be cheating the players somehow?
Maybe. On one hand, you just boost an enemy to increase the CR. On the other hand, I'm a friend of equal rights, so if human NPCs can somehow be advanced with the advanced simple template, can human PCs get the same? If not they get something the PCs can't get.
I'd call this a border case: All they get is a boost of combat stats, to boost the CR a bit (and grant more XPs to the party). Most of the time, it should not matter how the guy gets his stats. But why not just add a level of whatever they are? If you're creating enemy NPCs, anyway... (Of course, if you're adjusting things on the fly and use the quick-and-dirty version of the template, it's bound to be faster than adding a level with new class abilities and so on)
2 questions here.
first how do you advance a peon? i got quite stumped on this. say i want to use the advanced templet which adds +1 CR. if i apply that to a 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8th CR monster. WTF is it's CR?! o_O
second how do other DM's feel about advancing human or humanoid characters with class levels? the reason im asking is i remember James Jacobs saying something to the effect that advancing all monsters when dealing with parties with more than 4 players or with exceedingly high stats work good to bring CR's back to where they should be. I've been doing this and it's working great for my campaign involving 5 players with very high stats. But advancing humans with class levels seem dirty some how lol. Now i could easily just add another level to the enemy but the advanced template seem more on par in keeping them in line with the player characters and +4 to all stats is way more power than +1 lvl. also when advancing humanoids should i keep the +4 to all stats caped to there max racial stats allowed or just let stats fall where they may? i can already see the player anger when they get hit by a human with 24 strength and he has no magical gear lol. what about the bonus to natural armor? should i give races with no natural armor an armor bonus or up there armor or gear instead?
For the peons I would use the CR chart in the monster creation area to find it's CR.
As for advancing humanoids with the template I would only do it for special characters. I think it is better to give them lower stats at character creation than try to bump every monster up. I know the cat is out of the bag already, but it is something for next time.If they are curbstomping the monsters let them have their fun(except for boss fights). My players normally do well at low levels. Then I as they level I get access to better monsters, and things are not so easy. I don't think they should get natural armor. I don't know how smart your players are, but I am pretty good at reverse engineering stuff. How is a human getting 20 strength, an NPC that is? I do think it is dirty if you make everyone a super human. The PC's are not really special when everyone has super stats.
What point buy do your players have?