Haunt CRs v.s Monster CRs

[cibet44]

I'm going through Haunting of Harrowstone and replacing some of the haunts with CR equivalent monsters but was noticing the haunt CRs don't seem to match up with the monster CRs. Just comparing a CR5 haunt with some other CR5 monsters and the monsters look much more dangerous to me.

Are the CRs of monsters and haunts supposed to be equivalent?

[Bobson]

cibet44 wrote:

I'm going through Haunting of Harrowstone and replacing some of the haunts with CR equivalent monsters but was noticing the haunt CRs don't seem to match up with the monster CRs. Just comparing a CR5 haunt with some other CR5 monsters and the monsters look much more dangerous to me.

Are the CRs of monsters and haunts supposed to be equivalent?

I think they're more supposed to be equivalent to the CR of traps. And trap CRs have never really felt very comparable to monster CRs to me.

[Ma Gi]

Bobson wrote:

I think they're more supposed to be equivalent to the CR of traps. And trap CRs have never really felt very comparable to monster CRs to me.

I completely agree. While a trap may be more deadly for one attack than that CR its a one shot deal most of the time. Maybe it has to do with you can't really plan for a trap and it creeps up on you unexpectedly unless your rogue is searching every inch of every dungeon. Haunts seem to be less dangerous even than traps, because the haunts I've seen have triggers like interacting with some object you normally wouldn't.

[Sekret_One]

I dunno... some of the haunts are pretty darn lethal. And save having a ton of positive energy at your disposal they can be tough to stop.

The thing I had a problem with is that haunts have a very specific way to 'solve' them, but no real established hint giving or information gathering way to figure the haunt out.

It feels like all haunts should have 1 or 2 set DCs with certain skills (usually know. religion, but specific to each haunt) to get hints on how to end them.

That said, I still wouldn't swap out the haunts with monster encounters. Why did you decide to?

[cibet44]

Sekret_One wrote:

That said, I still wouldn't swap out the haunts with monster encounters. Why did you decide to?

In general I think Haunting of Harrowstone goes a bit overboard with the number of haunts and I want to put some combat into the adventure instead.

Specifically I think the Father Charlton haunt is not a good one. It has its fiction and mechanics way too integrated, requires secret book keeping by the GM, a player "mini quest" of sorts, and makes assumptions about how the party and the players interact. None of which I am interested in adjudicating as GM nor will my players enjoy.