So our GM ran our 5-man 7th-level party through a dungeon crawl in which we fought four CR 6 clockwork soldiers (Beastiary III).
Yeah. Those guys are F'd up for their listed CR.
They have +18/+13 to hit and deal 1d10+13 damage. What the hell!?
That is SIX points ABOVE the standard high attack for a CR 6 monster! Heck, even their secondary attack is STILL one point OVER the standard high attack for a monster of its CR! Most CR 6 creatures have a high damage of about 25. This guy's damage averages out to 37, not counting the AoOs that are almost certain to occur.
With its 28 strength and two-handed polearm it knocks our beefcake barbarian down to half life in one good hit! Our optimized tank fighter moves in and discovers that his armor, shield, and feat investments might as well be tinfoil.
Not to mention the fact that they have reach from their polearms! If sucking up two nasty near-guaranteed hits a round wasn't bad enough, the AoO's even managed to tear up our high AC Mobility rogue!
If we weren't in an extremely large room in which we could maneuver our hasted feet around them, it would surely have ended in a TPK. When they caught up to us though, I don't think they ever once missed.
NO CR appropriate party will be able to stand toe to toe with theses guys in melee in an inclosed space. It's just not a fair match up.
What were the developers thinking when they wrote up these guys? They are extremely under-CR'd. I'd say they should be at least 2 higher. That would give them something of a glass jaw (64 hp instead of the standard 100), but they'd still be hitting really hard with their +3 higher than standard attacks, which should make up for it. The AC even lines up better at CR 8.
LOL. Just noticed that halberds aren't reach weapons. GM must have switched it up on us.
Yeah I think i may have to agree for the sake of damage and the consistency of those hits they are probably due for a CR bump, though I'd assume from looking that their saves (which are both three below the chart's standard) that they were supposed to be their achilles heel for an otherwise very potent monster.
(I know that construct traits are already a very potent defense against a lot of magics thus mitigating their one minor drawback some, but it's not nearly as potent as the magic immunity granted to true golems and can still be dealt with in such a manner.)