Can anyone explain why Solars are CR 23 and Empyreans only CR 20? The Empyreans have higher overall stats, same spells and spell casting ability, more HP, higher BAB ... wondering what is going into the 3 CR difference??
Thanks in advance for any input and explanation. Much appreciated.
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Solars have similar but better SLAs, 6 higher AC, and slaying arrows on every arrow (the latter of which isn't as useful at its CR as if it had a higher DC, but if it puts out enough arrows, it'll see some nat 1s on the easy save). That said, solars are also fairly significantly below the expectations for a CR 23 monster in terms of its non-AC stats, so when I picked up the monster assignment, I made the comparison myself and asked "Should I hobble the empyrean to make it clearly worse than a solar in a side by side comparison in areas where the solar is already below expectations or make it appropriate for its CR without regard to the inevitable comparison to solar." Universal feedback was for the latter, and so here we have it!
Thanks Mark ...
It's a really cool creation. Feels like it should be higher than CR 20 for sure ;)
Solars have similar but better SLAs, 6 higher AC, and slaying arrows on every arrow (the latter of which isn't as useful at its CR as if it had a higher DC, but if it puts out enough arrows, it'll see some nat 1s on the easy save). That said, solars are also fairly significantly below the expectations for a CR 23 monster in terms of its non-AC stats, so when I picked up the monster assignment, I made the comparison myself and asked "Should I hobble the empyrean to make it clearly worse than a solar in a side by side comparison in areas where the solar is already below expectations or make it appropriate for its CR without regard to the inevitable comparison to solar." Universal feedback was for the latter, and so here we have it!
Why not reduce the Solar to a CR20 rating then?
I'd assume "because 3.5"