monster with class level gear.

[Nik the fan]

Hi again, im still mastering "council of thieves" and i have a problem with monster advancement. A new player recentlly join us (6 players now) and i have the task of tinker with every encounter to maintain the level of difficulty. They are about to enter the basement floor of Delvenhaven, where 3 vampires in separate rooms are waiting, each with character levels. Now, the advancement is no problem, but the gear it is. To be specific i have 3 monsters:

1) The mazeflesh man (vampire/fighter level 6, CR 7)

gear: +1 repeating heavy crossbow and a golembane scarab, totaling 10.850 GP

2)Vahnwynne Malkistra (vampire/ranger 4/rogue 2, CR 7)

gear: +1 leather armor, +1 wooden stakes (2), totaling 5.160 GP

3)Jair (Vampire Cleric of Norgorber 6, DC 7)

Gear: wand of inflict moderate wounds (38 charges), +1 chain shirt, +1 short sword, masterwork hand crossbow with 10 bolts (greenblood oil), Holi symbol, wayfinder, Totalling: 8.080 GP

The problem is that the bestiary says that a monster with class levels should have gear totalling a heroic NPC of the same level, considering i want to increase the CR to 8, that means going from 6.000 GP to 7.800 GP, see the problem? the 3 monsters are, way up or way down the gear they should. Any help? am i calculating something wrong? i dont have a problems giving them more gear, but the first one makes me doubt.

[Moonclanger]

You're right, the value of their gear is out of sync with the amount recommended in the rule books. If you're going to raise their levels to increase the CR, then you could give Vahnwynne and Jair extra treasure to bring them into line with the recommended amounts, but not the mazeflesh man since he already has more than the recommended amount.

Alternatively you could just leave the encounters as written. With an extra player the group will have an easy ride for a while, but with xp and treasure now being split six ways their effective party level will soon fall into sync with the AP's expectations. It'll certainly save you re-statting encounters for the rest of the AP.

Incidentally I ran Council of Thieves several years ago. Once I started scrutinizing the NPC stats I discovered that most of them are incorrect. And the errors aren't in their favour either. In the end I spent more time correcting their stats between sessions than we actually spent playing the game!

[wraithstrike]

The gear is off. I would take Moonclanger's advice.