CR of a Player Character

[Korikoji]

Plenty of information out there about CR of a Player Character in Pathfinder, but not Starfinder. Previous threads have not had official responses, and up to this point, offer only conjectures based on inference. So, how does one determine a PC's CR?

[SirShua]

If the CR is referenced in an ability, or item or other effect then it should be the PC's level. CR has taken the place of hit dice in that respect.

For building encounters? I'd treat CR=Level as well. An npc using a class graft won't have as many abilities as a PC, but usually have better hit chances and damage, and HP comparable to PC Hp+stamina.

[Tender Tendrils]

I think it might interact very strangely with the challenge system, due to CR being what level of enemy is an average challenge for 5 people working together. I would be worried about it either being a steamroll (I think a level 6 envoy PC on their own wouldn't be a threat to a party of level 6 players) while a more challenging encounter (say 2 level 6 soldiers and a lower level mystic) could turn into a real slugfest with a really big danger of the soldiers killing players if they focus their efforts.

The main reason I havn't put my players against a fully statted PC however has been time. It takes waaaay too long to make a full player character and fully equip it, and half the abilities I put on regular npcs just from their small ability budget don't end up getting used because my players are so efficient at eliminating threats before they can do much, so it is likely half the things I write down for a PCNPC won't matter.

[Vexies]

You build Challenges for PCs based on PC level if your trying to find the CR of a PC then you must rebuild the PC using the NPC rules found in the Alien Archive as the appropriate CR comparable to the PCs stats.

[Metaphysician]

The CR of a PC is basically their level. Think of it like this: a fight that is APL +3 is supposed to be a hard fight, one the PCs can win, but will use up most of their resources and require a lot of effort and skill, right?

Lets say a group of four Level 3 PCs encounter a group of four Level 3 NPC enemies. If you assume Level = CR, that would be four CR 3 enemies thus. In which case, the total encounter would be, by the chart for determing CR of group fights. . . CR 3, +4 for four enemies, or CR 7. Which would be APL +4, one step beyond the hardest fight PCs are supposed to be able to win. Which logically makes sense; a mirror match between four PCs and four more PCs, should come down to coin toss with whoever wins having basically no resources left. That fits pretty well with what would logically happen one beyond APL +3.

[Nefreet]

Starfinder's to-hit and damage ratings are different from Pathfinder. It's much easier in Pathfinder for PCs to kill each other. Not so in Starfinder.

In Starfinder, when you're fighting a CR 5 [class], it's Level 5.

In Pathfinder, when you're fighting a CR 5 [class], it's going to be higher than Level 5.