Here's something that I'd like to figure out before I commit to building a complicated high-level NPC.
When it comes to equipped monsters with PC class levels, the Bestiary (p. 297) states:
A monster with class levels always possesses treasure equal to an NPC of a level equal to the monster’s final CR. To determine the value of this gear, use the value listed for a heroic NPC of that level, as listed on page 454 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook.
Separately, when discussing encounter design, the Core Rulebook (p. 399) states:
a classed NPC that instead has gear equivalent to that of a PC (as listed on Table 12–4) has a CR of 1 higher than his actual CR.
My question is, are these two design elements intended to be compatible, and does anyone foresee anything game-destabilising taking place if both are applied?
For Example: Consider a nymph with 6 levels in druid. Given the rules for monsters with class levels and the nymph's abilities and role, these druid levels increase the nymph's CR on a 1-for-1 basis; with 6 levels of druid, the CR 7 nymph becomes a CR 13 monster-with-class-levels. As such, consulting table 14-9, we find that the CR 13 nymph druid 6 should have gear equivalent to a 13th-level heroic NPC, or 27,000 gp.
If the nymph were not a nymph and simply, say, a 13th-level human druid, the rules state that her gear can be increased from that of a 13th-level heroic NPC to that of a 13th-level PC by increasing her CR by 1; in this situation, her gear budget increases from a heroic NPC's 27,000 gp to a PC's 140,000 gp.
Is it permissible or intended that the gear and CR of a monster-with-class-levels can be adjusted in the same way? Can a CR 13 nymph druid 6 be outfitted as a 13th level PC rather than a 13th level heroic NPC, increasing her actual CR to 14 in the process?
Yes, you are the GM, and the rules on CR are more guidelines than hard and fast rules - mostly because depending on the equipment you choose you may well not make the encounter much more challenging, or if you get it right you can make it more challenging than the +1 indicated.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, this definitely isn't something I'd be doing for run-of-the-mill NPCs; off the top of my head I can think of maybe three NPCs over the course of the whole campaign I'd want to outfit so extravagantly, and of the three, one (and the one I'm most firm on wanting to do this for) is the projected "final boss" of the game and the sort of character or encounter where the PCs might reasonably expect to face an NPC with vast resources at her command.
Related question: is there an intended consistent approach to whether templates that increase an NPC's CR also increase that NPC's gear budget, and if so, how is this handled? Looking at the Bestiary, the example provided for the lich (p. 188) appears to have gear roughly appropriate for an NPC of level equal to its modified CR (an 11th level NPC modified by the template from a CR 10 NPC to a CR 12 NPC has 22,050 gp worth of gear, which isn't much beyond the 21,000 gp suggested for a 12th level NPC) but the example provided for the vampire (p. 270) has a full 33,000 gp worth of gear, which looks like a PC wealth calculation to me. I feel as though the former example is probably the intended approach (like monsters-with-class-levels, it uses final/total CR as effective level when determining wealth/gear budget, so there's a bit of consistency there) but if there's an official line on this anywhere I'd love to know.