Dacke
08-18-2007, 03:21 PM
One thing that's been bugging me for a long while about 3e is that they decided that the CR of an Xth level NPC is equal to X. I now intend to show that this is, indeed, bullshit.
Let us take a 4th level fighter, Dirk. He has 50 hp (rolled well, high Con), AC 18, +7 to hit with his greatsword, which does 2d6+3 damage.
Dirk is, stupidly enough, exploring a dungeon on his own. Since his DM is a prick, the first thing he does is run in to a Mirror of Opposition, creating his evil twin Krid. Krid, of course, has the same stats.
Statistically, Dirk had a 50% chance of hitting Krid (11+ on d20), and will do an average of 10 points per hit (ignoring crits). That's an average of 5 hp per round of combat. Krid's chances of hitting Dirk are, of course, the same. This means that Dirk and Krid basically have a 50% chance of winning, and the winner will likely be severely hurt after the ten rounds the fight will likely take.
Now, let's say that Dirk brought his brother Dick on the dungeon sojourn. Dick has the same stats as Dirk, but was smart enough not to look into the Mirror. Now Krid will be taking 10 points of damage on average per round instead of 5. Krid will almost certainly die in 5 rounds of combat, and during this time he will have inflicted 25 points of damage on Dirk. That's only a quarter of Dirk's and Dick's combined hp.
This shows that if you're going up two against one, and the stats are equal, you will on average lose one quarter of your resources. That's in a simplified scenario that ignores synergy effects - if Dick had instead been a rogue, he would have been able to sneak attack Krid, ending the fight even faster. Hell, even with two fighters, you would have gotten the occasional flanking bonus and such.
Now, say that Dirk also brought Bob and Tim. Even if they too are equal to Dirk thus avoiding synergy issues, it will mean Krid taking 20 points of damage per round, thus only allowing him to deal 10-15 points or so before he dies (1/4 of Dirk's hp, and 1/16th of the whole party's).
The idea of CR is that, for a 4-person party of level X, an encounter with CR X should consume 1/4 of their resources. Here I have shown that a fight with an Xth level NPC will more likely only consume 1/16th of their resources, and possibly even less due to synergies and stuff.
This also ignores that NPCs are inherently weaker than PCs, for multiple reasons. NPCs are assumed to use the somewhat gimpy "elite" stat array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), which is significantly inferior to the average results of rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest, and NPCs have far less equipment than PCs (a 5th level NPC has 4,300 gp worth of gear, whereas a 5th level PC has 9,000 gp). Also, NPCs have the disadvantage of being played by the DM, who also have multiple other things to worry about, thus preventing him from using them to their fullest potential.
Let us take a 4th level fighter, Dirk. He has 50 hp (rolled well, high Con), AC 18, +7 to hit with his greatsword, which does 2d6+3 damage.
Dirk is, stupidly enough, exploring a dungeon on his own. Since his DM is a prick, the first thing he does is run in to a Mirror of Opposition, creating his evil twin Krid. Krid, of course, has the same stats.
Statistically, Dirk had a 50% chance of hitting Krid (11+ on d20), and will do an average of 10 points per hit (ignoring crits). That's an average of 5 hp per round of combat. Krid's chances of hitting Dirk are, of course, the same. This means that Dirk and Krid basically have a 50% chance of winning, and the winner will likely be severely hurt after the ten rounds the fight will likely take.
Now, let's say that Dirk brought his brother Dick on the dungeon sojourn. Dick has the same stats as Dirk, but was smart enough not to look into the Mirror. Now Krid will be taking 10 points of damage on average per round instead of 5. Krid will almost certainly die in 5 rounds of combat, and during this time he will have inflicted 25 points of damage on Dirk. That's only a quarter of Dirk's and Dick's combined hp.
This shows that if you're going up two against one, and the stats are equal, you will on average lose one quarter of your resources. That's in a simplified scenario that ignores synergy effects - if Dick had instead been a rogue, he would have been able to sneak attack Krid, ending the fight even faster. Hell, even with two fighters, you would have gotten the occasional flanking bonus and such.
Now, say that Dirk also brought Bob and Tim. Even if they too are equal to Dirk thus avoiding synergy issues, it will mean Krid taking 20 points of damage per round, thus only allowing him to deal 10-15 points or so before he dies (1/4 of Dirk's hp, and 1/16th of the whole party's).
The idea of CR is that, for a 4-person party of level X, an encounter with CR X should consume 1/4 of their resources. Here I have shown that a fight with an Xth level NPC will more likely only consume 1/16th of their resources, and possibly even less due to synergies and stuff.
This also ignores that NPCs are inherently weaker than PCs, for multiple reasons. NPCs are assumed to use the somewhat gimpy "elite" stat array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), which is significantly inferior to the average results of rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest, and NPCs have far less equipment than PCs (a 5th level NPC has 4,300 gp worth of gear, whereas a 5th level PC has 9,000 gp). Also, NPCs have the disadvantage of being played by the DM, who also have multiple other things to worry about, thus preventing him from using them to their fullest potential.