Challenge Rating (5e Guideline)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| The Dungeon Master's Guide (2014) provides a thorough process for assigning CR starting on page 273. Even official content follows these guidelines rather loosely. The process outlined in this guide assigns a CR that barely deviates from these standards, and is in practice closer to them than official content often is. For monsters of CR 13 to 17, this guide makes them more difficult by 1 or rarely 2 CR increments. |
A creature's Challenge Rating (CR) is a simple estimation of how much damage it can deal before it goes down. This guide provides a relatively straightforward way to build a creature around an intended CR.
What this guide calls Damage Per Round (DPR) is how much damage a creature will do in a typical round if all its attack rolls succeed and all saving throws against it fail. This does not include opportunity attacks or similar reactions but does factor in Legendary Actions.
CR[edit]
| CR | HP | DPR |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 60 | 7 (2d6) |
| 2 | 80 | 14 (4d6) |
| 3 | 100 | 21 (6d6) |
| 4 | 120 | 28 (8d6) |
| 5 | 140 | 35 (10d6) |
| 6 | 160 | 42 (12d6) |
| 7 | 180 | 49 (14d6) |
| 8 | 200 | 56 (16d6) |
| 9 | 220 | 63 (18d6) |
| 10 | 240 | 70 (20d6) |
| 11 | 260 | 77 (22d6) |
| 12 | 280 | 84 (24d6) |
| 13 | 300 | 91 (26d6) |
| 14 | 320 | 98 (28d6) |
| 15 | 340 | 105 (30d6) |
| 16 | 360 | 112 (32d6) |
| 17 | 380 | 153 (34d8) |
| 18 | 400 | 162 (36d8) |
| 19 | 420 | 171 (38d8) |
| 20 | 460 | 200 (8d4 × 10) |
| 21 | 500 | 220 (4d10 × 10) |
| 22 | 540 | 240 |
| 23 | 580 | 260 (4d12 × 10) |
| 24 | 620 | 280 |
| 25 | 660 | 300 (12d4 × 10) |
| 26 | 700 | 320 |
| 27 | 740 | 340 |
| 28 | 780 | 360 (8d8 × 10) |
| 29 | 820 | 380 |
| 30 | 860 | 400 (16d4 × 10) |
First, choose the desired CR. For this guide, it should be 1 or higher.
- The creature's AC is 15.
- The creature has a +5 attack bonus, or a save DC of 14.
- The creature's DPR is CR × 7 (2d6). If the intended CR is 17-19, DPR is instead CR × 9 (2d8). If the intended CR is 20+, DPR is 200 plus another 20 for each increment CR exceeds 20.
- The creature's hp is CR × 20, plus another 40. If the intended CR is 20+, hp is instead 460 plus another 40 for each increment CR exceeds 20.
- These are displayed in the adjacent table.
Congrats, you have a dumb sack of stats that technically meets official standards. These are summarized in the adjacent table. This provides a baseline that can be adjusted to meet different archetypes.
- To make the creature more defensive, decrease DPR by a multiple of 7, and increase HP by an equal multiple of 20.
- To make the creature more offensive, increase DPR by a multiple of 7, and decrease HP by an equal multiple of 20.
- To make the creature harder to hit, increase AC by a number no higher than 6. Decrease hp by the number you chose ×10. For CR20+, it is instead 20×.
- To make the creature easier to hit, decrease AC by a number no higher than 6. Increase hp by the number you chose ×10. For CR20+, it is instead 20×.
- To make the creature's attacks more accurate but less impactful, increase its attack bonus or save DC by a number no higher than 9. Decrease DPR by 2.5× the number you chose (round down). For CR20+ its instead 7×.
- To make the creature's attacks harder hitting but less accurate, decrease its attack bonus or save DC by a number no higher than 5. Increase DPR by 2.5× the number you chose (round down); For CR20+ its instead 7×.
For high-level parties and those with an abundance of magic items, this will not be enough. No amount of HP or DPR is likely to challenge parties capable of circumventing combat or instantly killing foes.
Damage Modifiers
- Multiattack. If a creature has multiple attacks it makes a typical round (including legendary actions), DPR is divided among them.
- AoE. For an attack or effect likely to hit 2+ party members, halve the damage. For the rare effect that will target the entire party, divide the damage by 3.
- Save to Halve. For an attack or effect that deals half damage even on a successful save (or a missed attack roll), reduce the damage to 2⁄3.
- Limited Attacks. If the creature has different attacks or damaging effects on each of its turns, multiply DPR by 3 and divide it across 3 rounds. For example, (Recharge 5-6) and (1/Day) attacks trigger this.
- A typical breath attack is save-to-halve and AoE, so it should only deal 33.3% damage or 1⁄3 damage. However if like a typical breath attack it has (Recharge 5-6), it would be counted as a Limited Attack.
Common Traits
Traits that effectively increase a creature's Offense or Defense change its CR.
- Flying. Lower hit points by 20 if (a) the intended CR is 10 or lower, (b) the creature has a fly speed, and (c) the creature has a ranged attack or AoE.
- High Saves. Decrease the creature's hp by 20 (or 40 for CR 20+) if at least two of the following apply: (a) Dexterity save bonus is +5 or higher, (b) Constitution save bonus is +5 or higher, (c) Wisdom save bonus is +5 or higher.
- Legendary Resistance. The following trait should replace Legendary Resistance. "(3/Day). When the creature fails a saving throw, it can choose to lose X hp to succeed on the save instead." This is 10 hp at CR 1-4, 20 hp at CR 5-10, and 30 hp at CR 11+.
- Magic Resistance. If the creature has advantage on all saving throws against spells, decrease its hp by 20 (or 40 for CR 20+).
- Damage Resistance. If the creature has damage resistance to all BSP damage, multiply its final hp by 1⁄2 if it's CR 1-4, by 2⁄3 if it's CR 5-10, and by 3⁄4 if it's CR 11+. This doesn't stack with damage immunity.
- Damage Immunity. If is immune to damage from nonmagical BSP damage, multiply its final hp by 1⁄2 if it's CR 1-10, by 2⁄3 if it's CR 11-16, and by 3⁄4 if its CR 17+. This doesn't stack with damage resistance.
Uncommon Traits
- For any trait that effectively increases a creature's hp or damage, decrease its actual hp or damage respectively by the same amount (before multiplying damage resistance or immunity).
- For any trait that effectively increases a creature's AC or attack bonus, decrease its actual AC or attack bonus respectively by the same amount.
Other Notes
- As a countermeasure to Kiting, almost any CR 3+ creature should have either a high speed, or a ranged attack nearly as strong as its melee attack. For CR 7+, a high speed alone is not enough unless it is a fly speed.
- Generally, treat advantage as a +5 modifier and disadvantage as -5.
- Treat each combat as if it will last 3 rounds. If an effect happens only once per combat (1/day) or once every 3 rounds (Recharge 5-6), treat its effect as being one-third as great as usual.
- CR does not consider many possible factors for how difficult or grueling a creature can be. Consider debilitating effects like diseases or ability reduction that can linger long after combat, or for example a monster immune to fire damage fighting a 3-person party including a pyromancer and a fighter wielding a flame tongue. A GM will ultimately need to make judgement calls.
- Unless you want an early TPK do not send an offensively powerful monster (10+ DPR) against a 1st-level party.