Character Level for Monsters

chava · February 22nd, 2011, 06:09 PM

Hi,

I am about to start running a campagin where all of the players will be playing as monster races. They will be starting with a CR 3 monster and two class levels.

If I understand the rules in the Bestiary, that would make their level 5.

However, in HeroLabs, I was building an npc. Unicorn (CR 3) with two sorcerer levels, and HeroLabs says the level is 6.

Am I wrong, or should I drop this into the bug list?

chiefweasel · February 23rd, 2011, 04:45 AM

I'm not sure the CR has a lot to do with the lebvel and more to do with the opower of the monster/NPC.

Kendall-DM · February 23rd, 2011, 07:41 AM

Creatures have an Effective Character Level in addition to a Challenge Rating. They are not the same thing. Essentially a Unicorn is CR 3, but has an ECL 4, but I'm not sure HL keeps track of ECL truthfully. It may just be a matter of HD as well. Essentially, if it is ECL, any class levels added to a creature has it's ECL added into the class levels to determine it's level. A Unicorn's ECL is +4 and it's HD are 4, so I'm not sure which mechanism HL is using.

ShadowChemosh · February 23rd, 2011, 07:46 AM

Yea correct CR is not ECL (Effective Character Level) which is totally removed from Pathfinder.

Plus CR is NOT an exact science actually allot of it is art which means a gut feeling. Plus you have to remember that adding in different Class types to monsters are not a 1 to 1 relationship.

In example if you have an Ogre and add in barbarian levels you do increase its CR per level. If you give the same ogre Sorcerer levels instead its more of a 2-1 ratio as Sorcerer is not a good fit for the race. Up to a certain point then you do level back off to a 1-1 ratio.

So the CR HL is showing is its best guess so if you disagree feel free to use the CR adjustment to change it around.

Sendric · February 23rd, 2011, 07:57 AM

See here for more information:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/m...tersAsPCs.html

chava · February 23rd, 2011, 08:38 AM

The CR was fine.

Basically one of my PCs is a Pegasus Barbarian. HeroLabs isn't letting her have two levels in barbarian because it thinks her level is 6, when it should be 5.

Since another player is going to be running a dryad (CR 3 but 6 HD) it's even more of a problem, since HeroLabs is categorizing her as a 8th character level rather than the 5th that she is.

The level for PCs playing monsters was the problem.

I've use the personal tab to adjust the CR of monsters that is wrong, if there could be an adjustment for character level that would work.

chiefweasel Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Miamisburg, OH Posts: 1,322 February 23rd, 2011, 04:45 AM	I'm not sure the CR has a lot to do with the lebvel and more to do with the opower of the monster/NPC. Web site - Cheese Weasel Logistics - www.cheeseweasel.net Twitter - @CheeseWeaselGMZ For user created content check out www.d20pfsrd.com and www.cheeseweasel.net For video demos of Hero Lab go to http://www.youtube.com/user/TheChiefweasel?blend=9&ob=5
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Sendric Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 3,147 February 23rd, 2011, 07:57 AM	See here for more information: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/m...tersAsPCs.html
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