|
Elemental CR Corrected — Campaign Notes — Home last changed 10 January 2008 |
Unless I'm completely misreading the appendices —which is entirely possible— there are a couple of small errors in the CR calculations for elementals in the Monster Manual.
Table 4–4: Improved Monster CR Increase in the Monster Manual gives several reasons to bump a monster's CR. One of them is increasing hit dice (for elementals it's +1 CR per 4 HD added). I have no difficulty with this part, but it's important to the math.
A size increase can also increase the monster's CR. Initially, I took this to mean that CR should be increased by 1 per size increase beyond Medium. Upon reflection, it doesn't say "+1 to CR per size category" so perhaps I misread. In either case, at least one CR (as given in the MM) is off, and so are the "huge" and "greater" elementals' HD ranges.
If a monster should get +1 to CR per size category increase beyond Medium then the elementals should follow the chart below.
| Monster | Size | Hit Dice | CR |
|---|---|---|---|
| small elemental | Small | 2–3 | 1 |
| medium elemental | Medium | 4–7 | 2 |
| large elemental | Large | 8–11 | 4 |
| large elemental | Large | 12–15 | 5 |
| huge elemental | Huge | 16–19 | 7 |
| greater elemental | Huge | 20–23 | 8 |
| elder elemental | Huge | 24–27 | 9 |
| +4 | +1 |
If a monster should get only one size–based bump to CR (when its size increases from Medium to Large) then the elementals should follow the chart below.
| Monster | Size | Hit Dice | CR |
|---|---|---|---|
| small elemental | Small | 2–3 | 1 |
| medium elemental | Medium | 4–7 | 2 |
| large elemental | Large | 8–11 | 4 |
| large elemental | Large | 12–15 | 5 |
| huge elemental | Huge | 16–19 | 6 |
| greater elemental | Huge | 20–23 | 7 |
| elder elemental | Huge | 24–27 | 8 |
| +4 | +1 |
The following chart outlines elemental advancement in the Xaeyruudh campaign. Note that this affects the summoning tables.
| Monster | Size | Hit Dice | CR |
|---|---|---|---|
| minor elemental | S | 2–3 | 1 |
| lesser elemental | M | 4–7 | 2 |
| lesser elemental | M | 8–11 | 3 |
| greater elemental | L | 12–15 | 5 |
| greater elemental | L | 16–19 | 6 |
| major elemental | H | 20–23 | 8 |
| major elemental | H | 24–27 | 9 |
| major elemental | H | 28–31 | 10 |
| major elemental | H | 32–35 | 11 |
| elder elemental | G | 36–39 | 13 |
| elder elemental | G | 40–43 | 14 |
| elder elemental | G | 44–47 | 15 |
| elder elemental | G | 48–51 | 16 |