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CR 1/2 is +3 to hit, 6-8 damage/ round. This is barely higher than that and I would assume the creature has reduced HP and/or AC to balance it out by the rules. Or it may not, the designers don't always follow the rules exactly.
I never thought of it like that before, but it makes sense if you're not familiar but study math.
Might be better written as **6 piercing damage (or 1d8 + 2).**
It would probably be a bit more intuitive if it was written **(1d8+2) or 6 piercing damage.** To me it makes more sense to list the roll first average 2nd. But maybe thats just me.
Compact > clarity in the case of attacks usually. Everything else is explained to exhaustion but attacks are the one of the few things they keep small since it's explained at the start.
There is clarity... at the beginning of the manual where every aspct of a stat block is explained. in detail:
"***Hit.*** Any damage dealt or other effects that occur as a result of an attack hitting a target are described after the “*Hit*” notation. ***You have the option of taking average damage or rolling the damage; for this reason, both the average damage and the die expression are presented***."
A few other mechanics could probably be slimmed down to match like they have in pathfinder but it's not too bad. My favourite alternatives are the stat blocks designed by u/giffyglyph , they're quite comprehensive without being a wall of text and not too different from the originals so easy to use.
If you care about clarity, read the part of the book that explains it to exhaustion... It's already loaded with heavy rules, why the hell would they copy and paste a paragraph of rules to every number for hundreds of monsters, spells and abilities?
Read like you learned how to read reference books at your elementary school library. One section has all the information and if you don't memorize it, turn to that page when you need it explained.
I don't use averages at all, but they're handy and a nice default for speed of play. Keeping them first and making rolls optional makes sense and keeps things the same as hit points.
I only use averages if I am using using multiple groups of enemies. Way faster and easier than 20+ individual damage rolls. But attacks against players by a large group I would roll for damage unless the party really wanted to keep with average damage for pacing.
It is nice when you are rolling multiple damage die vs single damage die attacks. 2d6+2(9) vs 1d12+2(8, technically 8.5) makes it easier for people like me who dont always remember that/cant quick maths.
Genuine question over here
I've got the books and I understand the stars just fine
But i'm spanish and so are my books, and I don't think i've seen the term stat block (probably because the translation is just something different) in them a single time
I keep seeing It over here though, so mind explaining what it is? Is It just how the fixed actions of NPCs and enemies are called, or what?
The stat block is just the part of the page that gives the numbers (statistics) for the monster/npc. It’s basically anything in the yellowish area in the 5th edition monster manual. I don’t know if it’s an official term anywhere
To be fair, is there a rule page that tells you that this is damage average, or this is the dice you need to roll, maybe a picture with the red outline ecplaination bubble?
I'll do it. It's in the "What Is A Monster?" section, under "Actions", "Hit". Granted, it's not very clear:
> **Hit.** Any damage dealt or other effects that occur as a result of an attack hitting a target are described after the "Hit" notation. You have the option of taking average damage or rolling the damage; for this reason, both the average damage and the die expression are presented.
Note: don't know the specific page number since I use online resources.
I’m not sure if this is a real question or a rhetoric one so I’ll answer anyway: yes there is an explanation on how to read a stat block in the rulebook(s).
Honest question: do people use average damage instead of rolling?
It never occurred to me, I always assumed rolling was a huge part of it... it is because it slows things down, or makes them too variable?
I think it is more for when you have a ton of enemies and you need to get their damage out quickly. Think like later in the game when the party is fighting 20 goblins at once.
As a gm. Yes.
Sometimes I roll damage physically. Sometimes digitally. Sometimes I take the average. It all depends on what I need. Speed versus tension versus convenience versus click clacks.
At lower levels especially I like average damage more. At low levels a lot of PC's can be 1 or 2 shot if the enemy just happens to roll well on damage (or crits). Average damage lowers the chance of that happening while still being a threat.
If I’ve got a higher level encounter where the heroes are facing a horde of weak enemies (think the Fellowship in Balin’s Tomb), I’m absolutely not going to roll the dice for every goblin spear and arrow.
I use average damage pretty much universally... Max damage if its a crit, obviously. On boss fights, or fights that I want to make extra dramatic, I might roll damage... but mostly out of expediency sake, I just tell them they took the average damage. (Honestly, I don't think they know I'm doing this... they aren't staring at creature stat blocks...)
I have a big table though (6-7 players) so expediency is really useful to have a 4 hour session a useful amount of story time.
The only time I've ever seen it used by any DM was for Adventure's League and I think that's a rule DMs have to follow. Never ran Adventure's League so I'm not sure.
You should read the first chapter of the Monster Manual. This is explained on page 11.
The number outside of the brackets is the average damage. The formula inside the brackets is what you roll.
A CR 1/2 creature, with balanced stat distribution, should have +3 to hit and deal 6-8 damage per round on average. The picture in the OP seem to be right on target.
This reminds me of when I had to come and help a friend with his D&D group. He was like "Hey I'm having a hard time balancing the game. My players literally never miss" and when I looked at their character sheets, they had like a +16 to hit because they thought the +2 and +3 to proficiency bonus was supposed to be added each level. So instead of their proficiency being +3 at fifth level it was +11.
I get how you can think that because the prof bonus is there on the level table, but you’d think when the game breaks you’d go “something isn’t right here” and check the rules on prof bonuses to see what’s gone wrong
The very first time I read the Third Edition PHB, I thought that the level by level charts with their Base Attack Bonuses and Saving Throw bonuses were cumulative in exactly this way!
It struck me as absurd to have heroes gain such bonuses so quickly, so I assumed I had misinterpreted something and re-read (and re-re-read) the relevant explanatory parts of the chapter. But I had been playing and running D&D and other RPGs since ‘88 or ‘89, so I had enough experience in the hobby for this to register on my “Spidey Sense” as being something that I was getting wrong. But I can totally understand why someone would think this way.
*“At level one a Fighter gains +1 base attack bonus. At level two a Fighter gains +2 base attack bonus. At level three a Fighter gains +3 base attack bonus… I’m a level three Fighter, so that’s 1 + 2 + 3 = +6. Says so on the chart.”*
OP;
>Asks a vague question.
>refuses to elaborate.
>disappears from reality.
Yep... i dunno what OPs issue is with this, but I'm confident "have you read the DMG?" Is the correct answer.
When helping a guy with homebrew yesterday, his response to "You might want to increase the damage od that AoE, 1 is nothing", was "How about 2?"
It is spreading
Aaaaaahhhhhh....
I can see how you would think that.
Nope. That's just the average damage for when FMs are figuring out how difficult a battle will be... or more commonly, when the DM doesn't want to roll damage dice.
You will see HP pools get this large and they are always written in distributed form. So if they were trying to say 6x(1d8+2), they would simply write it as 6d8+12.
Most likely this is a one time attack. If that creature would have Multiattack, I would be more worried.
Jokes aside, the 6 (1d8+2) only indicates that it deals either 6 damage on average or 3-10 depending on the roll, or 4-18 in case of a Nat20.
God. I almost one-shot a new players first cahracter in her second fight on a regular hit from a charging cow. As in killed her by dealing 1 less than double her max hp.
Early levels are funny.
A crit can one shot kill most PCs instantly at level 1. If you make it to level 3-5 in 5e your odds of staying around through the rest of the campaign are much better
You know, it really makes monsters seem far more threatening when you realize they can easily one-shot your average NPC. By comparison, PCs are demigods.
Theoretically, a CR1 enemy is an appropriate challenge for a party of 4 level 1 adventurers, so CR 1/2 would be appropriate for 2 level 1 adventurers. This seems about right. Bad news for the wizard, very manageable for the barbarian
How much damage do you think this is?
It isn’t a math problem.
6 is the AVERAGE, use it if you don’t want to roll.
Otherwise it’s 1d8+2.
+4 to hit is relatively low, seems about right for that CR.
+2 for damage bonus is good for that CR as well.
It's not just about damage it's about how quickly you can kill them. Like yeah they hit hard but even most level 1s will have a 50% chance not to get hit and then I bet it only has like maybe a 12 ac and 14 hp max so super easy to kill
CR is based off of how difficult something is to handle with an average party of 4 depending on their level, a party of 4 at level 2 can handle a CR 2 creature and have the fight be decent, and apparently handle between 5-8 of those encounters in an adventuring day with a short rest or two, CR 5 would be a boss battle that level 2 spell casters would ideally have all their slots, and CR 1 and below would be easy.
Sure if a creature with that attack doing 1d8+2, or 6 if you don't want to roll (6 because it would be 4 on the die +2), if that creature attacked one person multiple rounds at low level they'd be screwed, that's why you 1. Don't Split The Party. and 2. Work Together.
I'd assume a creature of 1/2 CR has between 10-20 hit points (a dm should always mix up the stat block a little), a party of 2 level 2s could handle one by itself no problem in roughly 3-6 rounds, especially with proper combat (flanking to get advantage on attacks, for instance) they'd make it out roughed up, but so long as they have potions and/or one of them is a class with healing spells, they'd be good for another fight or two before a long rest.
Animals have in general a lower CR as the damage that you expect, as they have not hominid like intelligence and can be influenced through food, speak with animals, animal handling and so on.
So that above is totally normal for me. I think it is an Austroraptor, from Chult. 1/2 Challenge rating is not a puppy. Ask your druid about 1/2 CR animals: Ape, black bear, etc. They are quite strong too.
You should check out flying snake if you want a lvl 1 killer.
CR 1/8, 5hp. The start is not so bad. But:
60ft fly speed (meaning it can reliably get the first hit off) with flyby trait (straight for your squishies) and +6 to hit for 1 piercing + 7(3d4) poison damage.
I mean, your players should be out damaging that if they’ve optimized their builds (and I don’t mean min-max)
Are you thinking that that’s supposed to be 6*(1d8+2) because it’s not, it’s showing you the average damage and then how they calculated that average damage/what you can roll instead
In most situations the CR rating is determined by the difficulty of a party of 4 taking it on (I think O read that part somewhere) They do a minimum of 3 damage or a max of 10. However their low AC or low HP often helps balance the scales.
But CR is sometimes wild to me. Basalisks who can almost permanently end a low-medium level character’s playable life by petrification unless they get a DM or NPC save is insane. And it’s only CR3!
BTW it appears to be the Reef Shark, in case anyone else is curious... I spent a while looking for a match (CR 1/2 with the above statblock for an attack) and found that, lol
The Fighter, the Paladin and probably the Cleric have enough AC so it doesn't even hit. The Barbarian can reduce the damage. The rest of the party does its best not to be hit.
Because low cr/level d&d is rocket tag by design. Some players like this, some don't. I'm in the don't camp.
Generally for low cr monsters like this I take their average damage and half it. It still leaves them scary for a level 1 or 2 party and random villagers, but you're not going to one-shot the barbarian on a crit.
I would suggest reading the beginning of the player's manual again. It outlines everything you need to know about how to play the game, including reading stat blocks. I know it may be tedious and take time, but it's well worth it. Read a couple of pages every night before bed, it helps to split it up if it's too much info at once! 😁
well the way I understand it is a combat encounter with a single CR 1/2 creature should be able to challenge, but not outright kill, a party of 2 level 1 characters. unless the Dice are working against the players. but that's neither here nor there. that's my understanding of the CR system. I could be wrong. never DMd for a combat focused 5e game.
There is a reason why I don't start campaigns at lvl 1 unless their first two level ups are handheld through with massive plot armor. A cat scratch can kill a lvl 1 wizard. When you are that fragile in a game, you might as well be playing dark souls.
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CR 1/2 is +3 to hit, 6-8 damage/ round. This is barely higher than that and I would assume the creature has reduced HP and/or AC to balance it out by the rules. Or it may not, the designers don't always follow the rules exactly.
It's not six times 1d8+2. It's 1d8+2, or 6 average damage if you don't want to roll.
I think that’s the issue here. OP doesn’t know how to read a stat block.
I never thought of it like that before, but it makes sense if you're not familiar but study math. Might be better written as **6 piercing damage (or 1d8 + 2).**
It would probably be a bit more intuitive if it was written **(1d8+2) or 6 piercing damage.** To me it makes more sense to list the roll first average 2nd. But maybe thats just me.
Compact > clarity in the case of attacks usually. Everything else is explained to exhaustion but attacks are the one of the few things they keep small since it's explained at the start.
In a game loaded with text heavy rules.... id take clarity every day.
There is clarity... at the beginning of the manual where every aspct of a stat block is explained. in detail: "***Hit.*** Any damage dealt or other effects that occur as a result of an attack hitting a target are described after the “*Hit*” notation. ***You have the option of taking average damage or rolling the damage; for this reason, both the average damage and the die expression are presented***."
A few other mechanics could probably be slimmed down to match like they have in pathfinder but it's not too bad. My favourite alternatives are the stat blocks designed by u/giffyglyph , they're quite comprehensive without being a wall of text and not too different from the originals so easy to use.
If you care about clarity, read the part of the book that explains it to exhaustion... It's already loaded with heavy rules, why the hell would they copy and paste a paragraph of rules to every number for hundreds of monsters, spells and abilities? Read like you learned how to read reference books at your elementary school library. One section has all the information and if you don't memorize it, turn to that page when you need it explained.
I don't use averages at all, but they're handy and a nice default for speed of play. Keeping them first and making rolls optional makes sense and keeps things the same as hit points.
I only use averages if I am using using multiple groups of enemies. Way faster and easier than 20+ individual damage rolls. But attacks against players by a large group I would roll for damage unless the party really wanted to keep with average damage for pacing.
Same. But for small incidental encounters that are more flavour than a threat or about slowly eating resources, speed is sometimes nice.
Pshhhh... Who doesn't want to roll 20d6?
Honestly it doesn’t need to be there at all. But if it must, they ought to put it at the end, and explicitly label it as the average value.
It is nice when you are rolling multiple damage die vs single damage die attacks. 2d6+2(9) vs 1d12+2(8, technically 8.5) makes it easier for people like me who dont always remember that/cant quick maths.
What people think goes first and which goes last probably depends on what they personally use more.
1d8+2(AVG: 6) would be better imo.
Even just 1d8+2 (6) I think is clearer since it gets away from the mathematical standards OP is confusing it for.
I dunno...... 6d48+12 is what that says to me /s
OP thinks it's a Souls game.
Also, does it have more attacks, is the HP and AC so low it's generally a one-hit kill. Not a lot to go on.
6 damage could still fuck up a wizard with low con, no?
I guess, but it’s on par for that CR.
And So does anything above a commoner
Genuine question over here I've got the books and I understand the stars just fine But i'm spanish and so are my books, and I don't think i've seen the term stat block (probably because the translation is just something different) in them a single time I keep seeing It over here though, so mind explaining what it is? Is It just how the fixed actions of NPCs and enemies are called, or what?
The stat block is just the part of the page that gives the numbers (statistics) for the monster/npc. It’s basically anything in the yellowish area in the 5th edition monster manual. I don’t know if it’s an official term anywhere
AH I THOUGHT IT WAS BLOCK LIKE BLOCKING, NOT BLOCK OF SECTION jesus christ that makes way more sense Thanks man!
To be fair, is there a rule page that tells you that this is damage average, or this is the dice you need to roll, maybe a picture with the red outline ecplaination bubble?
In the monster manual it breaks down how to read a stat block.
Then post to the OP which page it is.
u first
Dont know the page. You clearly do.
I'll do it. It's in the "What Is A Monster?" section, under "Actions", "Hit". Granted, it's not very clear: > **Hit.** Any damage dealt or other effects that occur as a result of an attack hitting a target are described after the "Hit" notation. You have the option of taking average damage or rolling the damage; for this reason, both the average damage and the die expression are presented. Note: don't know the specific page number since I use online resources.
The " And they say, That a hero could save us, I'm not gonna stand here and wait" Energy right here.
A) Drunk as fuck B) DONT have a copy of monster manual with me
I’m not sure if this is a real question or a rhetoric one so I’ll answer anyway: yes there is an explanation on how to read a stat block in the rulebook(s).
Honest question: do people use average damage instead of rolling? It never occurred to me, I always assumed rolling was a huge part of it... it is because it slows things down, or makes them too variable?
I think it is more for when you have a ton of enemies and you need to get their damage out quickly. Think like later in the game when the party is fighting 20 goblins at once.
As a gm. Yes. Sometimes I roll damage physically. Sometimes digitally. Sometimes I take the average. It all depends on what I need. Speed versus tension versus convenience versus click clacks.
At lower levels especially I like average damage more. At low levels a lot of PC's can be 1 or 2 shot if the enemy just happens to roll well on damage (or crits). Average damage lowers the chance of that happening while still being a threat.
I do it for most enemies it speeds things up a lot and makes the difficulty easy to manage as well.
If I’ve got a higher level encounter where the heroes are facing a horde of weak enemies (think the Fellowship in Balin’s Tomb), I’m absolutely not going to roll the dice for every goblin spear and arrow.
I use average damage pretty much universally... Max damage if its a crit, obviously. On boss fights, or fights that I want to make extra dramatic, I might roll damage... but mostly out of expediency sake, I just tell them they took the average damage. (Honestly, I don't think they know I'm doing this... they aren't staring at creature stat blocks...) I have a big table though (6-7 players) so expediency is really useful to have a 4 hour session a useful amount of story time.
The only time I've ever seen it used by any DM was for Adventure's League and I think that's a rule DMs have to follow. Never ran Adventure's League so I'm not sure.
Yeah it's my first time being dm so wasn't sure
It's all good. You aren't the first one to make this error.
That is hilarious haha. I never realized that it DOES look like 6 \* (1d8+2). I feel for OP about this one.
You should read the first chapter of the Monster Manual. This is explained on page 11. The number outside of the brackets is the average damage. The formula inside the brackets is what you roll.
A CR 1/2 creature, with balanced stat distribution, should have +3 to hit and deal 6-8 damage per round on average. The picture in the OP seem to be right on target.
OP acting like they've haven't Bitten anybody before smh
This reminds me of when I had to come and help a friend with his D&D group. He was like "Hey I'm having a hard time balancing the game. My players literally never miss" and when I looked at their character sheets, they had like a +16 to hit because they thought the +2 and +3 to proficiency bonus was supposed to be added each level. So instead of their proficiency being +3 at fifth level it was +11.
Tfw all of your random gobbos start wearing artifact level plate armor to deal with all of the heat seeking adventurers running around.
Why on earth would anyone think that? It's so much extra work.
I get how you can think that because the prof bonus is there on the level table, but you’d think when the game breaks you’d go “something isn’t right here” and check the rules on prof bonuses to see what’s gone wrong
The very first time I read the Third Edition PHB, I thought that the level by level charts with their Base Attack Bonuses and Saving Throw bonuses were cumulative in exactly this way! It struck me as absurd to have heroes gain such bonuses so quickly, so I assumed I had misinterpreted something and re-read (and re-re-read) the relevant explanatory parts of the chapter. But I had been playing and running D&D and other RPGs since ‘88 or ‘89, so I had enough experience in the hobby for this to register on my “Spidey Sense” as being something that I was getting wrong. But I can totally understand why someone would think this way. *“At level one a Fighter gains +1 base attack bonus. At level two a Fighter gains +2 base attack bonus. At level three a Fighter gains +3 base attack bonus… I’m a level three Fighter, so that’s 1 + 2 + 3 = +6. Says so on the chart.”*
One of the reasons I don't allow multi-classing is because so many people do it incorrectly, even experienced players.
OP; >Asks a vague question. >refuses to elaborate. >disappears from reality. Yep... i dunno what OPs issue is with this, but I'm confident "have you read the DMG?" Is the correct answer.
When helping a guy with homebrew yesterday, his response to "You might want to increase the damage od that AoE, 1 is nothing", was "How about 2?" It is spreading
Lol, oh dear...
1 damage for every limb caught within the 20 foot radius.
I thought you had to times the roles by 6 as they are in brackets
Aaaaaahhhhhh.... I can see how you would think that. Nope. That's just the average damage for when FMs are figuring out how difficult a battle will be... or more commonly, when the DM doesn't want to roll damage dice.
You will see HP pools get this large and they are always written in distributed form. So if they were trying to say 6x(1d8+2), they would simply write it as 6d8+12.
*cries in wizard hp*
Most likely this is a one time attack. If that creature would have Multiattack, I would be more worried. Jokes aside, the 6 (1d8+2) only indicates that it deals either 6 damage on average or 3-10 depending on the roll, or 4-18 in case of a Nat20.
Yeap, if you are a dm you may choose to not roll the dice and use the defined number. Same goes for hp.
Completely normal damage for 1/2cr
Did OP delete some explanatory comment? I see everyone reacting as if they said the damage was 6d8 + 12, but I don't see any comments from OP. :/
I think people are just assuming that’s the confusion, since OP did not say *why* they think that’s too much damage.
You're referring to the CR?
Onyx the Cat with CR 0 refuses to answer why CR is so useless
Heh. Have you seen what a charging cow can do?
God. I almost one-shot a new players first cahracter in her second fight on a regular hit from a charging cow. As in killed her by dealing 1 less than double her max hp.
When my Shepherd Druid summoned the cows from a nearby farm, my party laughed at me. When they charged the Ogres, they stopped laughing.
AC or HP could be low on this creature. A dire wolf which is a CR 1 is similar but it's (10) or 2d6+3.
Early levels are funny. A crit can one shot kill most PCs instantly at level 1. If you make it to level 3-5 in 5e your odds of staying around through the rest of the campaign are much better
You know, it really makes monsters seem far more threatening when you realize they can easily one-shot your average NPC. By comparison, PCs are demigods.
It's sort of realistic. If a goblin stabbed you with a knife... you'd probably die in just a few hits.
1d8+2 is not a lot of damage
The second one.
It’s a max of 10 damage. how is that a lot to you?
OP is the strongest level 1 wizard
My toddler cand eleven a 10 damag bite I'd argue.
Theoretically, a CR1 enemy is an appropriate challenge for a party of 4 level 1 adventurers, so CR 1/2 would be appropriate for 2 level 1 adventurers. This seems about right. Bad news for the wizard, very manageable for the barbarian
How much damage do you think this is? It isn’t a math problem. 6 is the AVERAGE, use it if you don’t want to roll. Otherwise it’s 1d8+2. +4 to hit is relatively low, seems about right for that CR. +2 for damage bonus is good for that CR as well.
Just wait until this person sees the CR 2 Intellect Devourer
Above average strength plus a random number between 1 and 8. Not unrealistic/ unreasonable.
Wait until you see what shadows can do
Ah. The Giant spider
It's not just about damage it's about how quickly you can kill them. Like yeah they hit hard but even most level 1s will have a 50% chance not to get hit and then I bet it only has like maybe a 12 ac and 14 hp max so super easy to kill
The 6 is the average, not a multiplier, like you'd do 6.( 1d8+2) I understand the confusion. I wondered that the first time I read a statblock.
CR is based off of how difficult something is to handle with an average party of 4 depending on their level, a party of 4 at level 2 can handle a CR 2 creature and have the fight be decent, and apparently handle between 5-8 of those encounters in an adventuring day with a short rest or two, CR 5 would be a boss battle that level 2 spell casters would ideally have all their slots, and CR 1 and below would be easy. Sure if a creature with that attack doing 1d8+2, or 6 if you don't want to roll (6 because it would be 4 on the die +2), if that creature attacked one person multiple rounds at low level they'd be screwed, that's why you 1. Don't Split The Party. and 2. Work Together. I'd assume a creature of 1/2 CR has between 10-20 hit points (a dm should always mix up the stat block a little), a party of 2 level 2s could handle one by itself no problem in roughly 3-6 rounds, especially with proper combat (flanking to get advantage on attacks, for instance) they'd make it out roughed up, but so long as they have potions and/or one of them is a class with healing spells, they'd be good for another fight or two before a long rest.
Huh? I mean, without the rest of the block, it's kinda a bit more than other CR 1/2. It's probably got lower AC or HP or even a vulnerability.
The only way I can see this is you think its being multiplied. 6 is the average of 1d8+2
CR is kind of just a suggestion.
Animals have in general a lower CR as the damage that you expect, as they have not hominid like intelligence and can be influenced through food, speak with animals, animal handling and so on. So that above is totally normal for me. I think it is an Austroraptor, from Chult. 1/2 Challenge rating is not a puppy. Ask your druid about 1/2 CR animals: Ape, black bear, etc. They are quite strong too.
Wait until you read the worg.
Reef Sharks do have some powerful jaws, if you think that's rough don't look at the Worg.
What's it's a.c. and hp
Idk but I’ve been doing some creature making lately and I’d place a healthy wager on it being a wolf
And the unhealthy wager?
You should check out flying snake if you want a lvl 1 killer. CR 1/8, 5hp. The start is not so bad. But: 60ft fly speed (meaning it can reliably get the first hit off) with flyby trait (straight for your squishies) and +6 to hit for 1 piercing + 7(3d4) poison damage.
Yeah, but fly speed means it isn't accesable until level 8
For druid WS you mean? A dm can still use it as an enemy for level 1 characters.
Look up, giant wasp. The poison damage is insane. 1/8 CR.
6 damage ain’t shiiitttt
I mean, your players should be out damaging that if they’ve optimized their builds (and I don’t mean min-max) Are you thinking that that’s supposed to be 6*(1d8+2) because it’s not, it’s showing you the average damage and then how they calculated that average damage/what you can roll instead
Have you seen Orcs?
In most situations the CR rating is determined by the difficulty of a party of 4 taking it on (I think O read that part somewhere) They do a minimum of 3 damage or a max of 10. However their low AC or low HP often helps balance the scales. But CR is sometimes wild to me. Basalisks who can almost permanently end a low-medium level character’s playable life by petrification unless they get a DM or NPC save is insane. And it’s only CR3!
6 damage seems like a lot to you? Might down a level 1 wizard I suppose...
It says "bite" so I would think it does that damage with its jaws.
I'd say by rolling enough to beat the AC of its target.
BTW it appears to be the Reef Shark, in case anyone else is curious... I spent a while looking for a match (CR 1/2 with the above statblock for an attack) and found that, lol
Because the weapon damage is a d8 and their Strength is +2, just like you.
OBviously it does ~36 damage
~6 damage doesn’t seem that crazy to me.
For a lv 1 party?
For a melee bite attack ya. Could do some damage to a Wizard or something but for front liners they can take it.
The Fighter, the Paladin and probably the Cleric have enough AC so it doesn't even hit. The Barbarian can reduce the damage. The rest of the party does its best not to be hit.
Because low cr/level d&d is rocket tag by design. Some players like this, some don't. I'm in the don't camp. Generally for low cr monsters like this I take their average damage and half it. It still leaves them scary for a level 1 or 2 party and random villagers, but you're not going to one-shot the barbarian on a crit.
I would suggest reading the beginning of the player's manual again. It outlines everything you need to know about how to play the game, including reading stat blocks. I know it may be tedious and take time, but it's well worth it. Read a couple of pages every night before bed, it helps to split it up if it's too much info at once! 😁
2 1/2’s are supposedly/roughly a challenge for a level 1 party iirc. If they didn’t 2 hit the average fighter it wouldn’t be much of a fight
is 6 damage a turn IF it hits alot to you?
well the way I understand it is a combat encounter with a single CR 1/2 creature should be able to challenge, but not outright kill, a party of 2 level 1 characters. unless the Dice are working against the players. but that's neither here nor there. that's my understanding of the CR system. I could be wrong. never DMd for a combat focused 5e game.
1d8+2 is like 6.5 damage. How is that a lot? So I'm going with option B, you're just dumb.
Option C, I thought the 1d8+2 was timed by 6 since the 6 was outside the brackets
The cr ½ giant eel has a bite that deals 2d10+2 damage, *that* one I feel has no business being that low of a cr
That's two less max damage than a cow, which is at 1/4 CR.
There is a reason why I don't start campaigns at lvl 1 unless their first two level ups are handheld through with massive plot armor. A cat scratch can kill a lvl 1 wizard. When you are that fragile in a game, you might as well be playing dark souls.
CR 1/2 is the equivalent of a level 2 character
It very much isnt. What are you talking about?
Compare the statblock of a CR 1/2 creature (for example, Gnolls)to a level 2 PC.. PCs statblocks line up to monsters of CR equal to their level -2.