
One of the most important things in all games is balance. This, in turn, allows them to take on monsters of higher CR. Unless specified otherwise by the DM, each member of the party receives an equal share of 175 XP each.Īs players gain XP, they level up, gaining more abilities and growing in power. If a party of four players defeats a monster of CR 3, the party receives 700 XP. This is the same as how players determine their attack bonuses.īelow is the full list of Challenge Ratings you can find in the Monster Manual, Volo’s Guide to Monsters, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, and every other D&D book with a stat block. That may be true, but that +11 still comes from the creature’s ability score-for example, strength for a melee attack-and their proficiency bonus. The first time you look through the Monster Manual, you might think that a monster has a +11 to hit because it’s a tough monster. Those with any kind of attack are worth 10 XP, and those without an attack are worth 0 XP.Ī creature’s CR also determines its proficiency bonus. Some creatures pose such a low threat that they are designated CR 0. This XP is awarded to players who defeat the given monster. Using Challenge Rating and XPĮvery challenge rating from 1 to 30 has a designated amount of experience points (XP). If you want to start adjusting monsters to be suitable for your party, that’s a whole other topic, but you can find a great resource for how to do that here. In the above example, a vampire is a CR 12 monster, making it suitable for a 12th level party, and would eviscerate a 1st level party.

However, it quickly becomes more complicated when considering multiple monsters, player abilities & party composition, and special monster abilities.

That wizard would quickly become bear food.Ī creature with a CR 1 means that it is a suitable encounter for a party of four 1st level characters.Īt a glance, it would seem that CR is then equal to four times character level. If a brown bear (CR 1) fought a 1st level wizard, it would be far from a fair fight. Although challenge rating ranks enemy NPCs and monsters by threat level, it is not equivalent to character level.
