How to Calculate Challenge Rating 5e D&D
In this guide, I’ll show you how to calculate Challenge Rating (CR) in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. CR is a tool used to determine the difficulty of an encounter. A proper CR helps make the combat more balanced and exciting
We’ll explore how to determine and adjust the CR of an encounter. Understanding CR is essential whether you’re a DM or an active player. So, let’s dive in.
What is Challenge Rating?
Challenge Rating is a system that measures the difficulty level of a creature. A number between 0 and 30 represents it. In essence, the CR is a tool that helps DMs balance the challenge level of encounters. This ensures that your players have a fair and fun experience. Balance isn’t the only thing CR is good for, though!
What is its purpose?
CR serves three other purposes. It is a tool for DMs to gauge monster strength, determine Experience Points (XP) given, and reward appropriate loot.
Gauding Difficulty:
The CR gives a quick estimation of the strength of a monster. You can use the CR value to decide if an encounter suits players.
CR is related to your players’ levels and the number of players in the party. A monster with CR 3 would be fine for a party of four players at level 3. But if it were a party of six players, a CR 3 monster would be too easy alone!
Awarding Experience Points
The CR of a monster determines the XP awarded. When your players finish an encounter, they earn XP, which is one way players can level up. The higher a monster’s CR, the greater the XP reward for defeating it is.
Awarding Loot
CR can determine the type of loot your players receive after an encounter. Defeating creatures with higher CR will result in better loot for players. Think about it, a Dragon would have more valuable loot than a Goblin thief.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything both recommend treasure to give players. DMG focuses on mundane treasures, like money. XGE gives more suggestions on awarding magic items.
Calculating Challenge Rating
Calculating Basic Challenge Rating is a critical skill for any DM. By understanding CR, you can create fun encounters for your players. The good news is that you don’t have to start from scratch since most monsters already have a CR assigned to them.
You can find the CR for a monster on its stat block, along with other important info. If you don’t have a stat block ready or are creating a homebrewed monster, you must determine the CR yourself.
Monster Stats by Challenge Rating
This is the best chart for finding the expected CR of a given Monster or Party. It’s based on the chart found on page 274 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. It shows simple stats for a monster of a particular CR. I have also included the XP awarded for defeating a monster of that CR. I now present… The chart!
| Defensive | Offensive | ||||||
| CR | XP | Prof. Bonus | AC | Hit Points | Attack Bonus | Damage/Round | Save DC |
| 0 | 10 | +2 | ≤13 | 1-6 | +3 | 0-1 | ≤13 |
| 1/8 | 25 | +2 | 13 | 7-35 | +3 | 2-3 | 13 |
| 1/4 | 50 | +2 | 13 | 36-49 | +3 | 4-5 | 13 |
| 1/2 | 100 | +2 | 13 | 50-70 | +3 | 6-8 | 13 |
| 1 | 200 | +2 | 13 | 71-85 | +3 | 9-14 | 13 |
| 2 | 450 | +2 | 13 | 86-100 | +3 | 15-20 | 13 |
| 3 | 700 | +2 | 13 | 101-115 | +4 | 21-26 | 13 |
| 4 | 1,100 | +2 | 14 | 116-130 | +5 | 27-32 | 14 |
| 5 | 1,800 | +3 | 15 | 131-145 | +6 | 33-38 | 15 |
| 6 | 2,300 | +3 | 15 | 146-160 | +6 | 39-44 | 15 |
| 7 | 2,900 | +3 | 15 | 161-175 | +6 | 45-50 | 15 |
| 8 | 3,900 | +3 | 16 | 176-190 | +7 | 51-56 | 16 |
| 9 | 5,000 | +4 | 16 | 191-205 | +7 | 57-62 | 16 |
| 10 | 5,900 | +4 | 17 | 206-220 | +7 | 63-68 | 16 |
| 11 | 7,200 | +4 | 17 | 221-235 | +8 | 69-74 | 17 |
| 12 | 8,400 | +4 | 17 | 236-250 | +8 | 75-80 | 18 |
| 13 | 10,000 | +5 | 18 | 251-265 | +8 | 81-86 | 18 |
| 14 | 11,500 | +5 | 18 | 266-280 | +8 | 87-92 | 18 |
| 15 | 13,000 | +5 | 18 | 281-295 | +8 | 93-98 | 18 |
| 16 | 15,000 | +5 | 18 | 296-310 | +9 | 99-104 | 18 |
| 17 | 18,000 | +6 | 19 | 311-325 | +10 | 105-110 | 19 |
| 18 | 20,000 | +6 | 19 | 326-340 | +10 | 111-116 | 19 |
| 19 | 22,000 | +6 | 19 | 341-355 | +10 | 117-122 | 19 |
| 20 | 25,000 | +6 | 19 | 356-400 | +10 | 123-140 | 19 |
| 21 | 33,000 | +7 | 19 | 401-445 | +11 | 141-158 | 20 |
| 22 | 41,000 | +7 | 19 | 446-490 | +11 | 159-176 | 20 |
| 23 | 50,000 | +7 | 19 | 491-535 | +11 | 177-194 | 20 |
| 24 | 62,000 | +7 | 19 | 536-580 | +11 | 195-212 | 21 |
| 25 | 75,000 | +8 | 19 | 581-625 | +12 | 213-230 | 21 |
| 26 | 90,000 | +8 | 19 | 626-670 | +12 | 231-248 | 21 |
| 27 | 105,000 | +8 | 19 | 671-715 | +13 | 249-266 | 22 |
| 28 | 120,000 | +8 | 19 | 716-760 | +13 | 267-284 | 22 |
| 29 | 135,000 | +9 | 19 | 760-805 | +13 | 285-302 | 22 |
| 30 | 155,000 | +9 | 19 | 805-850 | +14 | 303-320 | 23 |
Phew! That’s a lot of information. Don’t feel like you need to study it too much, though. Now that you have seen it, let me explain the two main parts of it.
Breakdown of the two parts of CR
The chart breaks CR into two parts: Defensive and Offensive. Let’s take a closer look at each part of the CR calculation and how it affects the overall CR.
Defensive
The Defensive CR of a monster is how difficult it is to defeat in combat. This includes its Armor Class (AC) and hit points (HP). You can also consider its resistance and immunities. The higher a monster’s Defensive CR, the longer it can survive in combat.
Offensive
The Offensive CR of a monster is how much damage it can deal in combat. This includes factors such as its damage output per round, attack bonus, and save DC. The higher a monster’s Offensive CR, the more damage it will be able to deal to the party.
Party Challenge Rating
The party’s CR equals their level but can differ based on their abilities and items. Determining the party’s CR can help you challenge them appropriately.
The rules say a party of 4 level 10 characters should be around CR 10. This simple way of calculating is a bit flawed because it doesn’t refer to the charter’s real stats. If you have the time, you should use the chart above to determine the party’s real CR.
Here is how you might find different parts of the party’s CR. You can add the HP of all the characters together to get the effective HP of the group. For AC you can take each player’s AC and average them together. You must determine the party’s CR by assessing them as a whole, not as individuals.
Multiple Monsters
When making a battle with multiple monsters refer to their collective CR. Because of the action economy, you’ll want to aim for a lower total CR compared to the player’s level.
Outnumbering your party gives monsters more actions per round, making encounters more challenging. On the other hand, if the monsters are weak, the party could kill many in one attack, even if their total CR is high.
It’s also important to consider monsters will complement each other. For example, if some have high defenses and hit points, they can provide a distraction for those with high damage output.
Tweaking CR
You might find that the CR of an encounter you’ve found doesn’t match what you had in mind. Maybe the difficulty isn’t right, or you want to add a twist to the encounter. In these cases, you can tweak the CR to fit your needs better.
There are a few different ways to do this. You can make basic changes to the encounter, like adjusting monster stats. You can also do some more specific alterations to modify the CR. Let’s take a closer look at what you can do.
Basic Changes
Making basic modifications to a monster’s stats is the simplest way to adjust its CR. You can increase or decrease its hit points, armor class, damage die, or spellcasting ability.
When making these changes, it’s important to consider the party’s strengths and weaknesses. If the party has a lot of melee fighters, increasing the monster’s AC might make it more challenging.
Lowering CR
When running a game, you might find that the encounter you made is too difficult for your players. In such cases, you may need to lower the CR of the encounter.
Surprise Round
A surprise round can give the players a much-needed advantage. If you want to lower the effective CR of an encounter, let players ambush their enemies. This allows them to act before the enemies and possibly take them out before they have a chance to react. Not all encounters can start with a surprise round, so you can only sometimes use them.
Weakening
Another way to lower the CR of an encounter is to start the monsters in a weakened state. The first adventure in the Candlekeep Mysteries does this with a Mimic. Mimics are CR 2 monsters, but by lowering its HP, damage die, and grapple save DC, it was able to fit well into a CR 1 adventure.
Alternative Defeat Methods
Sometimes, players can defeat enemies in ways that don’t involve fighting. Urge your players to think outside the box. They might be able to negotiate with the monsters, befriend them, or avoid them altogether.
Storytime: Once my party and I came up against two Sorrowsworn, the Lost and the Lonely. However, what could have been an exciting battle ended in the first turn after a simple Banishment and Polymorph. The moral? Consider everything when picking what monsters to use!
Increasing CR
In some cases, you might find that an encounter is too easy and needs to be more challenging. This is where increasing the CR can come in to help you make it more fun for players.
Editing the Environment
One way to increase the CR of an encounter is to change the environment in which it takes place. This could mean adding difficult terrain, like a slippery slope or a dense thicket. You could also add traps or hazards, such as falling objects, that the players and monsters must avoid.
Monster Features
Another way to increase the CR of an encounter is to use Monster Features. Page 280 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide has a list of features that you can use for Monsters. These are names of various abilities that monsters have. You’ll need to look at stat blocks to see the full details about each feature.
You can also look at stat blocks of monsters and can borrow any abilities as you see fit. Be careful not to make monsters too powerful, or it might be too difficult for players to enjoy.
Borrowing from 4e
In D&D 4th edition (4e), designers created “elite” and “solo” monsters, which were tougher than normal monsters. These tougher versions could have more hit points, more powerful abilities, or both.
Dragons in 4e often have more abilities and are much tougher than their 5e counterparts. The 4e Red Dragon was an embodiment of fire, and all creatures within 10 feet of it had to take 2d6 of fire damage at the start of the Dragon’s turn. These kinds of abilities can make your battles more dynamic!
Challenge rating for unexpected combat
Although CR is useful for encounter planning, D&D is known for surprises. Unexpected encounters require improvisation since you couldn’t carefully plan the CR. With these unexpected fights, the CR can be higher or lower than what the players can handle. You have to base it on what kind of situation the players got themselves into.
A small bar fight is trivial, but when the Bard insults a Demon Lord to his face, then they are asking to die! Killing the players isn’t the only option when facing a high CR villain too early. Consider imprisonment or banishment as other options.
Damage by Level of Severity
When deciding damage quickly, refer to the Damage by Level of Severity chart on the official Dungeon Master’s Screen. That chart tends to be a bit harsh for lower levels, so here is an expanded chart made by Jadon83 on Reddit:
| Level | Setback | Dangerous | Deadly |
| 1st | 1d4 | 2d4 | 4d4 |
| 2nd | 1d6 | 2d6 | 4d6 |
| 3rd | 1d8 | 2d8 | 4d8 |
| 4th | 1d10 | 2d10 | 4d10 |
| 5th – 6th | 2d6 | 4d6 | 10d6 |
| 7th – 8th | 2d8 | 4d8 | 10d8 |
| 9th – 10th | 2d10 | 4d10 | 10d10 |
| 11th – 12th | 4d6 | 10d6 | 18d6 |
| 13th – 14th | 4d8 | 10d8 | 18d8 |
| 15th – 16th | 4d10 | 10d10 | 18d10 |
| 17th – 18th | 10d8 | 18d8 | 24d8 |
| 19th – 20th | 10d10 | 18d10 | 24d10 |
This is a great chart to refer to if you need to make a damage roll on the fly.
What CR Doesn’t Tell You
CR is a useful tool for determining the relative difficulty of an encounter. However, it treats the monster as if it’s in a vacuum. CR fails to consider crucial aspects that can impact encounters.
The strengths and weaknesses of the party and monsters aren’t reflected in CR. A low CR party equipped with fire-based attacks might easily handle a group of high CR plant monsters.
Environmental factors like weather, light, and terrain can change the difficulty of an encounter. Fighting a Vampire in sunlight is easy, but fighting underwater with no water breathing can turn deadly fast!
DM Tip: You might give monsters a boost in their abilities depending on their motivation. Orcs defending their sacred temple would likely fight harder than the same Orc wanting to rob the party!
To Sum It Up
Understanding Challenge Rating is essential for balancing encounters in D&D 5e. It helps determine the difficulty of an encounter, the XP awarded, and the loot received. Most monsters already have a CR assigned, but you can calculate it by breaking it down into Defensive and Offensive CR.
Please leave a comment if you enjoyed the article or if you have any questions about CR! Also, share this with your players so they understand how much work it is to set up a fun encounter for them.
