Being able to scale up or down would be great. I'd like to be able to use the Gith in an encounter but they don't exactly have a wide range of CR to use. I'm in the middle of writing a Cthulhu-themed adventure where the BBEG is the leader of the mind flayers. After all, goblins are a 1/4 CR and there's no way that 2 goblins can match up to 1 Uruk-hai. Maybe I want that Orc War Chief to scale up to 9 CR (instead of 4) and regular orcs (Uruk-hai) to scale up to 2 CR (instead of 1/2). Maybe I want my orcs to be a much more imposing force, something along the lines of the Lord of the Rings. These are all examples of higher level NPCs who haven't taken a single level in a PC class (the archmage is an 18th level spellcaster).Īgain, if a gnoll can reach CR 9 in the source material, I don't see why an orc couldn't feasibly double that. Assassin is an 8 CR humanoid that's like a rogue, but doesn't have any levels in the Rogue class. Drow Mage and Drow Priestess of Lolth are both similar to other classes without having levels in an actual class. Not necessarily: Archmage is a 12 CR humanoid that is much LIKE a wizard, but doesn't have any levels in the Wizard class.
