Hey there boys & girls, just asking around for your opinion; just out of curiosity:“Using the CR Formula of the booklet, how would you calculate the monster’s Saving Throw?”
I’m thinkinkg it’s probably the same as the AC? I mean, it would make sense to simplify the game, right? It just doesn’t feel right to make the creature impervious to almost everything the players can throw at it without some sort of backdoor.
It depends on your general Save mechanic. For 5e saves are “roll to beat DC”, meaning in hardcore they would be d20+CR.
Similar question with some added detail:
Pg. 16 Challenge Rating Formula
What does “Check and Attack Rolls = D20 + CR” actually mean?
For example take our lowly bandit, 2HD creature, with that formula, it sounds like I could potentially make a bandit with an attack roll of +22, or as low as +3. Am I reading that wrong? Thanks!
Solved it - I’m a knuckle-head. It Challenge Rating number not Hit Dice, sorry to necro the post!
You’re far from a knucklehead:
You can use HD also. It’s not rules as written in hardcore, but many old school games do so it is well within the range of common practices. If you do use HD, the HD number is your to-hit bonus (or save bonus, skill bonus, etc), same as CR is your bonus in hardcore. So a 2HD monster would have +2 to hit, a 3HD monster +3 etc.
My understanding is that Hankerin just felt this “normal” osr system didn’t work well with the math of 5e, and decided to go with CR instead.
Regardless, the bonus is only the CR number or HD number. The d20 is the actual to-hit roll.
