[RPG] Is the CR for the Kuo-Toa Whip accurate

cr-calculationdnd-5eerratamonsters

In the Monster's Manual, the Kuo-Toa Whip has a CR of 1, but that seems much too low given that it has 10d8+20 hit dice (average of 65 hp) and 2nd level spellcasting abilities. This seems to be more in line with a CR of 3, like the variant Kuo-toa Monitor which has the same stats, merely swapping the spellcasting out for a multi attack.

There's no mention of this in the Monster Manual errata from 2016 (pdf).

Am I right that a CR of 3 is probably more accurate for this monster?

Best Answer

It wasn't in the errata, so yes it is accurate.

Lacking any corrections from the game designers themselves, CR1 is the correct CR for the Kuo-toa Whip.

You can reconstruct the creature's CR using the rules in Creating a Monster in the DMG page 273.

Using those rules, we get that the Whip has a Defensive CR of 1/4 (1/2 if we assume it always has Shield of Faith on), and an Offensive CR of 1. Its spellcasting doesn't really matter for Offensive CR as it has little damaging spells. So it should really only be CR 1/2.

But a critical thing you're missing is that the ultimate Challenge Rating for a monster isn't derived from crunching numbers, but rather through playtesting again and again.

Creating a monster isn't just a number-crunching exercise. The guidelines in this chapter can help you create monsters, but the only way to know whether a monster is fun is to playtest it. After seeing your monster in action, you might want to adjust the challenge rating up or down based on your experiences.

(DMG 275)