What Challenge Rating Means in 5e
Challenge Rating (CR) tells you how dangerous a monster is to a party of four characters. Compare it to the characters' level: a higher CR means danger, a lower one means little threat. The SRD's rough guide says one monster whose CR equals the party's level makes a Low difficulty fight for four characters. CR also sets the monster's XP and its Proficiency Bonus. Below: the rule quoted, the tables, and what six SRD monsters actually do at the table.
The rule
The Rules Glossary defines it:
Challenge Rating (CR) summarizes the threat a monster poses to a group of four player characters. Compare a monster's CR to the characters' level. If the CR is higher, the monster is likely a danger. If the CR is lower, the monster likely poses little threat.
It warns in the next line that the number is a starting point:
But circumstances and the number of player characters can significantly alter how threatening a monster is in actual play.
And the Gameplay Toolbox gives the rule of thumb:
As a rough guideline, a single monster generally presents a low-difficulty challenge for a party of four characters whose level equals the monster's Challenge Rating.
What CR sets: XP and Proficiency Bonus
Every stat block prints its CR with two numbers beside it, such as "CR 1/4 (XP 50; PB +2)" on the Goblin Warrior. Both come from the CR.
| CR | XP | CR | XP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 or 10 | 5 | 1,800 |
| 1/8 | 25 | 6 | 2,300 |
| 1/4 | 50 | 8 | 3,900 |
| 1/2 | 100 | 10 | 5,900 |
| 1 | 200 | 15 | 13,000 |
| 2 | 450 | 20 | 25,000 |
| 3 | 700 | 25 | 75,000 |
| 4 | 1,100 | 30 | 155,000 |
Proficiency Bonus climbs the same way a character's does: +2 at CR 0–4, +3 at 5–8, +4 at 9–12, up to +9 at CR 29–30. It feeds the monster's saves and skills.
Turning CR into a fight
The SRD builds encounters from XP, not CR. Pick a difficulty, read the XP per character, multiply by the number of characters:
Multiply the number in the table by the number of characters in the party to get your XP budget for the encounter.
| Party level | Low | Moderate | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 | 75 | 100 |
| 2 | 100 | 150 | 200 |
| 3 | 150 | 225 | 400 |
| 4 | 250 | 375 | 500 |
| 5 | 500 | 750 | 1,100 |
| 10 | 1,600 | 2,300 | 3,100 |
Then spend it: "Spend as much of your XP budget as you can without going over."
The rough guide and the table don't always agree. Four level 1 characters have a Low budget of 200 XP, exactly one CR 1 monster. Four level 5 characters have 2,000, and a CR 5 monster costs 1,800: Low. But four level 3 characters have 600, and a CR 3 Owlbear costs 700. On the table, that Owlbear is a Moderate fight (900), not a Low one. Trust the table when they differ.
Six SRD monsters, by the numbers
The table below sets each monster against a Fighter of the matching level: Strength 16, Greatsword with the Graze mastery, attack +5; at level 5, Strength 18, attack +7 and Extra Attack. "Damage" is the monster's average per turn against AC 16, crits included; its attack bonuses of +4 to +8 hit that AC 45% to 65% of the time. "Turns" is the monster's HP divided by that Fighter's average damage per turn.
| Monster (CR) | AC/HP | Damage | Turns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goblin Warrior (1/4) | 15/10 | 2.6 | 1.4 |
| Bugbear Warrior (1) | 14/33 | 4.7 | 4.4 |
| Ogre (2) | 11/68 | 7.6 | 7.9 |
| Owlbear (3) | 13/59 | 17.7 | 7.5 |
| Troll (5) | 15/94 | 20.9 | 5.3 |
| Hill Giant (5) | 13/105 | 25.4 | 5.5 |
Three things stand out.
- CR hides where the danger sits. The Ogre and the Owlbear take about the same time to kill, but the Owlbear's two Rend attacks deal more than twice the Ogre's damage. A level 3 Fighter with 28 HP drops in one Owlbear turn 22.6% of the time. The Ogre's single Greatclub manages it 0.6% of the time.
- Four characters, not one. No Fighter should face these alone. "Turns" shows why CR assumes a party: split that number across four characters and every fight on the list lasts about two rounds or fewer.
- Traits change everything. The Troll's line reads 5.3 turns, but its stat block adds:
Regeneration. The troll regains 15 Hit Points at the start of each of its turns. If the troll takes Acid or Fire damage, this trait doesn't function on the troll's next turn.
Against 17.8 damage a turn, the Troll only loses about 3 HP a round. Without Fire or Acid, the party grinds for a long time; the SRD adds that "the troll dies only if it starts its turn with 0 Hit Points and doesn't regenerate." Read every trait before you trust the CR.
When the budget lies
The Toolbox lists the cases where CR maths breaks:
If your encounter includes more than two creatures per character, include fragile creatures that can be defeated quickly. This guideline is especially important for characters of level 1 or 2.
Many weak monsters roll many d20s, and a lucky streak lands more damage than their XP suggests. CR 0 creatures "should be used sparingly"; use swarms instead. And when a player is missing, the SRD says to remove creatures to keep the fight at its intended difficulty. Mid-fight, adjust: monsters flee to make it easier, reinforcements arrive to make it harder.
- CR compares one monster to four characters of that level.
- CR sets XP and Proficiency Bonus; XP builds the encounter.
- One monster with CR equal to the party's level is roughly Low. Check the budget table, it can say Moderate.
- Read the traits: Regeneration and Multiattack matter more than the number.
Every number above comes from one d20 roll against AC. The Book of Dice covers the d20 in Part I, The Object.
This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
