Spacefaring Monsters and Challenge Rating

Monsters usually encountered in space (those with a speed listed as Spacefaring Slow, Spacefaring Average, or Spacefaring Fast) are typically more powerful than terrestrial monsters of the same challenge rating. These cosmic threats are strong enough to match a party’s ship, not merely the party itself.

Spacefaring monsters of CR 3 and below have similar statistics to standard (non-spacefaring) monsters. For a battle in which a party must face a CR 4 or higher spacefaring monster without the benefit of a starship, triple the spacefaring monster’s XP and treat it as 3 standard monsters of its Challenge Rating for purposes of encounter building. For a battle in which a starship battles a CR 4 or higher standard monster, grant ⅓ of the monster’s XP and treat it as a monster of ⅓ its CR for the purposes of encounter building.