Post by Sokar on Oct 12, 2005 20:45:47 GMT -5
Sokar’s Rules Class!!!
Ok, I, in the past, have had arguments with people (you know who you are) on the subject of playing monsters as PC races. Now, because I am sick of typing the same thing over and over again, I present to you:
Sokar’s guide to playing monsters as PC races: A compendium for all the un-enlightened about the most confusing aspect of the rules.
I present to you my assistant, Saint Indoril Nerevar, a hound archon with one level paladin. This champion of justice is all set to jump into a party of 12th level characters and start eliminating those of the Hells and Abyss.
Now then, allow me to give a definition of terms I will be using in this guide.
Creature and Monster: These terms will be used interchangeably, both referring to a non-standard race.
ECL: A monster’s Effective Character Level, which is found by adding it’s racial hit dice to its class, hit dice to its level adjustment.
Racial Hit Dice: The hit dice that appears in the monster’s hit dice column. If you wish to play the monster as a PC, these HD are levels that are considered
Class Hit Dice: Hit dice from classes, such as paladin.
HD: Hit dice
Level Adjustment: The value used to raise a monster’s ECL based on the special attacks or abilities it my have. For example, Saint Indoril Nerevar is much too powerful to be adventuring with seventh level characters, so his +5 level adjustment says he is on the power level of 12th level characters.
LA: See level adjustment.
Now, let’s get into the meat of this lesson.
Looking at Saint Indoril Nerevar’s character sheet, the first thing that would be noticed is that is base attack bonus of +7, and those saves and skill points seem to be a little low as well. This is because things such as attack bonus, save bonuses, and skill points, and feats are based off a creature’s hit dice, and though he is a 12th level character, Saint Indoril Nerevar only has seven hit dice. Which means, he has three feats, max skill points of 10 per class skill, one ability score boost, and base attack bonus of a 7 HD paladin. (The latter is just a coincidence, though)
I believe that the root of the problem comes from the term ‘Racial Hit Dice’, a term that many people do not understand the meaning off. Racial hit dice do NOT get taken away when creating a monster as a PC. Rather these are actual levels. The term ‘Racial’ is just used to show that you can’t pick it up like a class. Though, if you have Racial HD, you can advance as a member of your race, rather than picking up a class. Picking up a class is just like multi-classing into that class. So, looking at a Hound Archon, we see that their racial hit dice are outsider. This is another way of saying that a hound archon must begin play with six levels taken in the outsider ‘class’. Looking further, we see that these six hit dice grant +6 base attack bonus, and all saves at +5. What this means, is that every time any outsider advances its outsider hit dice, it gains +1 base attack bonus, and advances all saves as a monk of the same level. (All good saves). When Saint Indoril Nerevar took a level in paladin, these values get added to the values of a first level paladin, just like multi-classing.
Now, you may be wondering, what does level adjustment apply to? Well, have no fear, because I’m about to tell you! Level adjustment is used to determine your ECL (See definitions above). Your ECL is used to determine your starting gold, the amount of treasure you earn, and your starting experience and experience required to advance to the next level. So, Saint Indoril Nerevar has an ECL of twelve, which means he starts with at least 66,000 experience, and needs to get to 78,000 experience to reach level 13, where he can than choose to level up his paladin hit dice, his outsider hit dice, or take up a new class. His ECL of 12 also grants him 88,000 starting gold.
So, to summarize today’s lesson, to create a monster PC, you add its racial hit dice to its class hit dice and level adjustment to get your starting experience, starting gold, and to determine what level characters you are fit to adventure with. Add your total amount of hit dice together to determine how many feats you get, your attack and save bonuses, your max ranks in class skills, and how many ability score boots you get.
Homework: Create an ECL 12 character using a nonstandard PC race (32 point buy, max hp) to go head to head with Saint Indoril Nerevar!
Ok, I, in the past, have had arguments with people (you know who you are) on the subject of playing monsters as PC races. Now, because I am sick of typing the same thing over and over again, I present to you:
Sokar’s guide to playing monsters as PC races: A compendium for all the un-enlightened about the most confusing aspect of the rules.
I present to you my assistant, Saint Indoril Nerevar, a hound archon with one level paladin. This champion of justice is all set to jump into a party of 12th level characters and start eliminating those of the Hells and Abyss.
Now then, allow me to give a definition of terms I will be using in this guide.
Creature and Monster: These terms will be used interchangeably, both referring to a non-standard race.
ECL: A monster’s Effective Character Level, which is found by adding it’s racial hit dice to its class, hit dice to its level adjustment.
Racial Hit Dice: The hit dice that appears in the monster’s hit dice column. If you wish to play the monster as a PC, these HD are levels that are considered
Class Hit Dice: Hit dice from classes, such as paladin.
HD: Hit dice
Level Adjustment: The value used to raise a monster’s ECL based on the special attacks or abilities it my have. For example, Saint Indoril Nerevar is much too powerful to be adventuring with seventh level characters, so his +5 level adjustment says he is on the power level of 12th level characters.
LA: See level adjustment.
Now, let’s get into the meat of this lesson.
Looking at Saint Indoril Nerevar’s character sheet, the first thing that would be noticed is that is base attack bonus of +7, and those saves and skill points seem to be a little low as well. This is because things such as attack bonus, save bonuses, and skill points, and feats are based off a creature’s hit dice, and though he is a 12th level character, Saint Indoril Nerevar only has seven hit dice. Which means, he has three feats, max skill points of 10 per class skill, one ability score boost, and base attack bonus of a 7 HD paladin. (The latter is just a coincidence, though)
I believe that the root of the problem comes from the term ‘Racial Hit Dice’, a term that many people do not understand the meaning off. Racial hit dice do NOT get taken away when creating a monster as a PC. Rather these are actual levels. The term ‘Racial’ is just used to show that you can’t pick it up like a class. Though, if you have Racial HD, you can advance as a member of your race, rather than picking up a class. Picking up a class is just like multi-classing into that class. So, looking at a Hound Archon, we see that their racial hit dice are outsider. This is another way of saying that a hound archon must begin play with six levels taken in the outsider ‘class’. Looking further, we see that these six hit dice grant +6 base attack bonus, and all saves at +5. What this means, is that every time any outsider advances its outsider hit dice, it gains +1 base attack bonus, and advances all saves as a monk of the same level. (All good saves). When Saint Indoril Nerevar took a level in paladin, these values get added to the values of a first level paladin, just like multi-classing.
Now, you may be wondering, what does level adjustment apply to? Well, have no fear, because I’m about to tell you! Level adjustment is used to determine your ECL (See definitions above). Your ECL is used to determine your starting gold, the amount of treasure you earn, and your starting experience and experience required to advance to the next level. So, Saint Indoril Nerevar has an ECL of twelve, which means he starts with at least 66,000 experience, and needs to get to 78,000 experience to reach level 13, where he can than choose to level up his paladin hit dice, his outsider hit dice, or take up a new class. His ECL of 12 also grants him 88,000 starting gold.
So, to summarize today’s lesson, to create a monster PC, you add its racial hit dice to its class hit dice and level adjustment to get your starting experience, starting gold, and to determine what level characters you are fit to adventure with. Add your total amount of hit dice together to determine how many feats you get, your attack and save bonuses, your max ranks in class skills, and how many ability score boots you get.
Homework: Create an ECL 12 character using a nonstandard PC race (32 point buy, max hp) to go head to head with Saint Indoril Nerevar!
