I use to think i knew the answer to this question and the answer was no. But as I was doing some reading it became unclear.
Do characters with an ECL get their racial HD? Even if it (Monster Manual) does not indicate its replaced by class levels?
Would a 5th level drow (+2 ecl and lets say 3 levels of fighter) have 2d8HD plus 3d10 for a total of 5HD?
What about native outsiders. Say a 5th level teifling (+1 ecl and 4 levels of fighter)?
|
I use to think i knew the answer to this question and the answer was no. But as I was doing some reading it became unclear.
Do characters with an ECL get their racial HD? Even if it (Monster Manual) does not indicate its replaced by class levels?
Would a 5th level drow (+2 ecl and lets say 3 levels of fighter) have 2d8HD plus 3d10 for a total of 5HD?
What about native outsiders. Say a 5th level teifling (+1 ecl and 4 levels of fighter)?
Basically, no.
I really think that the whole ECL, CR etc. rule was the most poorly written rule(s) that they came up with. There are rules for this in the DMG, but you really have to know where they are and they are not together to get a complete picture.
This is how I read the rules. If a creature has more than 1 racial HD as a base, then they get those racial HD. Otherwise they do not. A 3rd level fighter drow is basically a 5th level character and gets xp as such, but they only have 3 HD and are treated as a 3 HD creature. A 2nd level fighter gnoll is basically treated as a 5th level character and gets xp as such, but they only have 4 HD (2 as a monstrous humanoid and 2 as a fighter) and are treated as 4 HD creatures.
About the only thing that I have found that ECL is for is to approximate how much xp a character should get and for approximating equivelency with player characters. Pretty much everything else is HD dependent -- level loss, abilities based on HD, etc.
I hope that this helps (and I hope that I am right).
I use to think i knew the answer to this question and the answer was no. But as I was doing some reading it became unclear.
Do characters with an ECL get their racial HD? Even if it (Monster Manual) does not indicate its replaced by class levels?
Would a 5th level drow (+2 ecl and lets say 3 levels of fighter) have 2d8HD plus 3d10 for a total of 5HD?
What about native outsiders. Say a 5th level teifling (+1 ecl and 4 levels of fighter)?
What people usually get confused over is that they mix up Hit Dice, Level Adjustment, and Effective Character Level (HD, LA, and ECL respectively).
Hit Dice consist of Racial Hit Dice and Class Levels. As Bill Hendricks noted, races with a Single Racial Hit Die, such as Pixies or Drow, can exchange that Racial Hit Die for a class level. A Level Adjustment is effectively a "blank" level, which doesn't give you anything in and of itself, but counts for the purposes of determining how much experience you gain and how much you need. It's used to balance out racial abilities, typically.
A Character's ECL is the sum of his Hit Dice and his Level Adjustment. Thus, the ECL of a human 10th level fighter with no templates is 10, while the ECL of a Half-Fiend (+4 LA) Half-Dragon (+3 LA) Drow (+2 LA) 1st level Fighter is also 10.
In your examples, the Third Level Drow fighter would have three hit dice (3d10), and the Tiefling would have four. Both, however, would be treated as level 5 creatures for the purpose of experience.
Simple explanation: If you have more than 1 racial HD, you keep it when you add class levels. Otherwise, you lose it when you gain a level. Level adjustments do not grant hit dice on their own, so a drow fighter2 would be in the same party as a human cleric4 and wold have only 2d10 (plus con modifier) for his hit points.
Bill Hendricks is basically correct.