My Dm enacted a rule for his campaign that all players must be using characters with either at least +1 LA or at least one level of a racial paragon class.
In the course of play I have come to realize that neither he nor the other players seem to understand that Racial Hit dice are not factored into LA and do in fact ECL. As such one character is playing a Lizardfolk monk 4 while treating it as if it were a 5th level character.
I have played my characters knowing and understanding ECL and LA the way they are in the RAW. I am now in the process of creating a new "back-up" character in case my current one dies and am faced with a conundrum: abuse the system in the hopes of making the group come to their senses, use the system to balance myself on par with the others, or remain as I have been playing it as the rules were written to be played.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
I have played my characters knowing and understanding ECL and LA the way they are in the RAW. I am now in the process of creating a new "back-up" character in case my current one dies and am faced with a conundrum: abuse the system in the hopes of making the group come to their senses, use the system to balance myself on par with the others, or remain as I have been playing it as the rules were written to be played.
Why don't you try bringing the issue up to the DM in question and letting him know about Racial Hit Dice and their effect on ECL as opposed to LA? Find a particularly appropriate example and point it out to him. If he decides that racial hit dice don't matter after being shown a creature with 8 or so racial hit dice and an LA of only +1, then you are fully within your rights to make such a creature into a PC and drive the point home until your DM either sees the truth or gives up trying.
|
You should point out what the rules actually say:
Starting Level of a Monster PC
Monsters suitable for play have a level adjustment given in their statistics. Add a monster’s level adjustment to its Hit Dice and class levels to get the creature’s effective character level, or ECL.
IFF the DM doesn't correct the situation, play a Fire Giant. Sure, you have to suck up a +4 LA, but you get 15 HD, some insane attribute adjustments, and a bunch of cool powers. (And start with 6 feats, among other things.)
I'm with Fatespinner. Find the most broken example you can and then, with that example in hand inform the DM of his error. The DM should grok the problem pretty quickly under these circumstances.
I am running a game similar to this; I told the pc's they could take one level of bloodline or a +1 race without the exp penalty; they would just have all the abilities; the level still counts to their ECL and casting level if applicable, but not on their level 20 cap of classes and other things; was not required though.
requiring a paragon class is very weird; especially as not all races have paragon classes created so you might end up with some wacked thing the gm comes up with, though it might be cool too.
I too would probably throw it in the gm's face if I could, get a list of all the player races available and choose a couple that don't have a written paragon; pick one, see what he does; if you dont like it; say you wont play it and give him the other and see what he does; the gm might find such a call is more trouble than it is worth. I would be concerned that if this gm is gonna pick your classes for you then he might play your character for you too.
Heh heh heh. I had a DM who did the same thing, TC.....I played a Harssaf monk from MMIII. (Page 82)
That campaign lasted about three sessions. They quit playing because they were outshined by the Harssaf's SICK abilities. >:)
I would make sure that your DM actually doesn't understand it at all, and not that he just doesn't want to deal with the racial hit dice issue. If that's the case, he probably won't allow a high HD racial class, where as lizard folk is pretty moderate at 2.
Otherwise.. go for it.
But do avoid "They quit playing because they were outshined by the Harssaf's SICK abilities."
Seriously broken. At one point, the other player's characters were hiding from a worg pack in a cave. My Harrsaf walked out and destroyed the entire pack by himself. Incredibly high A.C., and when they could even hit me I think my damage reduction soaked up most of it. What did get through all that was negated a round later by fast healing, and if I ever got in trouble I'd turn into sand and shift away. Ridiculous. I don't normally play D & D that way, but these guys needed to be taught a thing or two.