Help With Mind-Flayer character [Archive] - Wizards Community

Help With Mind-Flayer character [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Moriandel
03-04-05, 12:29 AM Hi. I'm relatively new to D&D, specifically using the monster manual's "[this creature] as a character" feature. I thought it would be nice to be a chaotic evil mind flayer sorcerer, and I got most of it but the level stuff. It says it starts with eight levels of abberation and at the bottom it says "level adjustment +7" and I don't know what that means exactly..

Also what confuses me is the statistic bonuses, like strength +2, intelligence +8, etc. Anyone here who could possibly help?
The_Yellow_Dart_Swinger
03-04-05, 12:51 AM Well, the rules arn't very nice when it comes to things like level adjustment and Effective Character Level (which I will now refer to as ECL). So allow me to explain as best I can.

ECL as stated above, the Efective Character Level. A 1st level fighter has an ECL of 1. A 10th level fighter has an ECL of 10. Now their is 3 things that make up ECL: 1) Hit Dice (HD) from class levels, 2) Racial HD that a monster has, and 3) Level Adjustment (LA)

Now a mind flayer has 8 Racial HD and a 7 LA, so 8+7=15

So a normal mind flayer has an ECL of 15, which makes him equal to a 15th level fighter. Now the mind flayer sorcerer in the MM has 9 levels of sorcerer. So we add that into the equation. 8 (Racial HD) + 7 (LA) + 9 (HD from class)= 24!

So that mind flayer would be equal to a level 24 fighter, putting it into epic!

Now the stats, the + stat just means add that number to that stat of your original roll. For instance, say you roll stats or point buy or what ever, and you would have a 12 in intellegence. You add the number +8 to it to get an intellegence of 20.
Moriandel
03-04-05, 01:16 AM Wow. Pretty powerful. I guess I should stick to premade races for now. Thanks, TYDS.
runestar
03-05-05, 11:27 PM But in your example, it would only have 17 HD, and thus not yet eligible to epic lv bonuses. Mind flayers are very strong, though a challenge to play effectively early on due to their piddly HD. Once you have mind blast at will, you are golden.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Moriandel 03-04-05, 12:29 AM	Hi. I'm relatively new to D&D, specifically using the monster manual's "[this creature] as a character" feature. I thought it would be nice to be a chaotic evil mind flayer sorcerer, and I got most of it but the level stuff. It says it starts with eight levels of abberation and at the bottom it says "level adjustment +7" and I don't know what that means exactly.. Also what confuses me is the statistic bonuses, like strength +2, intelligence +8, etc. Anyone here who could possibly help?
The_Yellow_Dart_Swinger 03-04-05, 12:51 AM	Well, the rules arn't very nice when it comes to things like level adjustment and Effective Character Level (which I will now refer to as ECL). So allow me to explain as best I can. ECL as stated above, the Efective Character Level. A 1st level fighter has an ECL of 1. A 10th level fighter has an ECL of 10. Now their is 3 things that make up ECL: 1) Hit Dice (HD) from class levels, 2) Racial HD that a monster has, and 3) Level Adjustment (LA) Now a mind flayer has 8 Racial HD and a 7 LA, so 8+7=15 So a normal mind flayer has an ECL of 15, which makes him equal to a 15th level fighter. Now the mind flayer sorcerer in the MM has 9 levels of sorcerer. So we add that into the equation. 8 (Racial HD) + 7 (LA) + 9 (HD from class)= 24! So that mind flayer would be equal to a level 24 fighter, putting it into epic! Now the stats, the + stat just means add that number to that stat of your original roll. For instance, say you roll stats or point buy or what ever, and you would have a 12 in intellegence. You add the number +8 to it to get an intellegence of 20.
Moriandel 03-04-05, 01:16 AM	Wow. Pretty powerful. I guess I should stick to premade races for now. Thanks, TYDS.
runestar 03-05-05, 11:27 PM	But in your example, it would only have 17 HD, and thus not yet eligible to epic lv bonuses. Mind flayers are very strong, though a challenge to play effectively early on due to their piddly HD. Once you have mind blast at will, you are golden.