Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Giradius 06-23-07, 09:39 PM	monstrous character classes having spent the day reading savage species, PHB, and monster manual, I have come to the conclusion that the monster player classes in SS cant be right... if you take the mind flayer and break it down it has a level adjustment of + 7 and 8 hit die now when you consider that with the level adjustment he gets no skill points, save increases or BAB increases , and the type of hit die he does gets and his BAB, saves and skill points he breaks down as level 8 "Aberration" level adjustment +7 making a combined ECL of 15 the problem I have found is that the ECL (equivalent character level) stacks the qualities of 8 levels of aberration with +7 level adjustment, and this cannot be right. the Aberration class is roughly equivalent to an NPC class in that it has no class features at all and is made up of Medium BAB (as cleric) D8 hit die 2+Int skill per level and only 1 good save (will) This is class is not equal any class in the PHB as it is basically a cleric that is lacking 1 good save and all class features so it cant possibly make up 8/15 of 15th level character. in fact all the creature classes except outsider and perhaps magical beast (being a fighter without the bonus feats) are no better than the NPC classes If you look at savage species the qualities that it considers worthy of +1 level adjustment in my opinion would be equivalent a class feature of one of the core classes! now some of the abilities that can be gained by a level adjustment are quite powerful so have to be placed in some sort of order to maintain balance, so the qualities mentioned in introductory monsters (page 11-15) are no more powerful than a class feature of level 1-6(maybe 7), intermediate monsters abilities (pages 15-19) are not more powerful than any class feature of level 7-14 and advanced monster abilities (19-22) are no more powerful than those of a class feature level 15-20. So I feel the only logical conclusion is that a +1 level adjustment ability is equal to the class features of 1 core class so I would be inclined to add the level adjustment to a creature class which would result in a class that roughly equals a core class. what is your opinion on this, could a level 8 character beat a mind flayer and although mind blast is a powerful ability is it better than up to a level 4 divine spell such as inflict critical wounds (which deals half the mind flayers hit die +8 (max 20) or a up to level 4 arcane spell such as fireball, lightning bolt (each doing 8d6 which could potentially finish kill it in 1 hit with good rolls or a metamagic feat used) or stone skin , could it take down a level 8 human fighter with 8 feats BAB +8/+3 and 8d10 hp.
PhaedrusXY 06-28-07, 12:21 AM	Yes, LAs are usually way too high to really be playable. WotC does this on purpose. I'd suggest taking a look at this (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=9776626&postcount=3), if you don't like it.