Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Owl 02-01-05, 01:17 PM	Hey all, Quick question; how do dark nagas advance? Monster Manual says they advance in hit dice instead of character level. It also says that the standard dark naga (9 HD) casts spells as a 7-th level sorcerer. Does this mean that I can increase her level as I increase her HD? And if so, at what rate? Should I give her a sorcerer level for each hit dice, or should I keep it relative (at 9 hd she's at 7th level, so I could give her a sorcerer level like a cleric gains his base attack bonus and have her start at level 1 with her first hit dice)? Am I making sense?
cwslyclgh 02-01-05, 02:24 PM	if you advance a creature by HD it does not gain additional caster levels. However ANY creature with an intelligence of 3 or higher can advance by class levels if they so choose. (Creatures with a HD advancement that meet the 3 int requirement can advance either by class level or by HD, while those with out a HD advancement do not have that option and MUST advance by class level). as such if you want to increase your dark naga's sorcerer levels the simplist way to do so is to just add levels of sorcerer.
Owl 02-01-05, 04:04 PM	Great answer; thanks. It does give rise to another question, though: This means there are two ways to advance monsters: one by adding hit dice and one by adding character levels. What do you feel like the difference would be in the role-playing sense? Let's say this naga of mine lives in a cave guarding the river out of a mountain. It was put there by some evil-doer to guard it. Thinking about it, I would say that adding character levels would make the naga more mentally developed, smarter and advanced, while adding hit dice would make it older, more decadent and monstrous. Is this a good way to approach it? Thanks,
cwslyclgh 02-01-05, 07:26 PM	sounds like a decent way to approach it to me.
Knight_of_spades 02-01-05, 07:26 PM	Character levels can also indicate training or having been thought by sombody else.