Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Chaosminion 09-15-05, 11:42 PM	To me the Centaur w/ a LA +2 seems to be to powerful. Shouldn't the LA be greater given the ability score adjustments and other bonuses?
runestar 09-15-05, 11:59 PM	Nah, any higher LA pretty much erodes the benefit of their physical stats. The cool part is that they can pick up spirit charge and improved overrun feats without meeting the requirements and applying them to their own melee attacks :) Add in a feat that allows them to make a full attack after a charge, acquire the feral template for claw attacks and charge...... Oh wait, I can't. Credit cards haven't been invented yet in dnd.....
Borris 09-15-05, 11:59 PM	Don't forget the centaur also gets four monstrous humanoid hit dice, which are like really crappy class levels. You can only take your first class level once you've taken six levels of centaur (and you only get the benefits of 4 HD for the purpose of hp and skill points).
Chaosminion 09-18-05, 12:32 AM	Thx! I didn't realize that Racial HD means lvls. That bothered me.
hughman 09-18-05, 02:11 AM	I was just looking at the FAQ and since my example fit in here, I thought I would pipe in. Trying to get my mind around the whole ECL/Character Level/EL thing. As I read it, if I have a level 5 Fighter Centaur. he is Class level 5, Character level 9, Effective Character level 11, Right? Thanks in advance! Hughman
Sphyre 09-18-05, 02:38 AM	As I read it, if I have a level 5 Fighter Centaur. he is Class level 5, Character level 9, Effective Character level 11, Right? Yes, but wording it that way is prone to confusion. A centaur with 5 levels of fighter will have 9 Hitdice, and be ECL 11. One of the big negatives of Level adjustments is the fact that there is a lot sacrificed by sacrificing hitdice. BAB, skills, HP, saves, feats, effective HD for spells and items that are Hitdie related. Not to mention your spells for a caster related class are going to be weak when compared to things of your ECL's Challenge.
hughman 09-18-05, 06:17 PM	Follow up question: to take that character and fit him in with equivalent PCs (regular characters) what level do the other characters need to be to be? Level 9 or 11? Thanks again! Hughman
Morwen 09-18-05, 08:40 PM	Follow up question: to take that character and fit him in with equivalent PCs (regular characters) what level do the other characters need to be to be? Level 9 or 11? Thanks again! Hughman Since the Centaur's effective character level is 11, it is equivalent to a "normal" race with 11 class levels, should face opponents of CR 11, and should have starting gold like an 11th level character.
Khelvaster 09-18-05, 11:42 PM	Now what you do is de-advance them by removing the monstrous humanoid levels. You are allowed to make monsters weaker than they are by removing HD. Just remove all HD and get a +2 LA character.
Morwen 09-19-05, 12:11 AM	Now what you do is de-advance them by removing the monstrous humanoid levels. You are allowed to make monsters weaker than they are by removing HD. Just remove all HD and get a +2 LA character. That is strictly a house rule. Having a number of Racial hit dice already lowers the LA of the creature, so this system would make many monsters much more powerful than they should be.
runestar 09-19-05, 12:27 AM	Generally, the more racial HD a creature has, the lower its LA would actually be. Check out entries like the Ethergaunts for proof. If I tried this in my games, my DM would generally rule one of 2 ways - 1) Raise the LA 2) Rule that the centaur abilities are as much HD based as LA based. Thus, stripping away the LA would cost me most of the centaur abilities, leaving me with just a bunch of useless LA to contend with.