Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ClementWillowbreaker 03-14-06, 09:27 PM	So the creature Dark Stalker from the Fiend Folio (3.5 in all regards except DR, so it's one of those weird transitional books) is quite interesting and exotic for a humanoid race. Now, I'm having a little difficulty in sorting out its LA. Its stat block says it's 5, and the paragraph says a Dark Stalker with class levels has a ECL of +5...but doesn't count its three racial HD. So in 3.0/early 3.5, did listed LA include racial hit dice, meaning a ECL6 rogue Dark Stalker is 3HD of Dark Stalker, 1 HD of rogue, and LA+2? Or did their character sidebars not count LA properly? Comparing the __ as Characters sections with other creatures in FF, it looks like the racial HD are "counted" in the LA given, so that Dark Stalkers really have LA+2. While y'all are looking at it, can you figure out its racial ability modifiers? If it was clearly LA+2, I would use the Elite Array and work backwards from the example. Although it doesn't have a class, so technically you would use the standard 10s and 11s. But that woudl create crazy ability mods, meaning it's really LA+5. Once again, were the normal 3.5 conventions different when FF came out? So much trouble for a little underdark backstabber... And here's another question. Anyone have an idea of the duration of their Shadow Cloak ability? It's (Su), so I have nothing to base it on...
Morwen 03-15-06, 10:55 AM	Fiend Folio was released a couple of months before the 3.5 version of the core books were released, and the designers attempted to incorporate the 3.5 changes into the Fiend Folio. In some cases, as with LA/ECL, they weren't quite on the spot; but the ECL does include the racial hit dice.