Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Blackshade 04-17-08, 04:09 PM	Is the ECL of a monster race its HD + its LA? That doesn't quite strike me as correct. I mean their is no way a Yuan-ti Abomination is the equivalent of a 16th level character. :confused:
Mercurius 04-17-08, 05:35 PM	Yeah, you've got it right. ECL (Effective Character Level) is the equivalent of the character's hit dice (both racial and from class levels) plus its level adjustment. There are a lot of creatures that are weighted kinda heavy on the ECL, but that's because WotC doesn't want you to play them.
Blackshade 04-17-08, 05:37 PM	Oh I see, thats kind of a downer.
Carrion_Buffet 04-22-08, 01:19 PM	What Mercurius said is true on the ECL, but that does not mean that you can't play them with some tweeking. I do disagree that WotC does not want you to play races from the MM (or other sources), otherwise they would not have placed a "as a player character" section on certain races. The issue as I see it has to do with the balance of these "extra" races vs the more common player races. Read my earlier postin on playing the Ogre Mage as it may help you in your endevor. http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=996783