Races? [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

Races? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
hyoseke
03-28-08, 07:27 AM Hello,

I have been playing Dungeons and dragons for a few months now. My DM who also started the same time as I did, has been DMing the whole time.

I was wondering something about races. What races are you allowed to use when making a character? I took a look at the races in the PHB and they seem pretty balanced, however when I took a look at the races in the MM they were REALLY unbalanced? Which races are available to use when making a lvl 1 character? Which is the best when making a wizard?

Thanks
Soulless_Enigma
03-28-08, 07:51 AM Powerful monster races have their good ability scores and unusual abilities balanced out by two factors: racial hit dice and level adjustment (abbreviated to RHD and LA respectively), both of which are added to the monster's class levels to determine their effective character level (ECL).

For more detailed information, check the d20 SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monstersAsRaces.htm).

Hope this helps :).
narack
03-28-08, 08:05 AM They are not unbalanced in the MM. If you look carefully usually at the end of the race description for the player ,usually the title of this section look like : Orcs as characters. You will find LA : +X where X is a number that can varies. It can also be a negative number. LA is the diminutive for Level Adjustment. Sometime it's written Level Adjustment instead of the abbreviation it depend.

So what is Level Adjustment ?

Level Adjustment is easy to understand. First let's say our race is Ogre
We find all his adjustment to stats, extra racial ability etc...

Let say he will be fighter level 3

Now we look at the end of "OGRES AS CHARACTERS" section and we are seeing :
Level adjustment +2

So here come the balancing. First there is 2 levels, the Character level and the Effective level. The Character level help determining when you gain new ability,feat,class level. And it's also the one you base yourself on to know How much Experience you need to hit the next level. This Character level is directly coming from the addition to all the class level you have (the total in other word)

Effective Level is equal to : Character Level + Level Adjustment + Racial Hit Dice.

In this case the race doesn't provide hit dice, so the Effective level is : 3(fighter) + 2(LA) + 0 = 5
So the Effective level is 5 while the Character level is 3.

If you have read the DMG you have seen the experience table. The level is base on effective character level so in this case our character is only level 3 but hes calculated as a level 5. He will gain less experience than any other character and to make it fair when being dungeon master you state the effective level character need so another guy could be fighter 5 and this character would have less ability since he's only level 3 fighter.

So a normal Human fighter 5 would be the same because :
Effective level = Character level + LA + Racial Hit Dice = 5 + 0 + 0 = 5

same as our Ogre fighter 3,

the Racial Hit dice is like for example the WereBear. If you choose it as a race it add 6d8+30 HP, the Hit Dice is the number of extra dice in this case 6d8 is 6 dice so the Racial Hit Dice is 6.
ArochanoX
03-28-08, 08:31 AM Narack. You almost got it right, but you forgot that ogres have 4 racial hit dice. Ogre fighter 3 has effective character level of (4 racial hit dice + 2 level adjustment + 3 levels) 9. So an Ogre fighter 3 is equilevalent to a human fighter 9.

More of monsters as races can be found from dungeon master's guide pg. 172-174.

Best wizard race (from player's handbook, dungeon master's guide and monster manual) is Gray Elf (monster manual pg. 104).

And the races that are available to you when making a lvl 1 character are those 8 races from Player's Handbook unless your DM let's you play other races as well. Suitable races that are on par with the phb races are: Deep Dwarf (MM pg 92), Aquatic Elf (MM pg 103), Gray Elf (MM pg 104), Wild Efl (MM pg 104), Wood Elf (MM pg 104), Forest Gnome (MM pg 132), Goblin (MM pg 133), Tallfellow Halfling (MM pg 149), Deep Halfling (MM pg 150), Kobold (MM pg 161), Orc (MM pg 203), and Gold Dwarf (DMG pg 171). This is the list from player's handbook, dungeon master's guide and monster manual that are playable from lvl 1 without using savage progressions.
blade265
03-29-08, 09:04 PM Crystal Keep has a list of race and what books they are from, as well as a short list of their stats. it can be found here (http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/) under races.
key
03-29-08, 10:40 PM What races are you allowed to use when making a character?
If you want, you can create your own race and use it with your DM's permission.
Maeglin_Dubh
03-30-08, 10:02 AM If you want, you can create your own race and use it with your DM's permission.

Like the ones in my sig.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
hyoseke 03-28-08, 07:27 AM	Hello, I have been playing Dungeons and dragons for a few months now. My DM who also started the same time as I did, has been DMing the whole time. I was wondering something about races. What races are you allowed to use when making a character? I took a look at the races in the PHB and they seem pretty balanced, however when I took a look at the races in the MM they were REALLY unbalanced? Which races are available to use when making a lvl 1 character? Which is the best when making a wizard? Thanks
Soulless_Enigma 03-28-08, 07:51 AM	Powerful monster races have their good ability scores and unusual abilities balanced out by two factors: racial hit dice and level adjustment (abbreviated to RHD and LA respectively), both of which are added to the monster's class levels to determine their effective character level (ECL). For more detailed information, check the d20 SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monstersAsRaces.htm). Hope this helps :).
narack 03-28-08, 08:05 AM	They are not unbalanced in the MM. If you look carefully usually at the end of the race description for the player ,usually the title of this section look like : Orcs as characters. You will find LA : +X where X is a number that can varies. It can also be a negative number. LA is the diminutive for Level Adjustment. Sometime it's written Level Adjustment instead of the abbreviation it depend. So what is Level Adjustment ? Level Adjustment is easy to understand. First let's say our race is Ogre We find all his adjustment to stats, extra racial ability etc... Let say he will be fighter level 3 Now we look at the end of "OGRES AS CHARACTERS" section and we are seeing : Level adjustment +2 So here come the balancing. First there is 2 levels, the Character level and the Effective level. The Character level help determining when you gain new ability,feat,class level. And it's also the one you base yourself on to know How much Experience you need to hit the next level. This Character level is directly coming from the addition to all the class level you have (the total in other word) Effective Level is equal to : Character Level + Level Adjustment + Racial Hit Dice. In this case the race doesn't provide hit dice, so the Effective level is : 3(fighter) + 2(LA) + 0 = 5 So the Effective level is 5 while the Character level is 3. If you have read the DMG you have seen the experience table. The level is base on effective character level so in this case our character is only level 3 but hes calculated as a level 5. He will gain less experience than any other character and to make it fair when being dungeon master you state the effective level character need so another guy could be fighter 5 and this character would have less ability since he's only level 3 fighter. So a normal Human fighter 5 would be the same because : Effective level = Character level + LA + Racial Hit Dice = 5 + 0 + 0 = 5 same as our Ogre fighter 3, the Racial Hit dice is like for example the WereBear. If you choose it as a race it add 6d8+30 HP, the Hit Dice is the number of extra dice in this case 6d8 is 6 dice so the Racial Hit Dice is 6.
ArochanoX 03-28-08, 08:31 AM	Narack. You almost got it right, but you forgot that ogres have 4 racial hit dice. Ogre fighter 3 has effective character level of (4 racial hit dice + 2 level adjustment + 3 levels) 9. So an Ogre fighter 3 is equilevalent to a human fighter 9. More of monsters as races can be found from dungeon master's guide pg. 172-174. Best wizard race (from player's handbook, dungeon master's guide and monster manual) is Gray Elf (monster manual pg. 104). And the races that are available to you when making a lvl 1 character are those 8 races from Player's Handbook unless your DM let's you play other races as well. Suitable races that are on par with the phb races are: Deep Dwarf (MM pg 92), Aquatic Elf (MM pg 103), Gray Elf (MM pg 104), Wild Efl (MM pg 104), Wood Elf (MM pg 104), Forest Gnome (MM pg 132), Goblin (MM pg 133), Tallfellow Halfling (MM pg 149), Deep Halfling (MM pg 150), Kobold (MM pg 161), Orc (MM pg 203), and Gold Dwarf (DMG pg 171). This is the list from player's handbook, dungeon master's guide and monster manual that are playable from lvl 1 without using savage progressions.
blade265 03-29-08, 09:04 PM	Crystal Keep has a list of race and what books they are from, as well as a short list of their stats. it can be found here (http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/) under races.
key 03-29-08, 10:40 PM	What races are you allowed to use when making a character? If you want, you can create your own race and use it with your DM's permission.
Maeglin_Dubh 03-30-08, 10:02 AM	If you want, you can create your own race and use it with your DM's permission. Like the ones in my sig.