Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Iry 10-26-04, 01:09 AM	I was looking over the ECL buyoff option in Unearth Arcana, and was deciding wether or not to allow it into my game. I couldn't help but notice something odd about it. The amount of experience you spend to pay off the level is essentially equal to the cost of experience it takes to lose one level. If you're freshly a 9th level character, and you spend 8,000 experience to lose an ECL then you've become an 8th level character, and need roughly 8,000 experience to get back to 9th level. But.. barring debates about templates being worth class levels, that effectively makes you still just as good as a 9th level character, except, instead of having 9,000 experience to increase your level, you only need 8,000. Am I the only one noticing this? Am I overlooking something besides arguments about template levels not being worth as much as class levels? Is this actually REWARDING the player 1,000 experience for being basically as effective as another character? I assume I must be overlooking something... please tell me I'm wrong?
gbnogkfs 10-26-04, 01:48 AM	the question is slightly more complex... :rolleyes: pre-premise: the amount of XPs to pay for LA-buyoff are non arbitrarily decided by the designers of UA; they must be of that amount to reduce ECL by 1 premise: 3rd edition Experience Level and Challenge Rating scaling is not linear, but exponential A 0 HD +3 LA race is worth a ECL 4 at 1st class level; the LA takes into account some nice feature the race may have that is quite worth some counterbalance (the LA) against 1st level core-races characters. The same creature with 9 class levels is probably NOT balanced with a ECL 12: the features that made the race interesting at low levels are now no more a primary quality of the character with 66,000 XP: class features are beginning to become predominant, and the relative difference with respect to a 9-class-level core-race character is no longer worth 3 levels. The character of an originally +3 LA race with 9 class levels is probably (under the assumption made above) not equivalent in power to a core-race character with 12 class levels, but more to an 11-class-level one. At this point, it is considered fair by the author for the character to reduce his/her Level Adjustment, and (s)he pays the XPs. They now are some way "behind" in experience with respect to their fellow companions, which has two benefits: 1) as you noted, they need less XPs to get to the next level 2) more subtle, they gain more XPs for encounter than their companions due to the 3rd edition XP awards rules in the DMG In fact, this is probably taken into consideration by the authors, and probably a 9-class-level +3 LA is not worth 11 ECL, but some less... let's say 10.5 That way, the system IS NOT PERFECT, but can somehow works The perfect balancing is very campaign, race, and DM-players dependent, and must be accurately calibrated: let's remember that UA is a powerful tool to be used by experienced DMs and players, and only gives broadly usable ideas to be applied with consciousness.