D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Can you add class levels to all monsters?

MoonSong · Oct 15, 2012

Well, I have given class levels to animals before, just add the Spellwarped template and you are free to go. Monkeys do awesome rogues, and Ravens are itneresting druids.

Steely_Dan · Oct 15, 2012

KaiiLurker said:
Well, I have given class levels to animals before, just add the Spellwarped template and you are free to go. Monkeys do awesome rogues, and Ravens are itneresting druids.

Yeah, with Savage Species I made an Anthropomorphic Chicken Monk.

Wyvernhand · Oct 15, 2012

I'm totally gonna make a fiendish sentry ooze gelatinous cube Swordsage to encounter my party. Sentry ooze gives it an Int score, which fiendish sets to 3. With an Int of 3, he can now gain class levels. Go go Shadow Jaunt Ooze! Five Pseudopod Creeping Enervation Strike!

The cube gets

done...

Steely_Dan · Oct 15, 2012

Wyvernhand said:
I'm totally gonna make a fiendish sentry ooze gelatinous cube Swordsage to encounter my party. Sentry ooze gives it an Int score, which fiendish sets to 3. With an Int of 3, he can now gain class levels. Go go Shadow Jaunt Ooze! Five Pseudopod Creeping Enervation Strike!

The cube gets done...

In the 3rd Ed Arms and Equipment Guide they have rules for using them as "mounts".

Empirate · Oct 16, 2012

All monsters with an Int score can advance by class level. Many monsters can also advance by monstrous HD. One doesn't preclude the other, though. Why not advance a Nightmare a few levels AND give it Barbarian levels AND give it the Half-Fiend template? No reason not to do that, if that's what your campaign takes. RAW allows it, and RAI allows it, too, in my opinion.

RUMBLETiGER · Oct 17, 2012

after granting class levels, equip your critter with a Psychoactive Skin of Proteus (Need to scroll down a bit). Enjoy.

Jackinthegreen · Oct 17, 2012

I believe the thinking on class levels is "So long as a creature is intelligent enough to want to train itself to be better or towards a goal, it should be able to take class levels." Which is typically the Int 3 cutoff point.

Empirate · Oct 17, 2012

Jackinthegreen said:
I believe the thinking on class levels is "So long as a creature is intelligent enough to want to train itself to be better or towards a goal, it should be able to take class levels." Which is typically the Int 3 cutoff point.

I think class levels for low-Int monsters may also just have come from accidental training. A Hook Horror who has eviscerated a lot of unfortunate Underdark travellers is bound to pick up some tricks: how to hide, how to sneak into the unsuspecting prey's back, how to make that first claw swipe count against creatures of various anatomies, how to find and avoid some of the snares set by Underdark trappers hunting it... so now it has a Rogue level! Not a conscious 'training' decision on the part of the monster - but a result of its environment and the fact it survived a few nasty encounters.

Of course some classes require more or less formal training (Wizard and Cleric come to mind), but some classes just lend themselves more or less naturally to certain types of monsters: Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger levels for anything that's wild and ferocious in a fight; Rogue or Ranger levels for anything that's sneaky, any ambush predator; Sorcerer for just about anything that just happens to be born 'that way'.

With some monsters, even less obvious base classes like Paladin, Dread Necromancer, Ninja, Spirit Shaman etc. might be good and thematically fitting choices - stuff they just picked up at some point.