Buying off ECL question

[Navar]

Ok Lets say we have a player playing the half giant (from the psionics handbook) and he is playing a lawful good Paladin. At level 3 he decides that he would like to buy off his ECL of +1 and does. At level 6, after taking 3 exalted feats and maintaining a lawful good alignment the DM awards him with the Saint template. Now he is an ECL +2, and would like to buy them off. Does he need to buy them off at 6 and 9 (like a normal ECL +2) or do something else?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

He "profits" of a effects that would normally give him an ECL +3, so he should pay them off as such.
Treat it as paying off +3 and then +2 after that.

 

[Navar]

OK the flaw with treating him like an ECL +3 is he couldn't have bought off the ECL +1 yet. In fact you can't buy off the first ECL of a +3 until level 9.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

So let him wait till lv 9 to lower it to +1 and then till 15 to erase the rest

 

[mattmaz]

I haven't heard of buying off ECL. What does that do and how does it work?

 

[Silveras]

I haven't heard of buying off ECL. What does that do and how does it work?

It is a variant from the Unearthed Arcana book (p.18). The theory is that the Level Adjustment (LA) means a lot at low levels, when the inherent abilities are a significant boost over what a "regular" character can do; but that the impact really fades over time. As characters rise in level, it becomes more likely that all or most of them have items or permanent spells or abilities that grant them the same (or similar) benefits as originally earned the "powerful" character the LA.

In that case, the variant allows you to spend XP to reduce the LA, one step at a time. LA of +1 can be bought off after 3 levels. LA of +2 can be reduced to +1 after 6 levels, then to 0 after 3 more levels. The XP price is high, and will usually reduce the character a level in the process, but the lower-level character earns more XP and should catch up fairly soon.

 

[iceifur]

I would set 6th level as the character's new "base level" for the purpose of buying off the new LA. Thus the Paladin would need to attain 6 additional class levels to buy off the first point of the new LA (Pal 12, LA +1), and 3 additional levels after that to buy off the last point of new LA (Pal 15, LA +0).

 

[iceifur]

(Edit: Double Post...damnable gremlins)

 

[Kae'Yoss]

In that case, the variant allows you to spend XP to reduce the LA, one step at a time. LA of +1 can be bought off after 3 levels. LA of +2 can be reduced to +1 after 6 levels, then to 0 after 3 more levels. The XP price is high, and will usually reduce the character a level in the process, but the lower-level character earns more XP and should catch up fairly soon.

Actually, you always lose a level. For example, An aasimar Cleric 5 (ECL 6) can become an aasimar Cleric 5 (ECL 5) by paying the xp to go back to ECL 5. You are the same as before, but with less XP and without the LA (or with a reduced one). From now on, you count as ECL 5, so you'll get more XP then the other party members, which will make you catch up to them (maybe, when they are level 9, you'll be level 9, too).