Class Levels?

[Jackfrost]

I'm just about to role the first dice to have a listen check when al of a sudden my DM says that the class I have is unnormal and requires a penalty of 2 classes down.

My group of 4 people all started as level 6 and I decided to become a monk/sorcerer Deep gnome. At first I never knew about the grousome -4 to charisma and was amased when the dm showed me it but the point i'm tring to make is that somewere on page 20 or 50 in the dungeon master's book, there is a penalty for monnsster classses.

I don't know what else to write or to discuse with my DM so i wanted to see what you guys think...

 

[durath]

I believe your DM is referring to the fact that some races-such as deep gnomes- are more powerful than regular PHB races. AS such they have an ECL(effective character level) . For example your character might have an ECL of 3. Meaniong his race is equivalent to three character levels. So if you were a 6th level character you could have 3 class levels and your race counts for the rest.

Is that what you meant that your DM did or were you referring to something else.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[RogueJK]

Deep Gnomes have an Effective Character Level of +3. This means that you will always be 3 levels behind those of the other player's characters.

For example, since you started out at 6th level, your character would only be able to take 3 class levels, because of the Deep Gnome's ECL. This is meant as a balancing factor, since a Deep Gnome is much more powerful and has more abilities than a standard PHB race.

So you need to readjust your levels to reflect the ECL. As a Deep Gnome Monk/Sorcerer, you would only be able to have 2 levels of Monk and 1 level of Sorceror, or 2 levels of Sorcerer with 1 level of Monk.

For experience, you are treated as a 6th level character, though, so you will still need 21,000 XP in order to gain another level.

For more information on ECLs, check out page 21 in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, or page 22 in the DMG.

 

[Jackfrost]

ok so then what if...

What if I were a deep gnome at level 2?

 

[RogueJK]

Re: ok so then what if...

What if I were a deep gnome at level 2?

You couldn't be a Deep Gnome at level 2.

The ECL of +3 restricts them to a minimum of a 4th level character. You cannot have a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level Deep Gnome character at all.

[Edit] I reread the section on ECLs, and edited the above statement to reflect that. [/Edit]

 

[Moon_Goddess]

If you were say a Level 1 Deep Gnome Rogue, (or any class) you would be equal to a level 4 character so if your playing with other players playing level 2 characters you would be 2 levels higher than they are. A tad bit unfair.


If you were a Deep Gnome with 2 class levels and everyone else was level 2 you would be 3 levels higer than them and it could definattly be unfair.

 

[reiella]

Slight Correction, a deep gnome can have one NPC class level at 3rd I believe and still be on par with other PCs of 3rd level.

 

[RogueJK]

Slight Correction, a deep gnome can have one NPC class level at 3rd I believe and still be on par with other PCs of 3rd level.

By the official rules, no. A Deep Gnome with a level of an NPC class is still considered a 4th level character.

But that might be a good house rule.

As it stands right now, a Deep Gnome character is required to have an effective character level of 4. That is, one level of any class. By the official rules, you can't play as a 3rd level Deep Gnome, just like you can't play as a 0th level Elf.

This might also be a reasonable house rule, though.

 

[Zappo]

It sucks when an important rule only comes up after having made the character... but it's a rule nonetheless. It's better to fix this kind of mistakes as soon as they are discovered; the longer they go on, the worst it becomes.