8th level Aasimar-feat?

[Sarrat]

Simple Question:

Does an 8th level aasimar get a feat at 8th character level? In other words, do you add the level penalty to class level when computing character level?

Thanks!

 

[Sejs]

Nobody gets a feat for being character level 8.

An aasimar with 8 levels in a class is a 9th level character, and would thus get the feat that a character gets at character level 9.

If, for example, the aasimar in question was an 8th level fighter he would get a fighter bonus feat for being an 8th level fighter, AND the normal, non-restricted feat he gets for being a 9th level character.

That all make sense?

 

[Sarrat]

Yeah, I meant 8th class level. That's what I meant. Duh.

Thanks!

 

[Voadam]

LA does not count for getting feats, just character level, including class levels and levels from racial hit dice (but not the LA levels).

 

[Anthelios]

Actually Voadam, your mistaken. ECL is counted for Monster characters for the purposes of gaining level dependant feats, attack rolls, skill point maximums and all that jazz. I have a half-dragon in a game I'm currently running, and had to refresh myself with all the rules.

You'll find this on the top, right hand paragraph of page 172, in the DMG 3.5

 

[Aexalon]

Allow me to quote the relevant section, straight from the top-right-hand paragraph on p172 of the DMG3.5E:

Use ECL instead of character level when referring to Table 3-2: Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits in the Player's Handbook to determine how many experience points a monster character needs to reach its next level. Also use ECL with Table 5-1: Character Wealth by Level to determine starting wealth for a monster character

In other words: you only get to count LA for 2 purposes: to determine how much xp you need to reach the next level, and (as a DM tool) to determine how much wealth you should have to be considered "appropriately equiped for your level". Further reading on that page proves what Savage Species started: only hit dice (racial or character) count when determining the number of character feats, attribute increases, skill point maximums, etc.

Or, to put it simply, whenever you read "character level" when playing a character with an LA of +1 or higher, read "hit dice", except in the case of required xp totals, and recommended wealth. Kinda simple, really. The 3.5E FAQ goes as far as stating that the "character level" IS the sum of class levels and racial hit dice, removing all doubt in this regard.

In case of the stated example, this means that said aasimar has 3 level-derived feats (1st hd, 3rd hd, 6th hd), 2 attribute increases (4th hd, 8th hd), and has a skill rank ceiling of 11 (8hd + 3) for class skills and 5 ((8hd + 3) / 2, rounded down) for cross-class skills. Said aasimar needs to have at least 36000xp to have 8 class levels (as a 9th level character), and should have equipment to the value of 36000gp (as a 9th level character).

For that matter, when said aasimar (safely presuming that s/he is good-aligned) gets caught in the area of a Blasphemy spell cast by an 18th level caster, s/he is immediately killed, without a save (whereas her or his potential 9th level human companion will "only" be dazed for 1 round, suffer a 2d6 strength penalty for 2d4 rounds, and be paralysed and helpless for 1d10 minutes). Think about this (and other "level"-dependent effects), next time you're looking at high-LA templates and creatures.

 

[CronoDekar]

aexalon beat me to it. The other relevant passage is at the top of the MM on pg290:

Feat Acquisition and Ability Score Increases: A monster’s total Hit Dice, not its ECL, govern its acquisition of feats and ability score increases.

When you think about this, this method makes the most sense. Looking through the MM (particularly those with higher LA), monsters don't get bonus feats based on their LA (and some monsters don't even have a listed LA!) Plus otherwise it'd just kinda make things awkward with feat/prest prereqs. I used to think feats and stuff were based off ECL too, and found it very much simplified when I found out that it was actually only based off HD.