Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kerrick" data-source="post: 4479446" data-attributes="member: 4722">Ah, okay. So they took the RAW rule and just dropped the "you lose XP and all class abilities related to the lost levels" thing. Smart.Why not just drop 1 HD instead of 5 hit points? Not all classes have 5 hp as average per HD; in fact, that rule screws everyone except the fighter classes (and I've never liked the "one size fits all" penalty anyway). So, a mage (d4) would lose 2 hp; a cleric/bard/etc. would lose 3; a fighter would lose 5; and a barbarian would lose 6.Yeah, I see the difference now. I thought you were giving them levels they could "work off", like the old apprenticeship system (from 2E, I think), where you could start at -1 or -2 level and work your way up.Yeah, I read that. But what I'm saying is that they don't really make sense as virtual levels, since the only thing you're gaining is 1 skill point/level.Back to the original topic... I was thinking about this at work today, and I think I've got a workable idea. Neverwinter Nights deals with LA classes in a rather unique way - it gives you racial levels equal to your LA. I play in a persistent world, and we've got a few LA races - gnolls (+2, because Bioware screwed up), wemics (+3), and one or two others. If you play a gnoll fighter PC, your character sheet would say "Monstrous Humanoid 2/Fighter x". Same with wemic - you'd have a Beast 3/Fighter x. You get the BAB, saves, stat bonuses, and racial abilities from your monster levels - that's it. You don't get skill points or HD (a wemic fighter 1 with Con 19 would have 22 hp - 10 hp at 1st level, +12 from Con bonus over 4 levels). It's kind of wonky, and I certainly wouldn't suggest using that exact system for PnP, but something similar could work. Say, use the above system, but grant the effective number of HD converted to class levels (frex, a stone giant would have 9 levels of giant) along with all the extras. All of his racial abilities (including BAB, saves, and skill points) are assumed to be spread out over the class levels like a normal class, and the PC is treated as a level whatever (in the case of the stone giant, he'd be L10 to start - Giant 9/Fighter 1, or whatever). This means: a) You can't play a really powerful race out of the gate (i.e., in a party with a bunch of L1s), but I'm fine with that;b) The races should be* roughly equivalent in power with others of the same level.*"Should be" being the operative phrase; it'd require some playtesting to see.So, as an example, the stone giant Ftr 1:HD: 11d8+1d10+72 (127 hp)BAB: +12Saves: Fort +12, Ref +6, Will +4Stats*: Str 30, Dex 17, Con 23, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 8Skill points: 41Feats: 6Extras: Large size, rock throwing/catching, increased reach/speed, +11 natural armor (according to UK's guidelines, should be +5 at most).*Assuming heroic array, in the following order: 14, 13, 15, 12, 10, 8Compared to a human Ftr 12:HD: 12d10+36 (102)BAB: +12Saves: Fort +11, Ref +5, Will +5Stats: Str 15*, Dex 13, Con 16*, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 8Skill points: 53 (counting extra points for human)Feats: 10Extras: None*Stat boost appliedThese PCs are pretty freaking close in power. The fighter's got 4 more feats, but the giant's abilities make up for it. If you really feel uncomfortable giving the giant gear equivalent to his level (12), you can treat him as a few levels lower.</blockquote>

Verification