At what levels does a centaur character gain attribute points?

[Pielorinho]

A PC in my current campaign is a third-level centaur: that is, he's taken three levels of the monster class. We're confused about how these monster levels interact with normal feat and attribute point gains. I can imagine at least three ways it could work:

1) He gains a feat every third level, and an attribute point every fourth level, just like anyone else.
2) He gains a feat every third hit die, and an attribute point every fourth hit die, just like everyone else. (Since he doesn't gain a hit die every level, this sets him back a bit).
3) He doesn't gain any until he starts taking class levels: he's already getting tons of bonuses for his monster levels.

Can anyone clarify? I don't have Savage Species (although he does), so I'm pretty unclear about this stuff.

Thanks!
Daniel

 

[Knight Otu]

2) He gains a feat every third hit die, and an attribute point every fourth hit die, just like everyone else. (Since he doesn't gain a hit die every level, this sets him back a bit).

A feat every three hit dice. The Savage Species writeup should note at which levels he receives a feat.
As for ability increases... Technically, he shouldn't get any before he completes the monster class. The stats of the (full) monster already assume that it has received these, and the monster classes work off the full monster. However, according to pg. 27, they should gain ability increases, at every four Hit Dice.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I'm pretty sure this is how it works...

You get feats every 3 hit dice.
For example if you played a monster with 5 hit dice and then gained a class level (or another hit dice) you would gain a feat and every 3 hit dice (weather from class or monster or a combination there of) you would gain a feat.

You only get ability points every 4 class levels. So if I'm a monster with 3 hit dice and I take 1 level of cleric I do not gain an ability point. However if the same 3 hit dice monster were to gain 4 cleric levels (total, not in addition to the one he already has) he would gain an ability point.

 

[Knight Otu]

You get feats every 3 hit dice.
For example if you played a monster with 5 hit dice and then gained a class level (or another hit dice) you would gain a feat and every 3 hit dice (weather from class or monster or a combination there of) you would gain a feat.

Correct.

You only get ability points every 4 class levels. So if I'm a monster with 3 hit dice and I take 1 level of cleric I do not gain an ability point. However if the same 3 hit dice monster were to gain 4 cleric levels (total, not in addition to the one he already has) he would gain an ability point.

Wrong. Ability points are also gained every four Hit Dice. Here's a portion from the SRD "Improving Monsters:"

Ability Score Improvement: Treat monster Hit Dice the same as character level for determining ability score increases. This only applies to Hit Dice increases, monsters do not gain ability score increases for levels they “already reached” with their racial Hit Dice, since these adjustments are included in their basic ability scores.

 

[Pielorinho]

Thanks for the feedback! Knight Otu's description sounds right to me, but I wasn't sure.

Daniel