ECL after chracter creation

[kreynolds]

Yup. So the odds of a PC being a creature that breaks the mold alignment-wise are one in a million-squared, or 10^12.

Well, this is where our opinions differ. PCs have already broken the mold. Out of a million commoners, they have very few limitations, if any, so breaking another one isn't a stretch.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, this is where our opinions differ.

Apparently so

-Hyp.

 

[Forrester]

That is one reason why I don't think it right to make the person buy off the whole ECL.

As for the were-bear becoming ravenous beast, I don't think so. The alignment is "always lawful good". Attacking everyone that is close to him is not LG. Perhaps the first time they change, when they are uncontrollable, but not after that.

Spoken like someone who wants to be a werebear when he grows up .

I don't see how alignment enters into it. If you're a ravening beast, you're a ravening beast. You have no self-control, regardless of your alignment. The description is pretty clear -- you're an unthinking rage-filled loon when you undergo an involuntary change. Something acting as though it has an Int of 1 (and this seems to be the case) really can't act according to alignment.

 

[Andion Isurand]

I'd say that once a character has aquired a new template that increases his ECL..... he would earn less experience from each encounter, since each encounter would be less challenging for him now.

 

[LokiDR]

Spoken like someone who wants to be a werebear when he grows up .

I don't see how alignment enters into it. If you're a ravening beast, you're a ravening beast. You have no self-control, regardless of your alignment. The description is pretty clear -- you're an unthinking rage-filled loon when you undergo an involuntary change. Something acting as though it has an Int of 1 (and this seems to be the case) really can't act according to alignment.

I offer the following quote from the SRD:

When a character contracts lycanthropy through a lycanthrope’s attack (see above), no symptoms appear until the first night of the next full moon. On that night, the afflicted character involuntarily assumes animal form and becomes a ravening beast, forgetting his or her own identity. The character remains in animal form, assuming the appropriate alignment, until dawn and remembers nothing about the incident.

Emphasis mine. Because there are different alignments listed, I would think you use them. The major difference I would figure would be attacking random innocents/friends or only fighting those who attack you first.

Once you know you are a lycanthrope, you can gain control over the change, so the ravening beast is no longer applicable. At least that is how I read it.

 

[nameless]

I just wanted to throw in a suggestion I got from Dragonstar. Adding ECL after creation is something the system wasn't designed to handle. No matter how you do it, progression is significantly screwed up, and besides that, you "earned" whatever you got.

In Dragonstar, there are magic items that can add a template to your character, notably the Celestial Conversion divine spellware for Paladins. If you get one of these, you immediately gain the half-celestial template, without wings. It's priced at 250,000 credits, which is expensive, and pretty much equivalent to 250,000 gp. As a rough rule, you could say that (ECL)^2*25,000 gp is the value of a template, and then apply that to the character's wealth per level.

It still means that a level 4 werebear is probably too powerful for the party, but at least you could quantify it without neutering the character's progress for 6 levels.