Can someone tell me or point me to an explanation of how ECL works? I understand that it is used to gauge how powerful a given character is in terms of base class levels, but how does actual level and experience relate to it?
My problem is that my character, an elf Rogue 3/Fighter 3, was just reincarnated as a pixie. I think they have an ECL of +4. She loses a level for reincarnation, making her R3/F2 or 5th level. Now her ECL is 9, right? So she is considered 9th level when figuring out average party level for XP awards. So far, so good.
Is she considered 9th level for how much experience she must earn to level up? She has 12500 XPs. Does she have to wait until she has 45000 XPs (10th char level) to gain another class level? The example in the DMG on monster PCs would seem to indicate otherwise. The ogre character illustrated there with no class levels has an ECL of +5. However, he has 4 HD so he starts with 4 monster levels and therefore has 6000 XPs. When he gets 10000 XPs (5th char level) he can gain a class level and be a 1st level fighter, for example.
So this is my logic on my character, please tell me if I'm wrong:
She is a R3/F2 and has a total of 5 character levels. She has no monster levels because pixies only have 1 HD. Pixies have an ECL of +4 so her ECL is 9. She is considered to have 9 character levels for average party level purposes. She has 12500 XPs. When she gets 15000 XPs (6 char level), she can take another class level and will have a total of 6 character levels and an ECL of 10. She will gain more class levels with the normal progression, i.e. at 21000, 28000, etc. All level-specific abilities (feats every 3rd level, ability increase every 4th level, etc.) use her actual character level, not her ECL.
My problem is that my character, an elf Rogue 3/Fighter 3, was just reincarnated as a pixie. I think they have an ECL of +4. She loses a level for reincarnation, making her R3/F2 or 5th level. Now her ECL is 9, right? So she is considered 9th level when figuring out average party level for XP awards. So far, so good.
Is she considered 9th level for how much experience she must earn to level up? She has 12500 XPs. Does she have to wait until she has 45000 XPs (10th char level) to gain another class level? The example in the DMG on monster PCs would seem to indicate otherwise. The ogre character illustrated there with no class levels has an ECL of +5. However, he has 4 HD so he starts with 4 monster levels and therefore has 6000 XPs. When he gets 10000 XPs (5th char level) he can gain a class level and be a 1st level fighter, for example.
So this is my logic on my character, please tell me if I'm wrong:
She is a R3/F2 and has a total of 5 character levels. She has no monster levels because pixies only have 1 HD. Pixies have an ECL of +4 so her ECL is 9. She is considered to have 9 character levels for average party level purposes. She has 12500 XPs. When she gets 15000 XPs (6 char level), she can take another class level and will have a total of 6 character levels and an ECL of 10. She will gain more class levels with the normal progression, i.e. at 21000, 28000, etc. All level-specific abilities (feats every 3rd level, ability increase every 4th level, etc.) use her actual character level, not her ECL.
