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ECL and starting equipment
- Thread starter Anubis
- Start date
CRGreathouse
Community Supporter
Anubis said:
PC wealth seems to come down to how good you are at killing things and taking their stuff. Thus, equally powerful characters should have about the same wealth.
Hey, you asked for the logic behind it...
Are you referring to starting character wealth for PCs created above 1st level?
If so, I suppose an example would be a Minotaur Fighter 3 (11 ECL) vs. a Human Fighter 11 (11 ECL). Both would receive the same starting wealth.
I guess the logic is game balance, really. I mean higher ECL creatures should have more treasure for the game to continue to scale.
If so, I suppose an example would be a Minotaur Fighter 3 (11 ECL) vs. a Human Fighter 11 (11 ECL). Both would receive the same starting wealth.
I guess the logic is game balance, really. I mean higher ECL creatures should have more treasure for the game to continue to scale.
Remember that some races, those with more than 1HD, don't have to start with ANY class levels.
Ogres have "stuff" even without class levels, after all -- the stuff the adventurers want to take. It's called "treasure" ...
It can probably be presumed that Class Level 1 is -not- the start of a high-ECL race character's career. Turnign point yes; starting point no. Hence they've accumulated treasure prior to that point.
Besides, my own house rule is, no PC can have a characetr whose racial ECL is higher than their actual class level(s). So an ECL +3 race will have at least 3 class levels, if it's a PC (NPC's are excepted from this). That also changes things somewhat.
Ogres have "stuff" even without class levels, after all -- the stuff the adventurers want to take. It's called "treasure" ...
It can probably be presumed that Class Level 1 is -not- the start of a high-ECL race character's career. Turnign point yes; starting point no. Hence they've accumulated treasure prior to that point.
Besides, my own house rule is, no PC can have a characetr whose racial ECL is higher than their actual class level(s). So an ECL +3 race will have at least 3 class levels, if it's a PC (NPC's are excepted from this). That also changes things somewhat.
dcollins
Explorer
Anubis said:
Well, if you were using the core rules, that wouldn't be the case. "A creature with no class levels has the standard gear for a creature of its kind. A creature with class levels has equipment worth an amount based on the total of those class levels." (DMG p. 24, "Other Statistics for Monsters").
I think that's the proper rule, because otherwise assigning ECL's becomes a recursive process -- identifying a powerful monster and assigning a high ECL increases the monster's power by gear, etc...
If you're using one of the supplement-book rule systems, then that's probably a different story.
Last edited:
CRGreathouse
Community Supporter
Re: Re: ECL and starting equipment
If he was using the core rules, he wouldn;t haver brought up the term "ECL".
dcollins said:
If he was using the core rules, he wouldn;t haver brought up the term "ECL".
Kae'Yoss
First Post
1. It's for game balance's sake. If you play an ECL race, you already lag behind 2 levels with levels, you don't want to have 2 less levels worth of starting equipment: For example, you start up with 3 levels. Your human friends have 2700 gm to spend, which could afford them a +1 weapon and a masterwork armor, whereas you, the party drow, only get a lousy rapier and a dirt cheap studded leather armor. I wouldn't like that.
2. As you go adventuring, everyone (usually) gets an equal share of the loot. So the 1st-level drow who travels with the 3rd-level humans would get the same amont as the others. When that drow's 8th-level and the humans 10th-level, they'll have accumulated the same amount of treasure.
3. Even though that drow has two less class levels, he's got the same amount of XP. That means that he's had the same amount of adventure as the others. And adventure means wealth. (He probably had adventures even before he reached his 1st class level. With 0XP, the Drow would just be drow, with 1000XP, he would maybe be 0-level apprentice, and upon reaching 3000XP, after quite a few opportunities to gain xp and money, he'd be 1st-level. Roughly as much as the human guy who's now 3rd-level)
4. Those ECL races are often mighty ones, and could have got that stuff when they started out as adventurers: that drow fighter won't be let loose on the world without a magical weapon.
2. As you go adventuring, everyone (usually) gets an equal share of the loot. So the 1st-level drow who travels with the 3rd-level humans would get the same amont as the others. When that drow's 8th-level and the humans 10th-level, they'll have accumulated the same amount of treasure.
3. Even though that drow has two less class levels, he's got the same amount of XP. That means that he's had the same amount of adventure as the others. And adventure means wealth. (He probably had adventures even before he reached his 1st class level. With 0XP, the Drow would just be drow, with 1000XP, he would maybe be 0-level apprentice, and upon reaching 3000XP, after quite a few opportunities to gain xp and money, he'd be 1st-level. Roughly as much as the human guy who's now 3rd-level)
4. Those ECL races are often mighty ones, and could have got that stuff when they started out as adventurers: that drow fighter won't be let loose on the world without a magical weapon.
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