ECL and XP Awards...

[cmanos]

if you start with an ECL , your DM should tell you instead of 'make up a Level XX character' to make up a character with X xp. Otherwwise, if the DM said to make up a Level 12 character, you could make up a human fighter at L12, or a race with an ECL 5 at L12 and effectively have a L17 character.

Personally, I get around all this by having characters start at L1...0xp..... a character with no ECL neds 1000xp to go to L2. A character with an +1 ECL needs 3000xp to get to L2.

 

[Sil]

if you start with an ECL , your DM should tell you instead of 'make up a Level XX character' to make up a character with X xp. Otherwise, if the DM said to make up a Level 12 character, you could make up a human fighter at L12, or a race with an ECL 5 at L12 and effectively have a L17 character.

I thought if you start with a level 12 character, you can do a L12 fighter, or a ( +5 LA race with a L7 fighter.) Both of you start with 66K XP.

That is how it works, right? ECL means EFFECTIVE character level.

 

[IcyCool]

I thought if you start with a level 12 character, you can do a L12 fighter, or a ( +5 LA race with a L7 fighter.) Both of you start with 66K XP.

That is how it works, right? ECL means EFFECTIVE character level.

Yes.