Half-Elemental Question

[Dragon_Man_Of_Lore]

Anyway, I was looking through some D&D books and found out about being a Half-Elemental. I really think its a cool thing to do, and got interested in it. But judging from the way it looks, it seems like its a bit too powerful and would throw off the balance of power in my group. So I asked my DM if it was cool, but he kinda blew it off like he didn't care and said, "Its your character". So I asked my fellow group-mates if they were ok with the idea, but not knowing much about it said close to the same thing. Would being a Half-Elemental throw off the balance of power too much or am I just blowing it out of proportion?

 

[Nifft]

You know that the Level Adjustment means you'll be five levels below the rest of your party, right?

Cheers, -- N

 

[drdevoid]

As Nifft said, you'd be five levels behind.

Bear with me, I don't mean to be pedantic, but that's five levels of Base Attack Bonus, Hit Points, Skill Points and Base Save Progression. Your survivability would be very low, and the earliest you could debut the character is 6th level.

If a 6th level fighter has, we'll say, 50 hit points, a half elemental fighter will have only slightly more than a 1/4 of that.

 

[moritheil]

Would being a Half-Elemental throw off the balance of power too much or am I just blowing it out of proportion?

It would, but not in the way that you seem to think. An 8th-level human should be able to wipe the floor with a 3th-level half-elemental despite both being ECL 8. Of course, as the party gets to higher levels this becomes less of a problem. And if you think playing one would be cool, by all means go for it. But in terms of power . . . giving 5 levels up is rarely a winning proposition until you're level 12 or so.

 

[Dragon_Man_Of_Lore]

Oh, silly me, I didn't even notice. I was using Manual of the Planes, so I didn't see anything for it. But just for the record, where can I normally find the Level Adjustments in a template? And if there are, any updates to MotP?

 

[Dragon_Man_Of_Lore]

And theres something im not understanding about Level Adjustments. In the Monster Manual, it says Level Adjustments are meaningless unless you retain a high enough Intelligence. Does that mean there not in effect if my Intelligence is high enough?

 

[Jadeite]

You need to have at least Intelligence 3 to be able to take Class Levels, so creatures with lower Int are not deemed playable. Dragon 393 has ECLs for all 3.0 Monster Manual creatures, but with Savage Species, this rules became obsolete.
The Update Manuals for the Manual of the Planes and other 3.0 books are found here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20030718a
Dragon 326 has Half-Elemental Racial Classes.

 

[Dragon_Man_Of_Lore]

Okay, I don't mean to be a pest about this whole thing, but it says in the update booklet that it has a level adjustment of +3. Can somebody explain to me how that leaves me 5 levels behind?

 

[moritheil]

Okay, I don't mean to be a pest about this whole thing, but it says in the update booklet that it has a level adjustment of +3. Can somebody explain to me how that leaves me 5 levels behind?

We weren't looking at the errata. If it says 3 and your DM uses errata, then substitute "3" in our above comments, which are still fundamentally valid.

You are basically giving up 3 levels for +2 to most stats and 1 natural armor.

 

[Dragon_Man_Of_Lore]

Alright, but my PC is at level 5, and in the glossary on the wizards D&D website, it says it would basically be the equivalent of a level 8th character. Im sorry about not leaving this whole subject behind, but im really not getting this. How am I being left behind?