Half-Elemental Question

[moritheil]

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?

I note that you trust the DnD website's statement about level equivalency. Level adjustments are always guesses. They are very accurate in some cases, less so in others.

How you would be left behind is that you would have to play at level 2, because half-elemental is eating up 3 of your levels. That's if your DM is doing things the way the rules suggest. If he's letting you play an ECL 8 while the rest of your party is 5, that's different.

 

[Dragon_Man_Of_Lore]

Oh, I though thats what you're supposed to do, because they say you would be as strong as a 8th level character. But what im getting from you guys is that in order to keep a balance, previous rules state I would need to trade in 3 levels and go back to playing a 2nd level character to play at ECL 5

 

[moritheil]

Oh, I though thats what you're supposed to do, because they say you would be as strong as a 8th level character. But what im getting from you guys is that in order to keep a balance, previous rules state I would need to trade in 3 levels and go back to playing a 2nd level character to play at ECL 5

Anything is possible with DM approval. But broadly speaking, people are born half-elementals. It's an Inherited Template. That means that you can first exist at level 4, when you have 3 levels lost to the template and 1 character level. You "lose" (I prefer "spend") those levels before anything else because that is what you are.

They do indeed say that you would be as strong as an 8th level character at level 5 - and the point of that is that you are supposed to only hit 5 when the others gain 8. Otherwise it's a question of one person starting far ahead of everyone else - would you like it if someone else started with a +4 sword and you all got regular weapons, and the DM got to describe him hacking up things while you feebly scratched them?

 

[Dragon_Man_Of_Lore]

Well, my DM's pretty open-minded and plays it so everyones happy. I might put it off for a while, thanks for the help.