Help on ECLs

[LGodamus]

where the heck do you find the LA for animals?...specifically awakened ones?

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

When the SRD states a Level adjustment of "-" does it mean its a LA of 0 or is it a LA that is not available?

If its the first, then an animal's LA is his HD, and an awakened animal's LA is also his HD (which is animal LA + 2 since awakened animals get +2 HD)

AR

 

[Shazman]

where the heck do you find the LA for animals?...specifically awakened ones?

Most animals don't have level adjustments listed, which can be pretty annoying. You pretty much have to eyeball it, and make an educated guess.

 

[Spatzimaus]

If its the first, then an animal's LA is his HD, and an awakened animal's LA is also his HD (which is animal LA + 2 since awakened animals get +2 HD)

It's "LA is not available", which doesn't imply either of the things you listed. A non-Awakened animal cannot be a player, period, since its INT is below three and all players have a minimum INT of 3, so an animal has no LA.

For Awakened animals, you need to calculate the ECL, which is (LA + HD), not just add 2. LA's only purpose is to "correct" for special abilities, it's a meaningless number in its own right. And, it values certain abilities far differently than CR does; a lack of hands and a voice may not be a big deal for a monster, but for a PC race it's a critical drawback.

So, once you've figured out what the creature's Awakened stats are, calculate what ECL is appropriate for those abilities, then subtract off the number of HD to find the LA. There's no hard and fast rule for this, you really just have to do it point by point. There are several systems out there for this.

To make things worse, in any balanced system (read: Not Savage Species) HD don't equal ECL on a 1-for-1 basis. This is easy enough to verify: is an Animal HD as good as a Monk class level? The Monk is equal or better in every single way. Ergo, if all PC classes are +1 ECL, then "monster" HDs should be worth less. If you charge a player one level for every monster HD, he'll really get shortchanged.

I highly recommend using Soldarin's ECL system. Most monster HD are worth 0.4 to 0.6 ECL, and everything is kept as decimal levels so that "unbalanced stats" don't give the same ECL for (+4 DEX, -2 CON) and (+20 STR, +10 CON, +4 to everything else). A search on Google will find it, I'm sure. There are several others; Upper_Krust has a system over in the House Rules forum, and there's always Savage Species *shudder*.

 

[LGodamus]

Well, for once I am not the DM, thank the gods, Or I would just assign a level adjustment...I am asking for a fellow player that needs something official to hand the DM.

 

[Conaill]

Did your fellow player ever find out the LA for his awakened animal of choice? I've been trying to hash out the exact details of how Awaken is really supposed to work, and I would love to hear some LA estimates and/or other opinions!

Meanwhile, here's some I'm reasonably certain of:

Awakened Ape: +2 LA (similar to Minotaur)
Awakened Baboon: +1 LA (similar to Bugbear)
Awakened Wolf: +1 LA (similar to Worg)