Hound Archon advancement

[griff_goodbeard]

Quick question for you rules guru's out there.

My DM is planing a one-shot where all the player's run Hound Archons. He is setting the starting ECL at 16 (so 10 levels to work with in addition to the HA's racial HD). I noticed in the advancement section for a HA it lists advancement through HD:

Advancement: 7-9 HD (Medium); 10-18 HD (Large)

So it seems to me that if I take 4 "outsider" hit dice instead of class levels that I gain large size. The question is: Are you allowed to take level's in racial HD instead of class levels? I know that in most circumstances this is a non-issue, but outsider hit dice are accually pretty good, and the large size would be a boon. So, thoughts???

Hound Archon is located here---> http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/archon.htm#houndArchon

 

[pawsplay]

Yup, that's legal, but I would run it by the DM.

 

[Land Outcast]

Doesn't the HA have level adjustment?

 

[Wish]

If I were the DM, I'd probably just charge an extra point of level adjustment for the size increase and allow it. For a one-shot where everybody's a holy dog anyway, there doesn't seem to be too much reason to sweat the fine details of balancing such things.

 

[Sound of Azure]

It's ok to use Outsider HD for advancement in this case, because the monster has an entry in the "Advancement" line of its stat block. Technically you are limited to 18 (racial) HD, but the DM could extend that for a special campaign like this.

Land Outcast makes a good point. Hound archons have a +5 level adjustment, making their total ECL 11 + class levels/extra hit dice (ECL is racial HD + Level Adjustment + Class levels). Since all the characters are hound archons, this is less relevant to balancing with each other, but the DM needs to keep it in mind for the purposes of balancing encounters against the party.

 

[Sejs]

Echo what the other posters have said - check with your DM to make sure he's taken the Hound Archon's level adjustment into account.

Normally yes, taking racial HD is fine and dandy.. outsider HD are nice, even if they are kind of bland as they lack in class features. Probably want to clear the size thing with the DM too, just so he has a heads-up. Most DMs don't respond well to being blindsided by that sort of thing.

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Thanks for the help!