level adjustment +1 2 or 3

[Sir ThornCrest]

If a PC wants to be a drow, certian templates like the phrenic (psion hb page 206) and the level adjustment is +1 2 or 3 whats that mean. I dont have the luxury of the books at work here so can someone enlighten me?

 

[Pyrex]

The "Drow" Race has a +2 Level Adjustment modifier.

That means a first level Drow Fighter is equivalent to a 3rd level Human fighter.

Think of it as kind of like a multiclass. Any Drow PC has to have two levels of Drow before they can take a class level.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I'm going to add a little clarification on Pyrex's last statement.

the Level adjustment is there because a Drow is a more powerful race than a Human or an Elf or a Dwarf. The difference in power in accounted by the level adjustment. As Pyrex pointed out, a 1st-level Drow PC (LA +2) should be as powerful as a 3rd-level Human PC, but a 1st-level Drow Fighter is just that, a 1st-level fighter (1d10 HP, +1 BAB, etc.), but should be considered as a 3rd-level character for XP awards and power level.

It's not exactly like multiclassing, since the 1st-level Drow fighter doesn't have any levels in "Drow", and only has 1 HD.

AR

 

[Sir ThornCrest]

ok I thought they just paid more experience per level.

I thought the draw back was that they just paid more per level.....so if the rest of the party is first level what does the drow do? He's 0 level for two levels then first?

Thorncrest

I'm going to add a little clarification on Pyrex's last statement.

the Level adjustment is there because a Drow is a more powerful race than a Human or an Elf or a Dwarf. The difference in power in accounted by the level adjustment. As Pyrex pointed out, a 1st-level Drow PC (LA +2) should be as powerful as a 3rd-level Human PC, but a 1st-level Drow Fighter is just that, a 1st-level fighter (1d10 HP, +1 BAB, etc.), but should be considered as a 3rd-level character for XP awards and power level.

It's not exactly like multiclassing, since the 1st-level Drow fighter doesn't have any levels in "Drow", and only has 1 HD.

AR

 

[Sithobi1]

He doesn't play a drow
Alternatively, there is a racial level progression in Races of Faerun, IIRC, that allows for a 1st level character.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

He doesn't play a drow
Alternatively, there is a racial level progression in Races of Faerun, IIRC, that allows for a 1st level character.

Sithobi1 is right. Normally, a group of 1st level characters shouldn't include a character with a level adjustment.

About XP, you are right in thinking that a 1st-level Drow fighter needs more XP to reach 2nd level than a 1st-level human fighter needs XP to reach level 2. A 1st-level Drow fighter, because he is the equivalent of a 3rd-level human fighter, needs as much XP to reach his next level (2nd) than his human 3rd-level counterpart needs to reach HIS next level (ie 4th) which is to say, 6000 XP.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I thought the draw back was that they just paid more per level.....so if the rest of the party is first level what does the drow do? He's 0 level for two levels then first?

The "pay more XP" was in 2e.

In some ways it still is "he pays more", but not a flat "+25%" or something.

For awarding XP/ determining how difficult an encounter will be, and for character wealth, that drow is treated as if he had two levels more. So a drow figher 1 can, in theory, take on the same enemies as a human fighter 3, and he does have the same starting money. For everything else (additional feats, max skill ranks, ability increases, and so on) he's a fighter 1.

Now, it is not recommended to let a drow (or other character with level adjustment) into a party of 1st level characters. At first, he would be too strong (as he'd start with one level, like everyone else, but with all those nice features that are worth two levels), but then, when they'd get additional hit points and spell levels, he'd get none. A drow fighter 1 is no match for a human fighter 3, since the other has about twice as many hit points (not to speak of all the other stuff).

Generally, at least half of a character's effective level (2/3 is better) should be actual hit dice/levels, or he's too frail for the party (not enough HP).

So you either don't allow that drow, or you use a monster class: At first, that drow would only get some of his abilities (so he's the equal of another 1st-level character). He could then take more levels of his class as usual, OR he could take a "level" in the drow "class". This level doesn't give a Hit die or associated stuff (BAB, Saves, skills, feats, etc), but gives him more of his racial features. This way he could play a "drow light" for the first 2 or 3 levels, until he'd have a little buffer of HP, and then take one, and a little later the other, level of drow, setting him behind in HD (but now it's not nearly crippling any more) and granting him his drow abilities.

The Drow "class" can be found here

 

[Shellman]

I am getting ready to play ina Drow campaign.

We are strating out as 5th lvl PC's. So I am making a 3rd Level Drow Rogue or Drow Fighter because Drow start out with a +2 level adjustment.

My DM requires us to complete monster levels before we can take Class levels. So if your starting out as 1st level PC's, then your first two levels you take would have to be drow levels before you can take any class levels at all.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

My DM requires us to complete monster levels before we can take Class levels. So if your starting out as 1st level PC's, then your first two levels you take would have to be drow levels before you can take any class levels at all.

Normally, I agree to the "finish monster classes" rule. But by that, I refer to real monster classes, i.e. those with not only level adjustment, but also monster hit dice.

Drow is, IMO, somewhere between a monster class and a template class. As it never advances your HD, it's a bad Idea to force a first-level character to stay 1st-level until the others are 4th. Unless the DM has a nice set of velvet gloves, that drow may never see that 2nd class level.

But since you start at 5th level, that should be OK, since you have 3 levels (as opposed to the 5 you should have), wich is more than half.