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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5977976" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Or you could notice that I was talking about a natural Were Bear, not an Afflicted one.  (Admitted, I didn't highlight the difference, but I did make a distinction between that an an acquired template.)And even then, your solution is to re-write the Were Bear template, to make it less Bear and more Human.But I could raise the same type of argument for a Half-Dragon as well.  It's only an ECL +3, so the difference isn't as pronounced, but the same factors apply.Add a 1st level Half Dragon fighter to a 1st level party.  He's effectively 4th level.  We'll presume that he's half Red, or Gold, or White, or Silver, or Green. They face that same Orc war band.  He breathes, once, and the entire war band is dead.  How much Exp should he get for killing them all before they could blink?  He'll get farther as a Fighter before he goes Epic, of course.  17 levels, in fact.  He'll hit better than his 20th level counterpart (BAB 17 plus an extra 4 for his +8 Strength bonus.)  His hit points will be 17 higher than a 17th level fighter would be because of the CON boost.  At an average of 5.5 per D10 roll, that equates to a shade more than the 3D10 he's missing for hit points.  His AC will be higher because of both Dex and Natural Armor.He doesn't get all the racial feats that the Were Bear does, but then he's only two Feats behind.  I'll balance that against a total immunity to one energy type and call it even.  Toss in the Breath Weapon if you think he's still light.Then add what is effectively Improved Unarmed Strike, because of his natural weapons, and he's clearly ahead.He'll be ahead by a few skill points as well, because of the Int bump, stretched over 17 levels (20 skill points more than typical 17th level, vs 9 extra points for the 20th level Fighter).He'll be a bit light on Saves (Same on Reflex, light 1 on Fort and Will).Looking at the other end of the career scale, there's no way to include him in a 1st level party when he has 1 class level, and call it balanced.  He's better matched to the 4th level party.He's light on Hit Points compared to a 4th level Fighter counterpart, but higher in AC, attack bonus and melee damage.  He's light on Skills and Feats, but he'll make that up in time.Over all I'd call that a good call on the ECL.But casting all the numbers aside, the biggest complaint I seem to see is that somebody can't run their Half-Dragon/Half Orc with the 28 Strength as a starting, 1st level character, in a 1st level campaign, and they don't understand why that's unbalanced.I say that the fault is not in our stars, but within ourselves.</blockquote>

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