Li Shenron
Legend
Yesterday I was taking a look at the 3.5 SRD part about advancing monsters, a very nice improvement indeed in my opinion. But I am not very sure if I understand correctly how it works. Please correct me!
- a creature has a number of base hit dice which could be considered its "levels in his race class", where the class is actually one Type of creature (such as Animal, Dragon, Undead...)
- feats (except eventually creature-specific bonus feats) and ability score increases are given to a creature according to HD in the same way they are given to PCs according to their CHARACTER LEVEL; for example, a creature with 4HD has 2 base feats and +1 in one ability (all taken into account in the creature's entry in MM), just as a PC with charater level 4; this is therefore independent to the creature's type, as it is independent to the PC's class
- BAB, ST and skills (also taken into account in the MM entry) are given to a creature according to HD but they depend on the Type, which works therefore like a PC's class
- ADVANCEMENT by HD: grants more feats, ability increase, BAB, ST and skills according to the Type (with feats and ability increase being independent to the type); it may cause a SIZE increase only if the MM entry specifies this possibilty; it is normally limited to a max HD in the MM entry (DM may overrule this)
- ADVANCEMENT by class: this is typically used for monsters as PC or anyway intelligent monsters, which gain class levels by experience; effectively it works like multiclassing between the "racial class" and the PC class, with the racial class never giving Xp penalties for multiclassing
Now it comes my doubts: it seems that there are 3 factors in the advancement by class: the levels in the racial class (= creature's number of HD before class levels), the levels in the PC class, the level adjustment (if any).
What I seem to understand is that only the racial levels + class levels (which in total are always equal to the HD = racial HD + class HD) count to grant feats and ability score increases. That number of total HD is the same thing to PC's character level (sum of all class levels).
Instead, the Xp needed to achieve further levels in PC classes take into account also the "level adjustment". For ex. if a creature has racial HD = 2 and levev adj = 1, it is considered to be the same as a level 2 character (for feats and ability increases), but instead of having a starting 1000Xp it has a starting 3000Xp. This is of course a penalty, since taking its first level in a PC class costs 3000Xp instead of 2000Xp.
Another thing I am confused is the difference between creatures with 1 racial HD and creatures with at least 2 racial HD. If a creature had 1 HD only, it basically always have a class (PC or NPC) and is treated as having 0 levels in the racial class; otherwise, it can have HD, BAB, ST, skills etc. as its Type defines for 1HD. If I later add a class level to such a creature, do I have to "drop" the BAB, ST, etc. of its racial level? This is done with no problems if I am creating the creature from the start (it is what happens to every PC, they start with 1 class level, and don't use Humanoid level 1 at all), but what should be done with a creature with 1 racial HD which later takes a class level?
- a creature has a number of base hit dice which could be considered its "levels in his race class", where the class is actually one Type of creature (such as Animal, Dragon, Undead...)
- feats (except eventually creature-specific bonus feats) and ability score increases are given to a creature according to HD in the same way they are given to PCs according to their CHARACTER LEVEL; for example, a creature with 4HD has 2 base feats and +1 in one ability (all taken into account in the creature's entry in MM), just as a PC with charater level 4; this is therefore independent to the creature's type, as it is independent to the PC's class
- BAB, ST and skills (also taken into account in the MM entry) are given to a creature according to HD but they depend on the Type, which works therefore like a PC's class
- ADVANCEMENT by HD: grants more feats, ability increase, BAB, ST and skills according to the Type (with feats and ability increase being independent to the type); it may cause a SIZE increase only if the MM entry specifies this possibilty; it is normally limited to a max HD in the MM entry (DM may overrule this)
- ADVANCEMENT by class: this is typically used for monsters as PC or anyway intelligent monsters, which gain class levels by experience; effectively it works like multiclassing between the "racial class" and the PC class, with the racial class never giving Xp penalties for multiclassing
Now it comes my doubts: it seems that there are 3 factors in the advancement by class: the levels in the racial class (= creature's number of HD before class levels), the levels in the PC class, the level adjustment (if any).
What I seem to understand is that only the racial levels + class levels (which in total are always equal to the HD = racial HD + class HD) count to grant feats and ability score increases. That number of total HD is the same thing to PC's character level (sum of all class levels).
Instead, the Xp needed to achieve further levels in PC classes take into account also the "level adjustment". For ex. if a creature has racial HD = 2 and levev adj = 1, it is considered to be the same as a level 2 character (for feats and ability increases), but instead of having a starting 1000Xp it has a starting 3000Xp. This is of course a penalty, since taking its first level in a PC class costs 3000Xp instead of 2000Xp.
Another thing I am confused is the difference between creatures with 1 racial HD and creatures with at least 2 racial HD. If a creature had 1 HD only, it basically always have a class (PC or NPC) and is treated as having 0 levels in the racial class; otherwise, it can have HD, BAB, ST, skills etc. as its Type defines for 1HD. If I later add a class level to such a creature, do I have to "drop" the BAB, ST, etc. of its racial level? This is done with no problems if I am creating the creature from the start (it is what happens to every PC, they start with 1 class level, and don't use Humanoid level 1 at all), but what should be done with a creature with 1 racial HD which later takes a class level?
