Monster Characters question

[Light Knight]

Im slightly confused.

According to what I've read (Monsters as PCs)

A monster character's CR determines the character level. It seems to work fine at lower levels, but at higher levels, it seems quite unbalancing.

Yes, I know the link says it can be unbalancing, but what I am looking for is how YOU out there would handle this.

For instance, an ancient red dragon is CR 19.

There is no way I could, as a DM allow a player to play that as a level 19 character.

So if someone wants to play a red dragon, keeping in mind there is a dragon magazine article that presents savage species racial progression for the good dragons, how can I set up a "race" to allow a player to play a red dragon, without being gimped (which the racial progression 3.5 dragons are compared to pathfinder), but other hand, I dont want the character to play something too powerful.

 

[concerro]

There is no hard and fast rules that work when using monsters as PC's. They were not designed to be used as PC's so you a a GM have to decide what can be allowed if it is not presented as a PC race. Even when allowing it you will have to take many things into consideration. They actually would rather you not try, the guidelines are in case you want to try it anyway.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

'We had a dragon as a PC once, it ate the bad guys!'
'How'd it work out?'
'Not good, 'cause then it ate the rest of the party....'

The Auld Grump

 

[IronWolf]

Im slightly confused.

According to what I've read (Monsters as PCs)

A monster character's CR determines the character level. It seems to work fine at lower levels, but at higher levels, it seems quite unbalancing.

Yes, I know the link says it can be unbalancing, but what I am looking for is how YOU out there would handle this.

...........

So if someone wants to play a red dragon, keeping in mind there is a dragon magazine article that presents savage species racial progression for the good dragons, how can I set up a "race" to allow a player to play a red dragon, without being gimped (which the racial progression 3.5 dragons are compared to pathfinder), but other hand, I dont want the character to play something too powerful.

Monsters as characters is a can of worms in my opinion. So if you want to know how I would handle it I wouldn't allow it. Just too much "cheese" for my games.

With that said, if you really want to try it out, I think you just have to rely on GM discretion a lot. Look at it on a case by case basis, make the changes and tweaks you think you need to, boost character level above the CR in cases where you think it is appropriate, etc.

Maybe this is something the Advanced Race Guide Paizo has in the works would help with a bit. Not sure about that though.