D&D 3.x Monster PCs

[Richards]

I guess we've had our fair share of monster NPCs as part of the PC group.

In my "Wing Three" campaign, the human witch (re-skinned wizard) PC had an awakened treant named Coventry ("Coven-Tree") who served as her loyal servant and mobile home base while in the field.

Towards the end of my "Kordovian Adventurers Guild" campaign, the PCs met up with MARCI, a humanoid construct who served as one of the party healers. (She was a medical android from the "Gamma World" campaign world, having fallen through a rift between the two worlds; her name was an acronym for "Medical Android - Red Cross International," although the PCs never learned that.) She originally would only heal the party's wizard, as he was the only human in the group. (She regarded the group's elves, half-elves, and gnome PCs as mutant humans, until the wizard had her change their designation to "pure strain human" in her memory banks.)

In my son's "Middle of Elsewhere" campaign, my fiendish human cleric currently has a vampire spawn NPC under his control through his "rebuke undead" class ability. She travels with the group in a coffin stored inside our wagon and serves as a free night guard while the PCs are asleep. (We make sure she gets fresh blood every three or four days.)

In my current "Down to Erthe" campaign, the party healer is a mongrelfolk adept named Hoppy (real name among his fellow mongrelfolk: "[toad croak]"). They met up with him in their first adventure and saved his life, and now he considers himself to be in a life-debt situation and serves them willingly as a healer.

Johnathan

 

[Moonmover]

I'm playing in my first 3.5 campaign right now. The DM allows all official supplements, but sadly has banned anything with a level adjustment.

Still, most of us were in agreement that, if we were going to play 3.5, we'd choose the weird options we couldn't use in other rulesets. So while we don't necessarily have "monster" PC's, we do have a spellscale and a raptoran.

We debated very seriously in session-0 about making an all-muckdweller party, though. I have a muckdweller PC waiting in reserve in case my spellscale dies.

 

[Marc17]

I remember it being fairly common. Every now and then somebody would make a character with a non-standard and LA. Then there was the time we just went full on Savage Species** campaign with an all monster party (starting at level 7).

For the normal races with perhaps a LA, it was more character concept than anything else although usually, the extra add they got was part of the concept and worked to do what they wanted better. Every now and then, there would be some special abilities, like flight or water breathing, that would just tend to break some adventure. It would seem that it might be overpowered, but as a DM, you have to realize that is why they spent their LA on. Let them have it when it comes up. If it breaks lots of things, then perhaps you have to look at your world and wonder why regular low level monsters with that ability haven't overrun everything. Some actual monster characters using Savage Species will do that quite often. Our party, half could fly, and we could carry the other half which allowed us to skip a decent amount of environmental hazards that would be trouble for normal character races. At higher levels, you have to wonder if things are actually balanced the way they were supposed to be*. One character was playing a succubus and eventually it was a question of why are succubuses and other such shape altering and mind controlling monsters nor ruling the world. Perhaps they are. How would the PCs even know if that was the case? It really put the fear of dopplegangers in my world creation from that time on.

*I mean, I don't think monsters are particularly balanced the way the system claims. Even in 1E AD&D, we experimented with having a person play the monsters and the DM would just adjudicate. Even playing with standard modules, it usually resulted in TPKs. Once somebody is playing the presented monsters to win and without fear of being accused of being a killer DM, things often turn against the players in my experience. We quickly stopped doing that and swore never to do it again. It just makes sense that players running high level monsters with a good selection of special abilities that can be used in interesting ways will make mincemeat of adventures planned for normal character races/classes because nobody ever thought to proof them against those sort of things.

**IIRC, the treatment there was a little bit different. LAs instead turned to racial levels. So, a 1st level character of a race with an LA, would just start as a 1st level of that race with appropriate HD, skill points, saves for that. So, a 3 HD monster would usually have 3 racial levels, each with a HD. Perhaps more if they special abilities that would be overpowered if they got them and a HD. If they wanted or just ran out of racial levels, the just multiclassed into other classes as per normal.

 

[Koloth]

Don't remember many PCs outside the normal PHB variety. Mostly because most GMs we had ran towns and villages where the locals viewed 'monster' types as kill on sight. The fun of being the oddball quickly gets old when you are always one oops away from "Call the Guard!" or "We don't serve your kind here" reactions.

To add to the above comment about players running the monsters, agree. I had great fun the times I got to play the monster(s). Also if a PC got controlled, the result was often bad for the other party members. The PC knows most of the party weaknesses and maybe even remaining spell loads and can take full advantage of same.

 

[haakon1]

I know about Savage Species and ECL - equivalent character level, I think.

What is LA? Shorthand for ECL from the Monster Manual? Or some later source that redid Savage Species?

 

[Voadam]

I know about Savage Species and ECL - equivalent character level, I think.

What is LA? Shorthand for ECL from the Monster Manual? Or some later source that redid Savage Species?

Level Adjustment (LA). You add LA to their HD and class levels to get the Effective Class Level (ECL).

So the Ogre Barbarian 4 starts with the 4 HD Ogre, which has a level adjustment of +2 then you add the 4 levels of barbarian to get an ECL of 10 as a PC. As a PC they should be roughly comparable to other 10th level characters, with the equipment of a 10th level PC, and earn xp as a 10th level PC. The size (reach, grapple bonuses, increased damage dice, etc.) and stat adjustments are judged to be roughly worth two levels of class levels when applied to the ogre 4 giant HD base.

 

[Voadam]

**IIRC, the treatment there was a little bit different. LAs instead turned to racial levels. So, a 1st level character of a race with an LA, would just start as a 1st level of that race with appropriate HD, skill points, saves for that. So, a 3 HD monster would usually have 3 racial levels, each with a HD. Perhaps more if they special abilities that would be overpowered if they got them and a HD. If they wanted or just ran out of racial levels, the just multiclassed into other classes as per normal.

Savage Species monster classes broke a monster with racial HD and or LA down so you could start at level 1 with 1 HD and enough of the standard monster's powers to be appropriate for a level one PC and to then advance up to the normal racial HD and LA of the monster as you progressed in levels taking levels of the monster class. So your ogre PC starts out medium size with less than the full ogre str (+2 only) and no con mods but with natural armor +3 and 1 giant racial HD. The LA turned into levels where you got some of the monster powers but no actual HD advancement, so maybe all you got was going from medium to large, or you got a bunch of spell like abilities or some ability adjustments.

Monster PCs in Savage Species were not allowed to multiclass until they had completed the monster class and were mechanically matching their monster manual base entry.

 

[rgard]

There are a boatload of monsters as PCs here:

https://bg-archive.minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=9557.0

 

[haakon1]

I run it as the monster is a full grown, full power monster (with one class level for something that usually has it, like a Tiefling or Aasimar) and they have to earn off enough XP for one level beyond their ECL to level up.

For example, I started Karlach as a Tiefling Barbarian 1, modified by the Infernal Engine, which has advantages and disadvantages so I treated the Engine as not impacting the ECL. So, she was in theory more powerful than the 1st level PCs who were are most of the party, but less powerful than the 2 5th level characters (who came over from two different other campaigns I am running/had run, with the character and player earning their XP).

The downside for Karlach is needed enough XP for 3rd level to get to Barbarian 2 and her 2nd hit die.

Seems logical and straightforward to me. I’m generally not fussed about “balance”, more about game world logic.