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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kreynolds" data-source="post: 910661" data-attributes="member: 2829">It's in response to the quote above. You made a referrence to an "alternate body of rules", which is irrelevant. You tend to mention your website when you consider something a house rule, or "alternate", if you will, so I was just being preemptive. That's all. If I was out of line, I apologize.Sure it does. ECL is simply a measure of power. Character levels are used to determine ECL. Each and every feature of a class at any particular level can be broken down into numerical values to determine how much power each ability represents for that particular level. For example, take point buy systems that are used to build classes. It's the same concept. Each class ability is represented by a certain number of points, and the system serves as a guide to help you keep the class from being too powerful or too weak.Now, one can claim that a point buy system used to build classes is an "alternate body of rules", but its irrelevant. In the end, optimally, that "alternate body of rules" helps you build a new class that is balanced against all the other classes. It is neither better nor worse. It is simply different. How you get to the final result makes no difference.I mention this because that is what ECL is all about. Savage Species puts forth a system that helps you judge the power of a monster, even a monster with only one hit die. While not precise, as it only uses whole numbers, and while it requires a lot of acid testing in the end, common sense is what determines the final result. Other systems use the same premise as savage species, but they use smaller numbers. One ability could be worth +0.2 while another could be worth +0.05. When building a new one hit die minor player race, such as genasi, your final value should total +1.These same systems can also be used to break down a class. You can use the system to take a single level of the fighter class and break it down to see what it's final value is, and ironically, it works. A class is nothing more than a monster. It's just broken up in stages. These stages can each be +1, or they can alternate between high and low, with occassional spikes in power throughout their progression.So, in the end, ECL does apply to classes, in the sense that the system used to determine ECL and build new monsters can also be applied to current classes and to build new classes. Semantics, I suppose, but doesn't make a difference.The point is that a class is nothing but a broken up monster.The point is that what is "core" is meaningless.The point is that common sense is the end-all-be-all.The point is that how you get to the end-all-be-all makes no difference.</blockquote>

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