Rules Clarification + ECL

[Dreaddisease]

When you add in the ECL do you add in the XP as if they had taken the levels?

in other words would a Half dragon human ftr 1 have 10,000 XP or 1000?

I'm away from my books and was helping a friend determine his starting XP and for some reason I thought it was the way that you had the XP of only the class level but then I found that there would be some balancing issues quickly as the character would advance much faster... and blah blah blah... whats the ruling?

 

[Liquide]

0 Xp actually, since they yet havn't attained level 2 (just see the ECL from a race as relative power not an Xp mod tool)

 

[Wolf72]

depends on how you look at it ... liquide's way is certainly valid ...

or it could be 10,000xp (ECL +4) and in order to advance to a lvl 2 anything it needs to gain enough xp make lvl 6 [1 lvl +4 ECL= 5] .

[edit: anyone ... anyone feel free to add in the exact wording or accurate numbers, I'm to lazy to look it up too ]

 

[dcollins]

According to the rules in the DMG, the monster starts with a heightened XP score. The example on p. 24, "Experience for Monsters", shows an ogre starting with 6,000 XP.

 

[Spatula]

By the DMG - 0 XP and gear as a 1st level character. Advances as a normal 1st level character, which means the half-dragon will eventually catch up to the other members of the party.

By every other WOTC product released since the DMG that has featured powerful races - 10,000 XP and gear as a 5th level character. Advances as a 5th level character, which means the half-dragon will always be about 4 levels behind the rest of the party.

 

[Spatula]

According to the rules in the DMG, the monster starts with a heightened XP score. The example on p. 24, "Experience for Monsters", shows an ogre starting with 6,000 XP.

That's because ogres have 4 HD. 4th level character = 6,000 XP.

 

[dcollins]

That's because ogres have 4 HD. 4th level character = 6,000 XP.

I was about to say "yeah, that's what I said"... now I see the original question asked about a half-dragon with no increased hit dice. Your point is correct, in the DMG the ECL doesn't add "monster levels".

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

In the Manual of the Planes, FR, OA, the EHL, and everywhere except the DMG (which will probably be errata-ed once Savage Species comes out), this has been clarified that a Half-Dragon L1 Fighter would be ECL 4, and have 6,000 XP. To level up, it would need 4,000 more XP.

If you put the Half-Dragon L1 fighter at 0 XP and with a party of level 4 characters who each had 6,000 XP, then the party would level after 4,000 XP, while the hdragon would still need 6000 more XP to hit ECL 5. Thus the hdragon would still be ECL 4 when the rest of the party is CL 5. (Which is not supposed to happen.)

To sum up:
Use ECL for XP
Use ECL for starting gold
Use HD for everything else (or CL for monsters with one HD)

(The DMG is years out of date when it comes to monster characters. Using it it adjucate rules for monster characters is going to come up with stuff that is out of whack.)

 

[the Jester]

Hmm, I didn't even realize the dmg suggested doing it that way. But the only ECL+ pc I've seen started off at something like 3rd level in a party of sixth to eighth level pcs, so he naturally had enough xp to get him to third with his ECL modifier.

So I guess I did it like all the post-dmg references suggest.

 

[vic20]

By the DMG - 0 XP and gear as a 1st level character. Advances as a normal 1st level character, which means the half-dragon will eventually catch up to the other members of the party.

By every other WOTC product released since the DMG that has featured powerful races - 10,000 XP and gear as a 5th level character. Advances as a 5th level character, which means the half-dragon will always be about 4 levels behind the rest of the party.

DMG page 24 - Experience For Monsters

"A creature with only class levels, such as a PC orc, gains XP normally. A creature with class levels plus monster levels, such as an ogre, has a character level equal to his monster levels plus his class levels. A creature starts with the minimum number of XP required to be his level."

"For example, a PC ogre with no class levels could enter the game when any normal 5th-level character would be allowed. The ogre begins at 4th level (because she has 4 Hit Dice) with 6,000 XP.... Once the ogre earns another 4,000 XP, she becomes 5th level, and she adds a first-level-class."