[Savage Species] Favored Classes?

[Viktyr Gehrig]

In Savage Species, all of the monster class breakdowns have the Monster Class itself listed as the monster's Favored Class. Does this override the Favored Class entries for the monsters in the Monster Manual that have them?

Do monster Hit Dice count as class levels for multiclassing XP penalties? Is there a difference between playing them as a race with an ECL or playing them from first level using the monster class rules?

Also, when using a monster class, is your character level based on your levels in the monster class, or your total Hit Die gained from progression in your monster class?

To me, it makes the most sense for the monster's hit dice to not count for XP penalty purposes, and for the monster to have a normal Favored Class as well. Is this going to be cleared up in MM 3.5?

Removing the Favored Class from any monster with more than one Hit Die seems like a harsh penalty, especially since most monsters with Hit Dice also have a level adjustment, leaving them with fewer HD than their ECL.

 

[hong]

In Savage Species, all of the monster class breakdowns have the Monster Class itself listed as the monster's Favored Class. Does this override the Favored Class entries for the monsters in the Monster Manual that have them?

IIRC, the only entries in the MM that have specific favoured classes are 1HD creatures. Such creatures lose their monster HD when taking class levels anyway.

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

tough call. i remember than gnolls as ranger-preferred and yaun-ti are cleric-preferred. i think many of the giants have preferred classes as well.

hopefully, wotc will clear this up in errata.

 

[Li Shenron]

IIRC, every creature which advances by class levels (in the MM) has a favored class, except Humans and Half-Elves... Anyway, in several splatbooks and adventures, also by WotC, there are creatures with class levels even if by the MM this was not explicited.

Ok, I don't own Savage Species, but I think the MM rules are still valid, so what I suppose is that a creature which has a monster class progression and also has a favored class from the MM just has 2 favored classes, or if you don't like to say that, just don't count either its monster class nor its favored class when determining Xp penalties from multiclassing.

PS I still believe it's a crap idea to have monsters classes at all. The difference between Race and Class was one of the things I appreciated most from 3ed, and I am somehow afraid that WotC came up with the whole thing just to make Savage Species a full-long hardcover tome.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Ok, I don't own Savage Species, but I think the MM rules are still valid, so what I suppose is that a creature which has a monster class progression and also has a favored class from the MM just has 2 favored classes, or if you don't like to say that, just don't count either its monster class nor its favored class when determining Xp penalties from multiclassing.

PS I still believe it's a crap idea to have monsters classes at all. The difference between Race and Class was one of the things I appreciated most from 3ed, and I am somehow afraid that WotC came up with the whole thing just to make Savage Species a full-long hardcover tome.

I agree-- I dislike the monster class idea myself. Though it seems like a good way of handling powerful monsters in lower-level games, the way it's handled opens up too many awkward rules ambiguities for me. My curiosity was mainly in what that implied for monsters with HD, since the book is very ambiguous on this point.

I'm leaning towards discounting both FC and HD for multiclassing penalties, and simply choosing a Favored Class for any monster that advances 'By Character Class' which doesn't already have one named. Most monsters seem to be pretty clear on what their Favored Class should be.

Hopefully, some errata will clear this up.

 

[nute]

Monster "classes" are more of a DM aid, for help in establishing ECL easily. It's not like my half-elf ranger2 can suddenly take a level of minotaur when he hits 3rd level.

But say I have a monster with a +2 ECL. That's effectively 2 levels of monster class. So a (for example) Skaven Rat with +2ECL and 4 levels of sorcerer is equivalent to my human Rgr6 for challenge level. Basically a Skaven2/Sor4.

Advancing monster classes makes sense. A mind flayer that's been around long enough and gained experience SHOULD have better stats, skills, abilities as well as HD.

~M.