Savage Species preview.

[Henry]

(This is likely to send people at dragonsfoot into fits!)

I swear to God, if they ever put this stuff into the Player's Handbook, I'll never hear the end of it from Gnarley Bones.

 

[Hardhead]

I have a quick question I'm really curious about, Mr. Noah.

Are PCs requried to finish their monster class before they take standard classes?

 

[Gez]

I have a quick question I'm really curious about, Mr. Noah.

Are PCs requried to finish their monster class before they take standard classes?

I see no reasons why not. The mechanics allow it, and if their claim the monster classes are balanced is true, this should not raise balance issues.

Such a restriction would be a flavor rule only. DMs may find rationales pro or against. For example:

Adventurers typically gain levels quite fast in game time -- I've a PC that gained 5 levels in a month of event. If your race is a slow aging one, it could be strange that, just because you adventured, killed things, and taken stuff, you goes from childhood to adulthood in a mere month or two, whereas that normally takes, let say, 30 years. So, in this case, the DM may in fact *prevent* the player from advancing his character in the monster class before more time passes in game, forcing a multiclassing.

 

[EricNoah]

I have a quick question I'm really curious about, Mr. Noah.

Are PCs requried to finish their monster class before they take standard classes?

Gosh that's a good question, and until you asked it I assumed you could multiclass between monster class and character class. But here it is on p. 27: "A monster character using these [monster class] rules may not multiclass until it completes the full progression in its monster class. This rule keeps characters from gaining the benefits of a monster's type and then quickly switching to a standard class."

D'oh.

That's my first rule-zero right there. (It would depend on the situation, of course. For example, if we're considering the minotaur, I would rule that you can't stay a young/medium-size/weak minotaur forever, you grow over time, and so maybe to model this I'd require the PC to take 1 minotaur level every other or every third time he levels up, something like that.)

 

[Gez]

Great, they enforce the bad decision !

Let say you make a monster class for dragons. A normal dragon goes from Wyrmling to Young adult age in 51 years. An adventurer dragon just gain biological HD with experience and may reach that status in two years of campaigning !

Monster mothers, if you want your sons and daughters to grow strong and healthy quickly, give them a sword, a spellbook, and a pair of boots, and send them chasing goblins and rescuing princess ! The effect on their metabolism will be astonishing !

 

[thundershot]

Now that's one rule I will definitely change, and I'm one who usually sticks by the books. I see nothing wrong with someone wanting to stay an immature Minotaur (Minitaur?) or Medusa and just gain class levels elsewhere. It's bad enough they'll be shunned by society and such...


Chris

 

[Moulin Rogue]

Monster mothers, if you want your sons and daughters to grow strong and healthy quickly, give them a sword, a spellbook, and a pair of boots, and send them chasing goblins and rescuing princess ! The effect on their metabolism will be astonishing !

LOL, that's the kind of thing that pops up in D&D with levels and multiclassing sometimes. In a much less blatant but more common example, there's a gap of 6d6 years of training between an elf starting as say, a rogue and one who starts as say, a cleric or wizard. Pick rogue first and you can soon be out and about as a wizard while most of the other elves your own age can expect to be stuck at school for years longer

 

[I'm A Banana]

It's a quirk to preserve some sense of realism.

Myself? I argue that the MM version would be the typical *encountered* type, which is a lot different than the typical adult.

I mean, I'd be willing to believe that your typical adult Minotaur actually had all the powers of a LV1 minotaur (just like your typical human might be a LV1 commoner), but the more common Minotaur encountered has several Minotaur levels (just like, to the perspective of a monster, the more common adventurer has several class levels).

I could work with that idea.

 

[Knight Otu]

Hmmm.... I have to ask this... what is the direction of the gelatinous template? Is it more oozey, or is it a shapechanger thing? Or something else entirely?

 

[Eridanis]

Re: AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

(Hopefully those who thought the idea was brilliant will run out and check out my other book. )

Yeah, I thought of you as soon as I read the preview and wizards.com. Are you still going to finish your book? I'm not sure which approach you're taking, but if your monster classes allow for multi-classing before finishing their monster class progression, there are folks who might like to see that.

The d20 community sure does have a severe case of meme-sharing at times, though. It's like we're all one big ... hivemind, or something.