D&D 3E/3.5 Savage Species to 3.5: Satyr ECL+2 from 6 "satyr Levels"?
CRGreathouse
Community Supporter
FCWesel said:
Satyrs in the revised MM are ECL 7: 5 HD + 2 LA.
The Souljourner
First Post
Level Adjustment is *not* ECL. ECL is calculated by adding the level adjustment to the racial hitdice of the monster. Thus the Satyr's 5 hitdice is added to his +2 level adjustment to come out with ECL 7. The +2 Level Adjustment is low because, to be honest, fey hitdice are pretty sucky.
-The Souljourner
-The Souljourner
jgsugden
Legend
Savage Species is, in general, horribly balanced. WotC did the best job they could, but the task of balancing monster races as PC classes is impossible.
There are some abilities that are just too powerful if placed in the hands of a PC. They are fine when placed in the hands of a temporary ally or in the hands of a foe, but if a PC has them, the game is upset. This upset might be caused by balance issues, or it could be caused by disruptive forces.
Take, for instance, the ghaele eladrin. It has a nasty little aura that tends to make his foes flee. Constantly. If the ghaele is running around with a party, the game turns into a giant easter egg hunt with the PCs trying to catch all the orcs that ran away. Boring, annoying and difficult for the DM to manage. When the orcs run off into 17 different occupied chambers, the DM has to track how all those monsters react. This is an ability that gets annoying.
SS tries to balance powerful abilities by giving the monster less hit dice. An ECL 20 monster character that has 10 hit dice has far fewer hit points (generally) than a pure 20th level human character. This makes the monster more powerful offensively, but far easier to kill. This is sort of like giving a barbarian a bigger weapon, but taking away his armor. He'll get in some great shots, but he'll either have to cower away and hide after the first few rounds of combat or he'll die quickly.
Many people want to play monsters as PCs. That is why they made this book. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work for anything with an ECL (LA + HD) greater than 2 or 3. Everything else is just too out of balance to provide an equal contribution to the party. Even if the player min-maxes the situation to negate the penalties, the incredible benefits of the class will make them outshine their allies and make the game less fun for any other players that have even a shred of a hack and slash player inside of them (which includes 99% of the players out there if you ask me).
There are some abilities that are just too powerful if placed in the hands of a PC. They are fine when placed in the hands of a temporary ally or in the hands of a foe, but if a PC has them, the game is upset. This upset might be caused by balance issues, or it could be caused by disruptive forces.
Take, for instance, the ghaele eladrin. It has a nasty little aura that tends to make his foes flee. Constantly. If the ghaele is running around with a party, the game turns into a giant easter egg hunt with the PCs trying to catch all the orcs that ran away. Boring, annoying and difficult for the DM to manage. When the orcs run off into 17 different occupied chambers, the DM has to track how all those monsters react. This is an ability that gets annoying.
SS tries to balance powerful abilities by giving the monster less hit dice. An ECL 20 monster character that has 10 hit dice has far fewer hit points (generally) than a pure 20th level human character. This makes the monster more powerful offensively, but far easier to kill. This is sort of like giving a barbarian a bigger weapon, but taking away his armor. He'll get in some great shots, but he'll either have to cower away and hide after the first few rounds of combat or he'll die quickly.
Many people want to play monsters as PCs. That is why they made this book. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work for anything with an ECL (LA + HD) greater than 2 or 3. Everything else is just too out of balance to provide an equal contribution to the party. Even if the player min-maxes the situation to negate the penalties, the incredible benefits of the class will make them outshine their allies and make the game less fun for any other players that have even a shred of a hack and slash player inside of them (which includes 99% of the players out there if you ask me).
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