Templates and ECLs

[Samothdm]

I was looking through an old Dragon issue the other day (#306) and I noticed in the article on "Racial Variants" that only one of the variants had a +1 ECL (the "deep" variant).

For those without the article - basically it gives ideas for altering the core races slightly to account for different climates or regions, such as desert, arctic, etc. In the set-up to the article it says that the races keep their original racial abilities (such as stonecutting for dwarves or low-light vision for elves) and then make the adjustments for their region as indicated in the article.

Each "template" gives minor things like +2 to Wilderness Lore (this was pre-3.5) for the desert template and +1 to saves against fire but a -1 to saves against cold. I think it also did something like give a +2 CON and a -2 CHA. Anyway, the point is, it stacked all of these abilities on top of the normal racial abilities for any race, but didn't increase the ECL.

So, my question is: how much can one "add" to a core race in a template like this before the ECL increases? It seems like handing out skill increases and ability bonuses should be worth something. Take a regular dwarf with a +2 CON and -2 CHA. He's already going to suck at Charisma-based skills. So, he takes the Desert Template, gains +1 to saves against fire and -1 to saves versus cold, +2 to Wilderness Lore, and now he has a +4 CON and a -4 CHA. So, he's not very sociable. But, he just gained an extra 2 HP per level and more than compensated for the -1 to saves versus cold.

What does everyone think?

 

[Greybar]

Well, at each new mod to the race you might consider comparing it as if it was new. Use the suggestions given in Savage Species. In short, take a desert-dwarf Fighter5 and compare it to a human Fighter5. Are they even matched?

Let's say you decided the desert-dwarf is more powerful. Now lets take a desert-dwarf Fighter4 and compare it to a human Fighter5. If the desert-dwarf would hold its own in that matchup, then call it ECL+1.

Key element - compare strengths, not an exotic case like a desert-dwarf wizard to a human wizard.

In the end, it will be a judgment call.

john

 

[Samothdm]

Well, at each new mod to the race you might consider comparing it as if it was new. Use the suggestions given in Savage Species. In short, take a desert-dwarf Fighter5 and compare it to a human Fighter5. Are they even matched?

Let's say you decided the desert-dwarf is more powerful. Now lets take a desert-dwarf Fighter4 and compare it to a human Fighter5. If the desert-dwarf would hold its own in that matchup, then call it ECL+1.

Key element - compare strengths, not an exotic case like a desert-dwarf wizard to a human wizard.

In the end, it will be a judgment call.

john

That's a good way to go. The thing that's different for these templates, though, is that they're created to be applied to every race exactly the same. So, you can take the "desert" template and lay it on top of a dwarf or a human or an orc and create a new sub-race but that sub-race will have everything that the parent race had along with some other abilities which seems odd to me. I think that, for the most part, the templates are better than the parent races and yet their ECLs are the same.