What do you think about Monte's new PHB Racial Levels?

[reapersaurus]

How exactly do these work?

Let's say I want to be a human paladin (natch).

Am I required to take my first level in human (wih almost no benefits, BTW)?
THEN I choose at level 2 to take my first level of Paladin?

Or if I choose to take all 3 levels of human, then my 1st paladin level will be as an ECL 4 PC? So I've neutered my paladin powers by 3 levels because I want.... what? +2 to CHA?

I don't get it - again, it seems Monte is only concerned with granting benefits to primary spellcasting types.

 

[ES2]

I think this is a great idea, and this is a great first attempt to do the PHB races in a 3 level format. Now they just need a little tweaking.

 

[garyh]

How exactly do these work?

Let's say I want to be a human paladin (natch).

Am I required to take my first level in human (wih almost no benefits, BTW)?
THEN I choose at level 2 to take my first level of Paladin?

Or if I choose to take all 3 levels of human, then my 1st paladin level will be as an ECL 4 PC? So I've neutered my paladin powers by 3 levels because I want.... what? +2 to CHA?

I don't get it - again, it seems Monte is only concerned with granting benefits to primary spellcasting types.

You can start as a Human Paladin 1 (Character Level 1). Then at any point in your paladin's career, you can add a level of "human." You don't HAVE to start out taking any racial levels, much less thre, nor would you ever HAVE to take them at all.

In general...

It's an option. Take it or leave it. I love the idea and execution in AU, I'm glad they put the PHB races out, I (like other on this thread) would just have preferred some play-testing on Malhavoc's part. Then again, it IS a free PDF and all...

 

[DonAdam]

If you're talking culture, then you can just simply have alternate races with differing racial features.

Actually my first thought was to use these to differentiate sun elves from wild elves etc.

I'll also take racial levels (as long as they're optional) over level adjustment's any day. If it's justifiable to have a sorcerer having to go up in level to learn to use his innate abilities then it's fine for racial traits as well.

 

[Gez]

Rriiiiiiiiight.

Human: d8
Dwarf: d10
Elf: d8
Gnome: d6
Half-elf: d8
Half-orc: d8
Halfling: d8

Does anything seems odd?

Oh, and about the +caster levels for elves and gnomes, the hard-coding of the class don't please me.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

There was a link on the main page that pointed to racial levels like those use in AU.

What do you guys think of them?

Just curious.

Aluvial

I like them, although if I end up using them I will change the elf to add sorcerer levels and a charisma bonus (for my high elves, anyway).

 

[Numion]

I'll play Devil's Advocate.

I personally don't find any use for them at all. Perhaps it's my training as a biochemist, but a human is a human is a human. Any variation within the species is covered by ability scores, skills, feats, and class abilities.

What is your opinion then on advancing the creatures in Monster Manual by HD? This is about the same thing as advancing monsters.

*puts on a flame resistant suit*

I find it pretty amusing that several people don't get the basic idea behind these rules, even though they aren't much different from the idea in monster manual: advance creatures either by class or racial 'class'. Whoopti-friggin-doo

 

[Lalato]

One of the things I like about AU is the racial classes. However, I find these core racial classes don't seem to be balanced with the ones in AU. The AU classes seem a bit more powerful than this, if you ask me.

Elves are arguably the most powerful core race. Compare them to Giants, arguably the most powerful race in AU.

Giants get +2 Str, +2 Wis, +2 Con, a d10 and size Large by the end of their progression.

Elves get Weapon Focus, Elfsight, a bump to resistance and a +2 Int by 3rd level.

We can compare other AU racial levels to Core racial levels and we'll see the same thing. AU racial levels far outstrip their core counterparts. So, for me, I think I'll be writing up my own racial levels instead of using these... especially if I plan on mixing AU with Core material.

--sam

 

[Flyspeck23]

I like some of those geeky things, but I'm not a geek like the rest of them.

Ups, wrong quote
(see Monte's LoS )

Nicely done, overall. But I won't use it until there are racial levels for Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Orcs, Gnolls and Kobolds too - at the least

 

[LightPhoenix]

What is your opinion then on advancing the creatures in Monster Manual by HD? This is about the same thing as advancing monsters.

*puts on a flame resistant suit*

I find it pretty amusing that several people don't get the basic idea behind these rules, even though they aren't much different from the idea in monster manual: advance creatures either by class or racial 'class'. Whoopti-friggin-doo

IMO, when you advance a creature by a "racial" class, it's usually because they can't take class levels. If you're aiming for a buffer monster, I view it (IMO) as creating an entirely new monster. You're just using the base creature as a template to start from. I would rather advance an intelligent creature by class than by race any day.

I understand the basic idea behind these rules, I just don't think they're necessary.

And no need for flame retardant! Some of us are capable of explaining ourselves in a friendly manner.