XP stop/ level buyback after the fact

[carborundum]

My Duskblade bit the dust fighting a blue dragon near the end of Red Hand of Doom. Luckily there was a handy druid in the area (he'd teamed up with Warklegnaw and was running guerilla actions in the neighbourhood). I got reincarnated - as a half treant! (Should this go in House Rules?)

Fair enough - better than goblin or *ugh* dwarf - I ended up with a pile of hitpoints, reach, natural armour and plenty of strength. Also 10' tall and covered in branches - his ladyfriend back in the city will be disappointed, and our plans for 'later' are ruined.

In any case, together with the DM we settled on a +3 level adjustment for everything so my 10th level Duskblade is now ECL 13. The confusion concerns what to do next. Should my advancement slow or simply stop until I 'catch up' with where my xp should be for a level 13 character?

There is also the option for level buybacks à la Unearthed Arcana, but that should have really started at level 9 so it'll be tricky to figure out too. I'd like to get Duskblade 11 before the end of the campaign - just to throw three Scorching Rays once in my career. It's looking unlikely.

Can someone explain how we should work out the retrospective change of level adjustment and all the ramifications?

 

[irdeggman]

In any case, together with the DM we settled on a +3 level adjustment for everything so my 10th level Duskblade is now ECL 13. The confusion concerns what to do next. Should my advancement slow or simply stop until I 'catch up' with where my xp should be for a level 13 character?

You are not supposed to gain levels in the process.

Reincarnation specifically states you lose 1 hit die (or level) prior to calculating the effects.

This is one of the cases where ECL should be used since it is directly related to xp.

If you have a +3 LA then your (formerly 10 the level duskblade) should be a 6 level duskblade with a +3 LA.

Remember the lose of 1 level from the spell must be taken into account first.

LA characters have the xp of their ECL so in this case you PC just gained 3 levels of xp - hardly seems fair to the other player's does it? Especially since the PC died in the process.

 

[carborundum]

That's true, come to think of it. I guess the DM got a bit overexcited about the 'final battle' - odds are we won't use these characters after we've finished taking out the bad guys in the final fortress. I've sent him a quick mail proposing dropping the Duskblade levels.

We play that you lose half the xp for your next level when you die, so I went from almost 11 to a bit over 10.

If I did drop the Duskblade levels I could just continue advancing normally (and choose a few better spells too). Thanks for the reality check!

 

[mvincent]

our plans for 'later' are ruined.

A miracle (after you're done with the adventure) could probably fix that for a mere 1530 gp donation.

Should my advancement slow or simply stop until I 'catch up' with where my xp should be for a level 13 character?

The latter. It's up to your DM, but the most commonly accepted method is to only level up when you have enough XP for the next level.