Re: ReincarnationGakToid said:
Any other thoughts?I'd like to repeat and expand my initial question:
How do people handle races with a level adjustment? (satyr, pixie, centaur, etc)
How do people handle races that are unusual, but more powerful than the standard PH races? (badger, bear, etc)
Thanks for your input and help. After reading more in Savage Species I think I'm going to allow the player to come back as a satyr, have them loose a level worth of experience, and gain a level adjustment (+2?). I’m not sure about the Pipes(Su) ability, I think I’m not going to allow the player to use it. The only down side is that the character won't level for a LONG LONG time.
Fair?
Unfair?
Somewhat close to the actual rules?
-Gak Toid
OK, i can see two good ways to go about this. Discuss which one it will be with your group, or pick one. But i would think the characters wolud know, in general terms, which one is true in their world, so the players should know what's going to happen before they cast the spell (and can thus choose to use Raise Dead, or something).
Option 1:
lose a class level and attendant XP
figure new character level based on ECL
make them spend the XP to go up as normal (that is, if they are ECL 8 and have 20000 XP, it'll cost them 16000 XP to get their next level)
This method works particularly well if there are some entries on the reincarnation table that are clearly inferior to the standard PC races, as well as the superior ones. You get "free" levels if you roll lucky, but the tradeoff is the risk of coming back as, say, a fox--no speaking, no thumbs, etc. BTW, enforce this: if someone is playing a badger, don't let the player tell the other players anything that would require the character to talk.
Option 2:
lose a character level and attendant XP
figure new class level by subtracting off for any ECL adjustment
XP and character level are now in line, so advancement is normal.
This is probably the better method if all of the races you can be reincarnated as are as good as or better than the standard PC races. People choosing reincarnation therefore aren't taking much of a chance, and might end up with significant benefits. The tradeoff for this should be that they don't end up overall more powerful--they lose class abilities to compensate for race abilities.
There's also a "bad" way to do this, IMHO: take the race result off the chart, but then strip out enough advantages from the race to get it down to an ECL 0 race. I think this is the worst of both worlds--you still get the intangible disadvantages of being an unusual race, but not the advantages. Or, not much of either. The character may as well just be their original race.
Whatever you do, don't take away one of the Satyr's cool powers because it's too powerful, and then charge the full ECL for it--if it's a minor power, let him have it, and if it's a major power, it should change the ECL if you remove it.
BTW, are you sure that things like badger are "more powerful"? i'd say giving up talking and thumbs is a pretty huge penalty, even for a monk. And don't forget the lesser unarmed damage for S monks, and the limits on jumping distance until the monk gets to a certain level. And the ability to rage--but not to end the rage until you or your opponent is dead, seems more like a hindrance than a benefit to me.
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