Chiron
2009-05-11, 11:07 AM
With my current gaming group, over the previous year and a bit I've tried to play a varied assortment of classes and races in the adventures and campaigns we've played, and in that time I've run across a couple of questions that keep coming up:
Question 1:
What are the best ways to play a wizard/sorcerer? (in terms of build and also play style)
I reached the conclusion after the end of my second session as a wizard that I had ZERO idea how to play a character whose primary focus was magic. Generally I play combat-oriented characters, either melee or ranged, but I found that picking spells for my spellbook, let alone deciding what to use on a daily basis and keeping track a trying affair, because more often than not I sucked harder than an industrial vacuum pump. I've read that it's better to NOT play a wizard with evocation as a favoured school, but I was already committed, and our party's usual elf/sorceress pulled it off quite well in the previous campaign so I thought: "What the hell?"
So this is not only a question of builds but also play styles.
Question 2:
How in the hell do you calculate the final level adjustment to a nonstandard character race? Are there ACTUALLY some HARD AND FAST rules, or is it all FRUSTRATINGLY indistinct?
My first outing with DnD in more than two years I played a Half-Dragon (Silver) (LA +3), Half-Human Paladin (we were playing Red hand so I figured it would be appropriate). the average party level was 7 at this stage (thanks to two players who kept dying/changing characters) so I had 4 levels to play with. Only my massive Damage/AC paladin was scuttled inside of two hours of play because of poor saves relative to the rest of the party and his low hit points (which I will get to shortly).
According to my DM you don't get HD for that level adjustment if you use a player race, which had me on 27 hp (I think), in a seventh level encounter. Now with survivability like that I shouldn't have been playing a meat-shield for starters, but (if I'd gone for a wizard/sorcerer) with only four levels of a magic using class I was up a creek there too against most of the monsters we were facing and all I had left to fall back on was a breath weapon I could only use every 2-5 rounds, leaving me, I feel, about as effective as a 7th level warrior.
The next character I made up was a 5th level Nycter Druid (LA+2) Now, as a monster race I was getting HD for that level adjustment! Now, according to MMIII...
Racial hit dice: A Nycter begins with three levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 3D8 Hit dice, a base attack bonus of +3, and base saving bonuses of Fort +1, Ref +3, and Will +3
Now, I took that to mean that those three levels were included in the level adjustment So I took 3D8 hitpoints in addition to the HD from my druid levels and applied the extra bonuses as well, this meant I was on target with my HP, and performing at a level more commensurate to my Effective Character Level (when compared to the rest of the party). Later when it became apparent that I had interpreted the rules in this way the DM was not in agreement, but he let me have it anyway. According to his interpretation those three levels should count towards my total. It was after this that I gave up on playing monster races altogether just from the sheer headache of it.
What are the rules, in plain, simple english, regarding characters with level adjustments? Does an LA come with HD? In the cases of my Half-Dragon and Nycter what is the correct ruling? How is LA calculated and what factors are important when considering bending the rules?
I feel that by the rules my group has been operating under most Level-adjusted characters are at a disadvantage in combat. The higher the Adjustment, the more this is so. So really, is there any point in playing a nonstandard race?
Question 1:
What are the best ways to play a wizard/sorcerer? (in terms of build and also play style)
I reached the conclusion after the end of my second session as a wizard that I had ZERO idea how to play a character whose primary focus was magic. Generally I play combat-oriented characters, either melee or ranged, but I found that picking spells for my spellbook, let alone deciding what to use on a daily basis and keeping track a trying affair, because more often than not I sucked harder than an industrial vacuum pump. I've read that it's better to NOT play a wizard with evocation as a favoured school, but I was already committed, and our party's usual elf/sorceress pulled it off quite well in the previous campaign so I thought: "What the hell?"
So this is not only a question of builds but also play styles.
Question 2:
How in the hell do you calculate the final level adjustment to a nonstandard character race? Are there ACTUALLY some HARD AND FAST rules, or is it all FRUSTRATINGLY indistinct?
My first outing with DnD in more than two years I played a Half-Dragon (Silver) (LA +3), Half-Human Paladin (we were playing Red hand so I figured it would be appropriate). the average party level was 7 at this stage (thanks to two players who kept dying/changing characters) so I had 4 levels to play with. Only my massive Damage/AC paladin was scuttled inside of two hours of play because of poor saves relative to the rest of the party and his low hit points (which I will get to shortly).
According to my DM you don't get HD for that level adjustment if you use a player race, which had me on 27 hp (I think), in a seventh level encounter. Now with survivability like that I shouldn't have been playing a meat-shield for starters, but (if I'd gone for a wizard/sorcerer) with only four levels of a magic using class I was up a creek there too against most of the monsters we were facing and all I had left to fall back on was a breath weapon I could only use every 2-5 rounds, leaving me, I feel, about as effective as a 7th level warrior.
The next character I made up was a 5th level Nycter Druid (LA+2) Now, as a monster race I was getting HD for that level adjustment! Now, according to MMIII...
Racial hit dice: A Nycter begins with three levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 3D8 Hit dice, a base attack bonus of +3, and base saving bonuses of Fort +1, Ref +3, and Will +3
Now, I took that to mean that those three levels were included in the level adjustment So I took 3D8 hitpoints in addition to the HD from my druid levels and applied the extra bonuses as well, this meant I was on target with my HP, and performing at a level more commensurate to my Effective Character Level (when compared to the rest of the party). Later when it became apparent that I had interpreted the rules in this way the DM was not in agreement, but he let me have it anyway. According to his interpretation those three levels should count towards my total. It was after this that I gave up on playing monster races altogether just from the sheer headache of it.
What are the rules, in plain, simple english, regarding characters with level adjustments? Does an LA come with HD? In the cases of my Half-Dragon and Nycter what is the correct ruling? How is LA calculated and what factors are important when considering bending the rules?
I feel that by the rules my group has been operating under most Level-adjusted characters are at a disadvantage in combat. The higher the Adjustment, the more this is so. So really, is there any point in playing a nonstandard race?