RHD and level drain?

[Marnath]

I was just thinking about gnolls as pc's, and I wondered whether or not you could have it level drained to one hit die and then be able to replace it with a class level as per the rules. Does this work? Or does it hit your CON because RHD don't count for level drain?

[only1doug]

RHD do count for level drain, but must be replaced by RHD.

[Zaq]

RHD do count for level drain, but must be replaced by RHD.

Where does it say this? I didn't think it was mentioned anywhere.

[Doc Roc]

Where does it say this? I didn't think it was mentioned anywhere.

I've certainly never seen it. I think he means that they must if you use restoration. I recommend abusing this in conjunction with ye olde thought bottle.

[Alleran]

I've certainly never seen it. I think he means that they must if you use restoration. I recommend abusing this in conjunction with ye olde thought bottle.
I was under the impression that since restoration (or whatever) levels you back up, you don't have to take the RHD again unless you want to.

[Greymane]

I've never been able to find any ruling on this one way or another. I just rule it on a case-by-case basis.

As a DM, if this happened to a monster that fought the PCs and got to escape, I'd let it take class levels if I felt it would be flavorful and add some diversity for a future encounter. I would probably allow a player to begin play with a monster race minus RHD if they wanted something like a Gnoll or Bugbear and didn't want the RHD getting in the way of playing the character.

That said, I wouldn't let them go overboard and play, say, a Storm Giant with only his LA.

[WinWin]

There is also some polymorph abuse related to RHD and level drain. RHD gained from Dusk Giant, Spriggan or Barghest deliberately fed to an undead pet and then regained as levels.

The level differential engine was it's name back on 339.