Help with template

[RCgothic]

Hi, I don't usually use templates, but I've decided to try and make a half-fey and I'm confused. :smallconfused:

LA I think I can understand; at character level X you have LA effective lvls in that creature type/template, and (X-LA) other levels.

eg, lvl 8 Human Saint(+2LA), would be Saint2/Paladin6.

But the half-fey template I found doesn't seem to work like that.

I think the relevant adjustments are lvl +2 and CR +1. Can someone please explain this template to me? :smallsigh: Thanks.

[FearlessGnome]

First off, better remove the link before the scary moderators come and give you a naughty point for linking to copyrighted material. It's an annoying rule, but the board has it (And kinda has to, I suppose).

LA does take up slots were your level SHOULD be, but are not, in fact, levels. A Paladin6/LA2 is level 6. He just gets exp as a level 8 character to keep him at a lower level, to balance out his bonuses. His max skill ranks are 9, and there are no hp increases for the LA levels.

Racial hit dice are not something you mentioned, but they serve as a good contrast. They DO give increased hp, skill points, base save increases, feats, etc, but LA does not.

CR matters not. It's only a number for the DM to use to estimate the strength of things he sends against the party.

[RCgothic]

Ok, thanks. Think I've got LA now, but still a bit hazy on the ... racial hit dice is it?


So if I want to be a half-fey, I get 1 half-fey HD that costs me 2 levels, then instead of taking a class level I could take additional lvls in half-fey to get the benefits listed on the table?

So I could have eg:

Minimum fey would take up: Fey2/Paladin6 = lvl7 (but exp as lvl8).

Or some equivalents with more Half-Fey HD: Fey4/Paladin4 or Fey8, in which i'd have 3 or 7 HD of half-Fey respectively?

[FearlessGnome]

Half-Fey gives no hit dice. Nor can you take any fey racial hit dice because of the template.

If you start out with a funky race with racial hit dice, than those change to the Fey type. If you start out as a human or similar, you have no racial hit dice to begin with, and never will. A Paladin6 who takes any +2LA template remains level 6, with no wiggle room.

(There are rules for LA buyoff, but that is an entirely different matter, and does not give you any racial hit dice.)

[Rejakor]

Templates Explanation;

Templates are a thing that modifies your base race. At the start of the entry, they have rules (like; can only be applied to a humanoid, or 'can only be applied to a Construct') that determine if you can or can't have one.

Most templates have LA, or Level Adjustment. This gets added to your 'real' levels to determine what level you count as for things like experience points, and gets subtracted from your 'real' levels if you are starting at a level higher than 1.

i.e. if you were starting at level 8, and wanted to be a half dragon, you would count as level 8 for the purposes of XP, but you would only have 4 'real' levels, and would have the same stats as a 4th level character.

Some templates add Racial Hit Dice, which are like LA in that they aren't levels in a class, and count for determining your experience points after a fight, but unlike LA they give BAB progression, hitpoints, skillpoints, and feats. Racial Hit Dice also subtract from your 'real' levels.

i.e. if you were starting at level 8, wanted to be a template that gave +2 LA and +3 Racial Hit Dice, you could only take 3 levels in a class, but you would have hitpoints and skillpoints from your racial hit dice as well as the levels in the class, so you would have about as much hp and skillpoints as a 6th level character, not a 3rd. Racial hit dice also increase your skill point caps, unlike level adjustments.


Half-Fey is a +2 LA template from Fiend Folio II. It has no Racial Hit Dice. The reason the example character has a Racial Hit Dice is because fey have fey hit dice instead of class levels usually.

There is also an online Savage Progression for the template, which lets you be more half-fey or less half-fey by splitting up the 2 LA template into 2 1 level progressions that can be found here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a). This makes it more like taking levels in a class, but they are still LA, so you still don't get hp, skillpoints, feats, or higher skill caps.