Questions!

[Inevitability]

So I'm thinking of running an E6 campaign in the near future. There is one problem, though: I know little of how it works. So where better to go than the creative (and twisted) collective minds of the playground?

1. How do NPC's with class levels work in E6?

A: A Frost Giant decides to take levels in cleric. How many levels can he take?

B: A nymph takes levels in druid. How many can she take and how does it interact with her own casting?

C: A half-dragon human takes levels in barbarian. How many can he take?

2. How do PC's with LA and RHD work in E6?

A: A half-fey elf starts taking levels in sorcerer. How many can he take?

B: A pseudodragon starts taking levels in rogue. How many can he take?

C: A crazed Dry Lich decides to turn a 6th-level human wizard into a Dry Lich. What happens to the character now that he has +5 LA to deal with?

D: A PC starts taking levels in a savage progression (say, an imp). How many levels can he take?

3. Would the following exist in an E6 world (as NPC's)?

A: A 6th-level goliath fighter.

B: A 6th-level half-dragon goliath fighter.

C: A 6th-level pseudodragon beguiler.

Thanks in advance!

[Flickerdart]

So I'm thinking of running an E6 campaign in the near future. There is one problem, though: I know little of how it works. So where better to go than the creative (and twisted) collective minds of the playground?

1. How do NPC's with class levels work in E6?

A: A Frost Giant decides to take levels in cleric. How many levels can he take?

B: A nymph takes levels in druid. How many can she take and how does it interact with her own casting?

C: A half-dragon human takes levels in barbarian. How many can he take?
NPCs don't obey the E6 rules and can have as many levels as they want.




2. How do PC's with LA and RHD work in E6?

A: A half-fey elf starts taking levels in sorcerer. How many can he take?

B: A pseudodragon starts taking levels in rogue. How many can he take?

C: A crazed Dry Lich decides to turn a 6th-level human wizard into a Dry Lich. What happens to the character now that he has +5 LA to deal with?

D: A PC starts taking levels in a savage progression (say, an imp). How many levels can he take?
Characters that start with LA get a reduced point buy depending on the amount of LA they'd normally have. RHD are unaffected. LA added after the fact is probably a DM's call.



3. Would the following exist in an E6 world (as NPC's)?

A: A 6th-level goliath fighter.

B: A 6th-level half-dragon goliath fighter.

C: A 6th-level pseudodragon beguiler.

Thanks in advance!
Yes (see answers to 1).

[Calimehter]

NPCs don't obey the E6 rules and can have as many levels as they want.kno

I don't know about this. The E6 pdf says that 'characters' are restricted to 6 levels, and the word 'characters' includes both PCs and NPCs.

As for the rest . . . the rules for compensating for LA with reduced point buys are spelled out in the E6 FAQs, but they are mum about racial hit dice. In the absence of a clear mandate, its pretty much up to the individual GM.

-------------------

Of course, at the end of the day its kind of pointless to overanalyze the specific wording of the E6 document. Its a set of house rules in which the author(s?) specifically say that its up to an individual GM to figure out how the extra issues that arise from the basic cap-your-level-advancement premise get resolved. Things like capstone feats, LA adjustments for non-point-buy campaigns, racial hit dice, and so on will be different for each E6 campaign out there.

For example, in the E9 Generic Classes campaign I am about to run, racial hit dice specifically *do* count against one's total level cap. So in my world, for instance, a frost giant would never gain spellcaster levels. It eliminates a few monster options, but it also helps explain a world in which low-base-HD humanoids have become the dominant races.

If you want spellcasting giants, don't do what I did.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Monsters that normally advance by racial hit dice can still do so, but you cannot gain class levels if you already have six or more hit dice, whether from race or classes. Dragons can still get older and gain more hit dice, and you can say that a dragon gained a few class levels at a young age, but if it already has six or more hit dice it cannot ever gain another class level.

Level adjustment in E6 reduces your pointbuy for ability scores instead of increasing your ECL. A +0 LA character has 32 point buy, a Half-Dragon character's +3 LA reduces that to 10 point buy. This is answered in the FAQ (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?206323-E6-The-Game-Inside-D-amp-D&p=3750526&viewfull=1#post3750526). A Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater) Half-Goristro (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a)'s +4 LA reduces that to 0 point buy, all of his ability scores are 8 + racial adjustments. He's large size and has Str 28, Dex 6, Con 22, Int 6, Wis 6, Cha 6, with +8 natural armor, DR, SR, energy resistances, and two natural slam attacks that deal damage as though they were two-handed weapons.

Racial HD count as class levels for purposes of the level cap of 6th. Both increase your character level, and your character level cannot go above 6th. A PC who gains racial HD can gain that many fewer class levels. Level adjustment gained during play is up to the DM to decide how to deal with it, but chances are you have to buy it off with an equal number of virtual levels post-6th. Those virtual levels don't give you extra feats, they only serve to enable future virtual levels to be of benefit once that LA is fully paid for.

A minor nitpick, the only way to become a Dry Lich is to gain ten levels of Walker in the Waste, it requires a minimum of ten class levels, in a rules set that restricts all characters to no more than six class levels. Nothing can become a Dry Lich in E6, they simply don't exist.

Savage progressions can be used, your ECL can be above 6th as long as your RHD + class levels never exceeds six. If you gain the Imp savage progression, it only gives three hit dice, so you would hit your 6th level max at ECL 10. While your 6th level party members are gaining a virtual level for every 5,000 xp gained, you're gaining a virtual level for every 10,000 xp gained. I would not consider this to be worth using.

A: A 6th-level goliath fighter.
Yes, his point buy would be reduced to 25 points because of his +1 LA.

B: A 6th-level half-dragon goliath fighter.
Yes, his point buy would be reduced to 0 points because of his +4 LA. Each of his ability scores is 8 + racial adjustments.

C: A 6th-level pseudodragon beguiler.
No, he has two racial HD, so he can only ever gain four class levels. He hits the max at Beguiler 4, and cannot gain any class levels beyond that. His point buy is reduced to 10 points because of his +3 LA.

[Inevitability]

Thanks a lot, everyone! And my Dry Lich example was pretty bad, I admit. Vampire would probably have been better.