Class Levels for Critters?

[Palanan]

Let’s say the party has successfully dealt with a CR 3 creature and convinced it to tag along. The creature joins in their journey, participates in combat (albeit reluctantly) and in general behaves like another party member.

The creature won’t be taking any of the party’s XP, but it will be slowly accumulating its own separate pool of XP. But how should that pool be calculated? Should the creature be treated as a third-level character, working towards the XP threshold for fourth level? And if so, can a new class level simply be wrapped over the existing creature, or is there something more involved?

[ATHATH]

Why shouldn't it get a portion of the party's XP? Let the players decide how much of their party XP they want to ration to it (only up to a 1/[members of party (including the monster)] share, of course).

[Psyren]

Monsters as PCs (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/) basically treats CR as ECL with the buyoff built in.

If this thing is a DMPC though, I recommend not doing the buyoff and just adding the class levels to its CR. Not only is this simpler, it will make the creature weaker, thus minimizing the chance of it stealing the players' thunder.

[Crake]

Why shouldn't it get a portion of the party's XP? Let the players decide how much of their party XP they want to ration to it (only up to a 1/[members of party (including the monster)] share, of course).

What's the party size? Because keep in mind that pathfinder doesn't handle xp in the same way as 3.5 did. If the party has 4 people, they get the same xp as they would if they had 5 people, so there are certain cases where adding an extra "character" wouldn't change the players' xp anyway.

XP is awared based on group size, 1-3, 4-5 and 6+

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Psyren
Monsters as PCs basically treats CR as ECL with the buyoff built in.

I had read this section on p. 313 of the Bestiary, but the part about slipping in extra levels was a little confusing.



Originally Posted by Psyren
If this thing is a DMPC though, I recommend not doing the buyoff and just adding the class levels to its CR. Not only is this simpler, it will make the creature weaker, thus minimizing the chance of it stealing the players' thunder.

Okay, thanks. She’s five inches tall and she mainly hides, so no worries there. :smallsmile:

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[Psyren]

I had read this section on p. 313 of the Bestiary, but the part about slipping in extra levels was a little confusing.

I laid it out in detail years ago, so I'll just quote myself:


It would go like this - you start at level 6 (well, you could start earlier than that, but you're not leveling up until everyone else catches up with you and you'd likely be overpowered before then.) So you are a level 0 whatever thing you are, let's say Vulpinal.

Now the party hits level 7 and so it's time for you to level up as well. Let's say you want to be a bard. Your progression would look like this:

Bonus Level 1 (halfway between 6 and 7) - Vulpinal Bard 1
Party Level 7 - Vulpinal Bard 2
Party Level 8 - Vulpinal Bard 3
Party Level 9 - Vulpinal Bard 4
Bonus Level 2 (halfway between 9 and 10) - Vulpinal Bard 5
Party Level 10 - Vulpinal Bard 6
Party Level 11 - Vulpinal Bard 7
Party Level 12 - Vulpinal Bard 8
Final Bonus Level (halfway between 12 and 13) - Vulpinal Bard 9
Party Level 13 - Vulpinal Bard 10
Party Level 14 - Vulpinal Bard 11
Party Level 15 - Vulpinal Bard 12
Party Level 16 - Vulpinal Bard 13
Party Level 17 - Vulpinal Bard 14
Party Level 18 - Vulpinal Bard 15
Party Level 19 - Vulpinal Bard 16
Party Level 20 - Vulpinal Bard 17

You almost get to 6ths, but the Vulpinal benefits should even things out - and you're much stronger than you would be as a Vulpinal Bard 13 or 14. Class feature wise you only miss out on Mass Suggestion and Deadly Performance, whereas just multiclassing normally you'd have also missed Inspire Heroics and probably Frightening Tune as well. Your Inspire Competence is down 1 from a regular bard instead of down 2, and you get full Inspire Courage.