Templates and advanced creatures

[EldritchWeaver]

I have a character which has racial hit dice, a template applied to the racial hit dice and then some class levels. But I'm not sure, if the template should include the class levels or not. Or in other words: template(racial hit dice) + class levels or template(racial hit dice + class levels)? What is the rule here?

[Kayblis]

The template usually specifies that. Examples from 3.5:
Half-Dragon, it states every racial hit dice gets bumped one size.
Necropolitan changes all hit dice to d12. All hit dice includes racial and class ones.

What's the template? It's easier to work with the text.

[EldritchWeaver]

It's half-celestial (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/half-celestial/).

[Kayblis]

There's nothing that affects the actual HD in this template. What it has is powers scaling with HD, and those scale with your overall HD because no special case is specified. Your racial skill points per HD get substituted by 6+Int.

You'll have some issues when leveling up. This is due to the fact that CR rises with HD too, and PF has no LA system. You actually sum the CR adjustment to your HD to get your ECL. This causes problems when you reach 6 and 11 HD, because you'll be considered higher level than you should be. Talk with your DM about it, I'm not too familiar with PF rulings on that situation. You might need to get 2 levels' worth of XP to level up or keep the lower HD bonuses of the template until you level up again.

[Mehangel]

I believe what Eldritch Weaver is asking is whether a half-celestial gains additional powers and increased CR if it gains levels after the template was acquired.

[EldritchWeaver]

I believe what Eldritch Weaver is asking is whether a half-celestial gains additional powers and increased CR if it gains levels after the template was acquired.

That's true. But the template doesn't stat that it ignores class levels so I'll use the "template applies to class levels" definition.

[Vertharrad]

Half-Celestial (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/half-celestial/) is pretty self explanatory. Anything that references your HD goes by your total HD, CR would be your total CR, RHD is only your HD from your race(not class), etc. It looks like you get quite a bit of stuff by how many HD you have, ability score bonuses, SR according to your CR(of which your CR changes according to how many HD you have), and 6+int skill points per RHD.

HD - hit dice
CR - challenge rating
RHD - racial hit dice
SR - spell resistance
NA - natural armor
DR - damage resistance

You get all the abilities you qualify for. For example if you have 11 HD you get along with the basic(NA, ability score bonuses, immunity, save bonuses) plus CR base creature +3, DR 5/magic, Wis score of 8+ gets you multiple spell-like abilities.