Monster of Legend questions

[Velaryon]

I'm working on applying the Monster of Legend template to something, and have a couple questions about how it's intended to work. I know Monster Manual 2 is an unbalanced mess, but hopefully y'all can help me clarify some RAI or at least RAW here.

1. How is the continuous spell turning of the Reflective Hide ability meant to work? Does it grant a new 1d4+6 spell levels every round? Does it automatically turn every eligible spell? Is it only "permanent" in that it has no time limit, but only grants a one-time 1d4+6? Obviously I don't think that last one is intended, but I can't tell what "permanently protected by a spell turning effect" is supposed to mean here.

2. If someone were insane enough to apply this to a monstrous PC, what ECL adjustment should it have? Obviously the CR +2 isn't enough, but would +3 or +4 be appropriate? Should it be more?

Yes, I let my centaur Fighter player become a Monster of Legend. Yes, I know it's a ridiculous idea, but that's kind of the point. The other PCs are so ridiculous that this honestly won't be far out of line in terms of power for them.

[Maat Mons]

I don't think there's an actual RAW answer. If I were running the monster in a game, I'd probably roll 1d4+6 at the start of combat, and have Reflective Hide turn that many levels of spells in that encounter. If the players later fought the same monster again, I'd roll a fresh capacity at the start of that combat.

[Saintheart]

2. If someone were insane enough to apply this to a monstrous PC, what ECL adjustment should it have? Obviously the CR +2 isn't enough, but would +3 or +4 be appropriate? Should it be more?

Well, the MoL gets the following:

- 1 additional (Su) or (Ex) ability, or Spellcasting as a 5th level cleric.
- 2 additional special qualities
- +3 to all saves, which is basically the same as an Outsider gaining 4 HD (since their saves are all Good)
- Str +10, Dex +6, Con +10, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4, which is a ludicrous set of increases and really wonks out meaningful calculations.

I think spellcasting as a 5th level cleric of itself warrants a LA of no less than +4, depending on the levels the creature is playing at (higher levels, lower LA in my view) and also assuming the underlying creature had no caster class levels to begin with. That's before you get to the stat increases.

A rough analogue I think is the Greenbound template. That sucker is LA +8. It's sort-of similar in power to this template.

[Beni-Kujaku]

If it was on a level 1 PC, I'd say LA +7 is most appropriate. Maybe even +8 like Saintheart said (though Greenbound is absolutely awful at +8, MoL gives so much more that it might be equivalent). You gain the spellcasting of a cleric, something equivalent to 5 levels worth of save bonuses, and big stat increases to compensate the loss of skill points. All that is pretty equivalent to 5 class levels. On top of that, you gain SR, DR, and a freaking additional standard action each turn. That's bonkers and very much worth 2 class levels in my book. Now, the PC is a centaur fighter in an optimized group. A lot of the abilities here are not very synergystic with such a build, and while Fast Healing, DR and SR are nice, being a cleric 5 in an ECL 10+ environment isn't really great. I'd consider at least the cleric levels as "nonassociated" (in a manner similar to the CR calculations) and use them as only half of a level increase, for a total of LA+5. Maybe +4 if the group is really much more optimized than the centaur.

[ViperMagnum357]

Monster of Legend was officially given a Level Adjustment of base creature +7 in the MM2 update. Which still might be a little too low if you rule the spell turning hide as giving unlimited, uncapped, round the clock immunity to anything that allows SR.

[loky1109]

I could evaluate it with single number. Its SA and SQ are too different.