Results 1 to 9 of 9
Thread: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
-
2007-07-07, 10:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
One of my players wants to play a high ECL race, but he wants to lower it by playing an "average" member of that race. In other words, he'll roll 3d6 for stats, instead of the standard 4d6.DropLowest. In your opinion, how much should that drop a character's ECL by? (Assume the ECL is lowered before the rolls are made.)
Alternately, could he drop its ECL by lowering all his stats by 2 points? How much would that drop his ECL?
-
2007-07-07, 10:16 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Kanagawa, Japan
- Gender
Re: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
Well, Elite Array is the default, so:
15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9 = +4 Bonus
Dropping down to to 11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10 might effectively knock off off a point or two of ECL. I wouldn't advise this sort of thing, though, especially via rolling you are running the risk of unbalanced results.Last edited by Matthew; 2007-07-07 at 10:17 AM.
It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one’s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.
– Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)
-
2007-07-07, 10:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Location
- Michigan, USA
- Gender
Re: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
If he rolls worse than the Nonelite Ability array I'd take his Level Adjuster down by one.
You could leave certain abilities unattainable until they reach a certain ECL with the character like a Bloodline. Esentially cutting up their special abilities into chunks that are worth a portion of their LA. Savage Species covers these issues well.
[EDIT]And what Matt said.Last edited by Diggorian; 2007-07-07 at 10:22 AM.
Da Dominion: blog of belly laffs and a GM (Gamer Media) podcast. Sharp Humor for a Dull World.
-
2007-07-07, 10:28 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
Re: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
High ECL would normally either mean high stat bonuses in key areas, or lots of special abilities and modifiers.
Will losing a few points of bonus across the board hurt them that much? If their character design is built around one stat they get a racial boost on, it might not impact too hard upon them. If they plan on using special abilities in most situations rather than skills, it could also have limited impact.
I'd be wary of giving them too much back for a potentially minor handicap.
-
2007-07-07, 10:40 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- Boston
- Gender
Re: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
I believe there is an ECL -1 template you can add to any race to reduce its ECL. I think it boils down to a minus one penalty to all skill checks and attack rolls (Much like reducing ability scores by 2).
Click the spoiler to see all the great games I design:
Spoiler
Who Beats Who? the hilariously geeky game of hypothetical battles.
Who has two thumbs (up) and a board game coming out from Rio Grande? This guy. Gladiators (Rio Grande)
PIZZA IN SPAAAAACE! Cambridge Games Facotry and Spoiled Flush Games Cosmic Pizza coming soon.
Matrix Solitaire, likely the best Solitaire game you will ever play.
Spoiled Flush Games
Twitter... where I talk about game design and beer.
-
2007-07-07, 02:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2005
- Location
- St. Louis Park, MN, US
- Gender
Re: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
I read somewhere that 4 to 5 points on a point buy is approximately the same as 1 ECL. (Sorry, I don't remember where; it might just have been a wild guess.) 3d6 is about 15 point buy, 4d6 drop lowest is about 25. So 2 ECL would be a decent trade off.
Mind you, that's assuming the player rolls something near average. One set of 3d6 stats can easily be better than some set of 4d6 drop lowest stats. And if that happens, the player just got something for nothing. If you want to go down this road, use point buy.
-
2007-07-07, 02:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Gender
Re: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
My new squishy, level 4 wizard, ECL 2 wishes to play with his 20 INT, 22 for bonus spells.
Maybe... not. Particularly at level 1. When not using templates .
-
2007-07-07, 02:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2004
- Location
- Ohio
Re: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
I read somewhere that 4 to 5 points on a point buy is approximately the same as 1 ECL.Last edited by TO_Incognito; 2007-07-07 at 02:15 PM.
-
2007-07-08, 12:46 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Gender
Re: Lower Stat Rolls, Lower ECL
I have seen it said in a number of places that going from 25 point buy (the standard to which D&D is balanced) to 32 point buy (which seems to be the standard at which most people actually play) is roughly equal to a +1 effective level. This jibes pretty well with my own experience.