GameBanshee Forums

Some special races (like drow) have a level adjustment.
Is this realy worth it? Taking a character with one of those classes in you're party?
Or is it just to make things a little more chalanging?

Some are OK, expecially Aasimar make good clerics and paladins. Tieflings are OK for thieves.

Originally posted by Phantom Lord
Some are OK, expecially Aasimar make good clerics and paladins. Tieflings are OK for thieves.

They are ok,
but are the worth taking the penalty?

Originally posted by Stilgar
They are ok,
but are the worth taking the penalty?

it all depends on what you are looking for in your party.

I am fond of the ECL races for roleplaying reasons, but I also think that in the end they will be the strongest characters available...

they each have some bonus/penalty to stats, which makes them more suited for different classes... esp Tiefling/drow with Int bonus for a rogue or wizard, aasimer/drow for a Cha bonus for a sorc, etc.

drow and svirfneblin have natural spell resistance which is very nice... many of the others have bonuses to saving throws and/or innate spellcasting ability or elemental resistances.

the drawback, of course, is that they level slower than the rest of your party.

if you have a large (6) party, and only one character is ECL, that char will likely lag behind the rest of the party with level progression...

so, ECL races might very well be weak early on, but could grow to become your most powerful characters in the endgame (and HoF if you play it)

it is really just personal preference...

my personal opinion is that many of them have benefits that are worth the ECL penalty.

It depends a lot on race / class combination.

Especially the ability score modifiers can boost your char, eg an Aasimar's +2 wisdom bonus makes him a superb cleric, the +2 charisma would make him a great sorceror, bard or paladin.

On the other hand you have the experience handicap, especially spellcasters suffer from each single level they're missing.

Therefore I'd go for a maximum of 1-2 ecl characters in a 6 member group and give them classes that really benefit from their racial abilities. I would probably not chose races that have strong backdraws, eg penalties if exposed to sunlight, altough you don't see too much of it in the game.

in my party i have a tiefling rogue and a aasimar fighter.
it dosen't really matters if they have a penalty because they have alot of bonuses that covers the penalty

Originally posted by Krysalyn
so, ECL races might very well be weak early on, but could grow to become your most powerful characters in the endgame (and HoF if you play it)

it is really just personal preference...

my personal opinion is that many of them have benefits that are worth the ECL penalty.

that's been my experience so far, the early game is hard on the ecls, but after that they really blossom.

it happened the same with my tiefling and aasimar