Adjudicating Weird Races
written by Donat P. Fevre
July 10th, 2007 · 9 Comments
Ever have a player who wanted to play a particular monster from one of the myriad of monster manuals, but you didn’t know how to handle it? True, there are plenty of monsters available for players to play as PCs, which are typically marked as having some kind of level adjustment. But there are players who will want to play monsters that have no level adjustment marked, not even a +0.
One way I can think of dealing with monsters that have no level adjustment (marked with just a dash ‘-’, or even no level adjustment listing at all) is to treat them as having just +0 level adjustment. As it is, the effective character level of a monster is determined by adding its level adjustment to its hit dice. Therefore, a Ravid would be treated as being ECL 3 (having 3 hit dice and no level adjustment listed). However, as a DM, you may decide that a level adjustment of more than just +0 may be necessary, depending on the creature the PC wants to play.
The other thing that may be of some trouble is ability scores. I’m sure this is written somewhere in the core rulebooks, but it’s definitely one of those more obscure rules that you really don’t pay attention to until you actually run into an instance where you do need them (and then can’t even find it in the books, like myself). Thankfully, I’ve found a page over a d20srd.org that deals with monsters as races. Right in there is a nice couple of charts that help you determine what the ability scores for the monster PCs will be depending on the original rolled score, under the heading Ability Scores for Monster PCs.
Have you ever had to deal with a player wanted to play a character based on a monster from one of the monster manuals? How did you go about determining their ECL and/or ability scores? I’d like to hear how other DMs have dealt with this! 
Topics: D&D General
I remember in College playing a Half-Orc and not really enjoying it probably due to another Half-Orc in the game who was a show-boat. So early in the game I managed to off myself after several desperate attempts by the DM (and other players) to save me.
I returned the next session playing a Imp. Another characters familiar. I found it to be quite enlightening to be relieved from the burdens of managing equipment. Happy as can be I supported my fellow player and managed a small handful of spells.
If you have a chance to play a monster, take it!
Ah yes, I remember that! You did a very good job roleplaying that imp too! ^_^
During a spontanious epic one-shot I played a Druid 20 / Master of Many Forms 10. Unlimited Wild Shape into almost any creature Gargantuan and smaller. Awesome.
Well, for that case, you really didn’t need to worry about level adjustments for whatever creature you turned into. Also, I’m sure there’s a limit to the HD of the creature you’re transforming into.
There’s also the fact that the creature you’re transforming into isn’t considered as having class levels.
At level 30, the HD limit was never really an issue.
Ahhh…kids these days and their MMF’s. Back in my day we didn’t have MMF’s. We had to get by with Polymorph spells and costumes.
…and by costumes I mean we would wear the empty husks we were able to successfully sheer off our kills. It wasen’t pretty I yell ya’.
Ah, but we’ve done that too. Shifter cleric guts a zombie minotaur, then she wears it as a cunning fashion statement, er, disguise.
Ravids count as ECL 3?
XD
They’re more powerful as a level 1 PC than just about anything else, even Epic-level characters. One free spawn with no max cap and no max hit dice every 6 seconds?
PC: I go to sleep for 8 hours atop this pile of corpses. How many positive-energy powered undead are there when I wake up? There’s only 50 dead bodies so I guess the rest will have to be pebbles again.
GM: Uh… 8X60X10 is uh… 600X8 is 4800 objects. Fck.
Do you have any idea how unkillable a Swarm of Pebbles is? Immunity to fire/cold/weapons.