Whatver book that was, it's wrong and stupid. You can't just be a "were" and not be a were-something. The moment you get bit and fail your Fort save, you gain all the animal HD and the +2 "afflicted" template LA; the only part that you could conceivably earn through XP would be the 3rd point of LA to count as a natural lycan, and even that's iffy, as normally it's assumed that the difference between natch and 'flicted lycans is that the natches are born that way (not that they ever explain how). That fluff could be changed, but I just don't buy that it's possible to be "just a little" a werecreature. There's at least one case where gaining a template in play is explicitly detailed - the Saint in BOXD - and it does state that you just add the template and then spend the next two levels (it's LA +2) not leveling up when you would, until you've "caught up" with the template. It stands to reason that any other template gained through play functions likewise, which would include the HD from becoming a lycanthrope - you would not level up again for a loooooooooong time, though that would admittedly suck. (Especially since, per the game's official rules, a character is incapable of learning anything or evolving as a person in any way except by leveling up; I'd be inclined to make a few exceptions there just for the sake of realism.)Ayeaka wrote:Well, the were template itself only has a level adjustment of 3, but it also includes nothing related to the actual species. The book labels the additional beast levels as optional
Hm. Okay, I see the size of the problem. I had forgotten that the werebear I made was a black bear, but that just doesn't have the same panache does it. So...I might have to start you out at ECL 8-10, making you even more thoroughly the party tank, and creating a very significant competence gap. If the other players are cool with that idea, the rules do support it; you'll get far less XP from the same encounters that the others, and anything really challenging to you would be flat-out impossible for others, while weak "mop-up" jobs for them wouldn't be worth anything to you. But it is possible, as long as I keep to median CRs fairly religiously, and as long as you can live with waiting a long time before hitting Paladin 2 (or Paladin 1 if we start you out as a 0-HD nobody before you get the template, not that I'm sure that's even legal).Brown bears have 6d8, hence the 6 levels.
According to me you do, but as I said I think you can just start as a full werebear and be a bit tougher than the rest of the party. (Speaking of which, we should start thinking about what kind of a party were' getting together here - a werebear, a kitsune, a spider-druid and an LN theurge, plus whatever Feytala comes up with...I'm sure there's a theme in here somewhere.)Since I technically don't have to take the beast levels at all
Don't worry too much about that one; there are so many workarounds for it that few games even bother enforcing it. I do, but not in any kind of punitive way; it certainly wouldn't apply to something like going werebear, as that's hardly a failure of paladin commitment.(I do know the rule about paladins and multiclassing, yes. I hadn't meant that.)
That isn't meant to be binding, though; more like a gentle encouragement. There are some more exotic things I'm up for, I just prefer to stick to 3.5 stuff, and to ditch a few things that I have a personal dislike for.Nioca wrote:Yeah, I read through the thread again and spotted the "standard elf-dwarf-orc-gnome-hobbit stuff" restriction
I try to get somewhat close to that, but a class is just a job that you learn to do, and thus most all the options can fit into a campaign world without much difficulty (to date the only class which I'm fairly certain I'm NOT using is Artificer, since that's very heavily tied to Eberron and strongly contradicts my idea of magical theory). But the races (gah I hate calling them that) are a very different story. A world where elves exist is completely different from a world where they don't, and that goes triple for weird creatures like Ormyrr and Warforged, so I scrutinize every creature with a very critical eye to decide whether it has a place in my worldbuilding. You'll never see a Dread Blossom Swarm in my game, because I have not used enough controlled substances in my life to think that anything about the idea of a buch of flowers that fly around in a colony makes any sense. That's about the most extreme example of idiocy I can think of, but there are races presented as player-character options which are not much less insane, and I'm totally not cool with them being part of my setting.I missed it on my first read-through and thought that, like classes, it was pretty much anything (sane) goes.
Hm. Inconveniently few races have a bonus to Charisma...Aasimar would actually have fit, but since I threw them out, let's see, what else has promise....A - Isn't human (I tend to default to and play those a bit too often)
B - Mechanically meshes with my intended class (Battle Sorcerer) well, preferably with some sort of INT or CHA bonus or spellcasting support
C - Isn't loaded down with dozens of racial hit-dice or level adjustments
Actually...
...Okay, I can come up with a few ideas, but all of them have certain issues. But one of the best options I can come up with offhand would actually be one of the homebrew "Genasi" I mentioned before. If you don't like the penalties and the 1 LA, we'll move on to a few of the second-stringers, but take a look at this:
House Brujheria, "Firehearts"
+2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma. Hot-blooded and as hypnotic as a flickering flame, the fire Genasi are prone letting their emotions get the better of their common sense.
Native Outsider; not affected by Something Person spells.
Darkvision 60 feet.
Unaffected by extreme temperatures and can survive indefinitely without food or water, as long as he or she can eat anything combustible.
Resist Fire and Lightning 5.
Favored Class: Rogue
Level Adjustment +1.