Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

I've played a couple of planars before and having just rolled a drow toon It is a bit of a kick in the junk if you start them from level 1. First let me just say that the ECL penalty is there for a reason and im not advocating for its removal. However it would be somewhat friendlier if the XP drop off for 'counting as x levels higher' only kicked at ECL5 regardless of the ECL penalty. This would soften that grinding feeling with a new toon that has bugger all HP. ECL+2 on a wizard is not fun when you first start!

If the ECL starts at level 5 it would be a VERY painful level... You'd need 10,000 XP to hit level 5 and then 28,000 XP to reach level 6. This would also cause a really strange leveling experience to have that huge of a plateau. While I understand the frustrations of leveling ECL1, much less 2 I don't see making the first few levels easier as the answer.

chad878262 wrote:If the ECL starts at level 5 it would be a VERY painful level... You'd need 10,000 XP to hit level 5 and then 28,000 XP to reach level 6. This would also cause a really strange leveling experience to have that huge of a plateau. While I understand the frustrations of leveling ECL1, much less 2 I don't see making the first few levels easier as the answer.

ECLs are stupid as a forner PnP DM who has ECL characters in his group.

ARHicks00 wrote:

chad878262 wrote:If the ECL starts at level 5 it would be a VERY painful level... You'd need 10,000 XP to hit level 5 and then 28,000 XP to reach level 6. This would also cause a really strange leveling experience to have that huge of a plateau. While I understand the frustrations of leveling ECL1, much less 2 I don't see making the first few levels easier as the answer.

ECLs are stupid as a forner PnP DM who has ECL characters in his group.

I would tend to agree, and 5th edition did a better job of balancing the races rather than making more powerful ones take longer to level. However, that is not what we have in 3rd edition or on this server. My guess would be that nerfing Drow and other ECL races to remove all ECLs would, by and large not be agreeable to the players. Some folks would rather take longer to get to 30, but be more powerful once they get there. *shrug* Sometimes in any edition of D&D played in a large environment like a persistent world you just have to accept such things.

We would not remove ECL without completely rebalancing races, which as stated would likely not be a popular move overall. So while I wouldn't say there is zero chance of such a thing happen I will say I find it hard to imagine a scenario where it would be considered.

I was thinking more that your ECL does not count against you for monster XP at the extreme low levels, not that it would require you less to level.

So a CR 1 monster gives same XP to a ECL 0 toon as it would an ECL +1 toon.

The power you get from ECL +X races does not make much difference at level1. But getting past 1HD is a big deal.

Hmmm...interesting, but I'm not sure if that is possible with current scripting. In addition, I'm not sure how much it would help. To my knowledge CR1 against ECL3 would still give over 40 XP per kill.

chad878262 wrote:To my knowledge CR1 against ECL3 would still give over 40 XP per kill.

well a +x ECL race takes an XP hit when they get to a threshold that a +0 would have gained a level. So once you hit 1,000 xp the game treats you as 2nd level for XP gains even though you actually need 3,000 or 6,000 to hit level 2.

chad878262 wrote:

ARHicks00 wrote:

chad878262 wrote:If the ECL starts at level 5 it would be a VERY painful level... You'd need 10,000 XP to hit level 5 and then 28,000 XP to reach level 6. This would also cause a really strange leveling experience to have that huge of a plateau. While I understand the frustrations of leveling ECL1, much less 2 I don't see making the first few levels easier as the answer.

ECLs are stupid as a forner PnP DM who has ECL characters in his group.

I would tend to agree, and 5th edition did a better job of balancing the races rather than making more powerful ones take longer to level. However, that is not what we have in 3rd edition or on this server. My guess would be that nerfing Drow and other ECL races to remove all ECLs would, by and large not be agreeable to the players. Some folks would rather take longer to get to 30, but be more powerful once they get there. *shrug* Sometimes in any edition of D&D played in a large environment like a persistent world you just have to accept such things.

We would not remove ECL without completely rebalancing races, which as stated would likely not be a popular move overall. So while I wouldn't say there is zero chance of such a thing happen I will say I find it hard to imagine a scenario where it would be considered.

A long time ago, Dragon Coast made a attribute bonus system similar to 5th edition where you could put the points in different spots. Similar to the NWN MMORPG.

What I would enjoy is if the xp script took into account ecl, and so didn't treat you as a level 2 when you are still a level 1. Essentially because of the way the script is, higher ecl races not only have to get more xp, but also gain xp at a slower rate. End up getting like 2 xp a kill in epic areas at level 29 with a 20% penalty.

Just make all Races ECL, thus with bonuses!

I dont remember it to be harder when I made my drow back in the days. People might just not go to the right places.