Epic Level Handbook

This chapter contains entries for more than sixtycreatures, mostly hostile, for use in DUNGEONS &DRAGONS® epic level adventures.See the introduction of the Monster Manual forinformation on how to read the monster entries.LEVEL ADJUSTMENTNonstandard races that are candidates for player characterspossess (or can be assigned) a racial trait calledlevel adjustment. This concept is touched on in Chapter2: Characters in the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide. In away, level adjustment can be thought of as the race’s“monster class.” Thus, player characters using one ofthese races who pick up their first level of a standardclass are actually multiclassing in a way, though multiclassrules and restrictions are not invoked (except forone, noted below), nor do these characters gain HitDice or other special powers from their “monster class”other than the special abilities naturally attributed tothat race.When creating a character using a nonstandard race,add that race’s level adjustment to the character’s classlevel (or levels) to determine its actual character level.In this special circumstance, the character level is nowreferred to as effective character level (ECL). Forinstance, a winterwight with a level adjustment of +25who is also a 1st-level sorcerer has an ECL of 26.Player characters who have level adjustments of+1 or higher (humans and other standard racescan be said to have a level adjustment of +0) indicatethat their class levels do not accuratelyreflect their power.Creating Characters Using ECL: Only let aplayer create nonstandard race characters whenyou would otherwise allow that player to create ahigher-level standard character of equivalentpower. Thus, the winterwight sorcerer with anECL of 26 noted above could not enter the gameuntil you would normally allow standard 26thlevelcharacters to enter the game.Advancing Characters Using ECL: Effectivecharacter level (ECL), as a measure of acharacter’s power, is equivalent to characterlevel. Normally, character level as a concept isthe sum of all the characters’ classes. Thus, ahuman 12th-level sorcerer/14th-level roguehas a character level of 26th. When next hegoes up a level, he’ll have a character level of27th; this requires a total of 325,000 XP, asshown on Table 1–2: Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits.In exactly the same way, a character withan ECL due to its nonstandard race requiresMONSTERS CHAPTER FIVE155