Dungeons and Dragons level adjustment problems?

Question

I've played through like icewind dale I&II and nwn etc, but I was playing tabletop for the first time. (Dragonlance, not D&D) I picked out a half-ogre mystic (don't ask me why) and the GM had agreed to start us all off at level 3. But he has this crazy interpretation of "level adjustment" in the game, so that level adjustment +1 means that you start off LITERALLY at level 2 and you don't even have a class till then. So I'm a level 3 character, but I only have one level of mystic. I was under the impression, esp from icewind dale II, that the level adjustment simply affected the amount of experience I needed to go up a level. For example, if I'm like a dark elf fighter then I start off as a level 1 fighter but need more experience to level up.

I'm pretty confident about this rule, I'd just like confirmation so I can get more spells =P

(He put 3 of us against a level 9 minataur fighter. I got away, came back with 2 level 5 fighters and they both died too T_T )

Answer 1

He's almost right. LA+1 would mean that a level 3 character should have two class levels, not just one. The computer game handled it differently because they didn't have to balance a party of characters and wanted people to be able to start characters off with LA races.

Here's the official rules for monster PC's from the D20 SRD

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monstersAsRaces.htm#startingLevelofaMonsterPC

Note that a half-ogre has no racial hit dice. So to have an ECL of 3 like the other characters, you would have two class levels plus your LA of 1. The experience you need to advance is based on your ECL, so to get to third class level you need to advance from 3rd to 4th level.

BTW, I really, really hope you meant an ECL 9 minotaur fighter and not a minotaur with 9 levels of fighter. The first is only absurd, the second would cause me to seriously question playing with that DM. Unless of course, you weren't supposed to fight it.

Answer 2

His crazy interpretation is the correct interpretation. If you're a race that has ECL of +1 and your character start off as a 2 level, you are consider 3rd level. Check out wizards explanation on there site. It would be in there archive section

So, if you are playing a Drow (I believe it is an ECL of 1 ) and the GM starts out the group as 1st level you start out as a 0 level character until 1000xp then you become 1st level.

Sorry!

Answer 3

Consult Brian Ferris the King of D&D. Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

Answer 4

think of that the point alterations are "empty ranges" tacked on your character. A 1st point Drow character might in effect be equivalent in capacity to a third point character (Drow have +2 la). Werewolf Hybrid variety? properly, i might probable use Hengeyokai from Oriental Adventures by way of fact the backside for beast adult men, till you want all of the skills of the crinos variety (injury relief, quickly therapeutic or regeneration, etc), wherein case i might merely drop the point adjustment for being a lycanthrope by utilising a million or so (for dropping replace varieties).