D&D race and class

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I'm creating a new character at the moment (most likely a fey type) but I'm not sure of a few things. Before I start, I have the monster manual and player's handbook and a PDF of Savage species and am playing 3.5 edition.

In the usual races (in the player's handbook), the class skills are not mentioned, only with the class (which makes sense). but in the Savage species races, class skills are included. How does this work if you have different class skills with a race and class, or have I read something wrong? I am really confused about this at the moment.

Also, many of the races in Savage species have all the special abilities and stuff that the classes normally have, so do you get both? If so, does this make all of them really OP (like my friends succubus)? And I have the same problem that some of the races have the stats like Base attack bonus, Fort, Ref, and Will saves. which ones do you go for, Race or class??

I haven't messed with Savage Species, because I think it's a little silly to let players be monsters, but I would assume that picking something from there is basically a race + class put together, and doesn't require choosing a class from the PHB.

I could be wrong, though.

The different class skills between race and class work as if you had levels in a class. Take a bugbear for instance. It starts with 3 levels of humanoid. You would treat this as if it had already gone through 3 levels of a class for calculating stats based on information provided in the book such as skill points and hit points.

The next thing to consider is the experience to level a monster. A monster level adjustment is treated just like a template or character race level adjustment for calculating experience to be earned for leveling. The bugbear with a level adjustment of +1 and starting at Level 1 with 0 experience, is effectively starting at 2nd level . It is still treated as a level 1 character. The bugbear has racial hit die but this is ignored for calculating experience required to level. The player would need to have the bugbear char go from 0 experience at the start all the way to the experience required to earn Level 3, but they wouldn't be level 3. They would be level 2.

If you're looking at a monster with a level adjustment of - (hypen/dash), it means it does not have a level adjustment and should be treated like any other base race in the players hand book for how to level up.



The following are pre-built templates for D&D 3.5 that would make the player character/NPC fey. Using one, allows you to have a character that would level up as normal through class and still be a fey without the hassle of making a monster from scratch and figuring out the skills.

Half-Fey - Fiend Folio pg 89 with a +2 LA
Half-Nymph - Dragon Magazine #313 p95 with a +2 LA
Half-Satyr - Dragon Magazine #313 p96 with a +1 LA
Wendigo - Fiend Folio pg 187 with no LA, but a CR of +2. It's infection based so you would have to be bit by a Wendigo to become one. This one is probably to powerful for a DM to just allow someone to have unless it's part of the plot such as a bite from a Wendigo.
Mirage Mullah - Sandstorm pg 177, with a +3 LA, but you're stuck in at the oasis you take cummulative penalties, some of which overtime will kill the character.
Spirit Animal - Frostburn pg 155, No LA. Must be applied to an animal, so this would require the character to be an intelligent animal.


There are also playable races that are already the Fey type:
Domovoi - Frostburn pg 122, +2 LA
Gruwaar - Dragon Magazine pg 317 - No LA
Killoren - Races of the Wild pg 102 - No LA
Pixie - Monster Manual P236 - +4 or +6 LA
Satyr - Monster Manual P219 - +2 LA
Uldra - Frostburn pg 38 - +1 LA


You do get all abilities from the race and classes chosen with a few exceptions. There are templates if you choose them which can remove or cause other abilities, feats, and skill tricks to become unusable.

I'd recommend you download a copy of the D&D 3.5 indexes. You can find them at http://chet.kindredcircle.org or do a search for Chet Erez's d20 index files. They are free and contain more info on things such as spells, items, monsters, class, and race.

Okay, I was wrong then =)

I see...

I still prefer the monsters to be left to the DM @_@ Though I wouldn't mind trying something like Ken St. Andre's Monsters! Monsters! some day...basically all the players take a break from being heroes and play as monsters, trying to wreak havoc on the PC's village/stronghold/etc.

Apparently Gygax didn't care for psionics either, he was planning on axing them from 2nd Edition (before he got the axe himself).