3rd life as a Drow. How many points would it have ?

[humbleroller]

Im about to TR my palemaster (on 2nd life currently, was human then halfling) and I was thinking of going Drow. I dont have one at the moment and I want to mix things up a bit.
I was told that even thought she will be 3rd life she would still only have 30 points.

Can anyone help me out please ?
Thanks.

[Munkenmo]

First life 28points
Second life 30points
Third life 32points

[humbleroller]

wow thats rough.
thanks. I will crunch the numbers in the character creator. I might end up going Elf but I have 2 of them already.

[unbongwah]

Drow already count as 32-pt builds due to their 3 inherent stat bonuses (CHA,DEX,INT). Not Turbine's fault that WotC thought those should be drow's favored stats; just be grateful they didn't implement the ECL penalty as well!

[humbleroller]

actually it turns out to be better to be a drow. I can get my INT to 20 from the getgo. Other races max out at 18. My CON would be 14, but 12 would be fine with me. If she plays anything like her first 2 lives then she wont be needing HP anyway.

what is ECL ?

[Joseph]

Basically, ECL (Effective Character Level) means that you start off with advantages that make you better than another character starting off at level one. So Drow are ECL 3.

As a comparison, Hill Giants are ECL 16 - so if you were to create a player character Hill Giant, you would need to start out at level 16 (or be adventuring with level 16 players) - as you would be far, far too powerful for level one content.

Because of their bonuses, Drow are considered ECL 3 when compared to normal races starting out at L1.

ECL Explanation: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...erlevel&alpha=
List of Races and ECL: http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/SRD:R...A,_HD,_and_ECL
Player Explanation: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...9170038AAVUA5W

[unbongwah]

The point is, in PnP D&D, ECL races like drow need extra XP to level up; i.e., a lvl 1 drow needs as much XP to hit lvl 2 as a regular race needs to hit lvl 4. If people hate drow now, imagine how much more they'd hate it if they needed to earn two extra levels each life just for daring to play drow.

[humbleroller]

wow. did not know that. ty.