More Information
- Where can I find more information about the class-based ECL system?
- All class ECL's are defined in the classes.2da file which can be found in your source folder and with NWNExplorer.
--Countess Terra 20:55, 12 February 2006 (PST)
- Pedantry: I don't know when or where this idea of ECL races started, but, technically, there is no such thing (or, alternatively, all races are). As stated in the article, ECL is short for Effective Character Level -- not Class Level -- and despite the usage of the word, "level," this is only part of it (1/3rd, to be precise). ECL represents a character's total class levels + racial HD + Level Adjustment, and controls (as in NWN) encounter levels and rewards, but also how much XP is required to advance a level. Level Adjustment (LA) is what sets, say, drow, apart from humans, and it's this that "lags" a character's total class levels. Looking at the .2da, even BioWare seemed to know this, naming the columns EffCRLvlxx (note, however, that in their case, as no LA races or races with racial HD are available as player races, using ECL wouldn't have been decidedly wrong -- just not completely right, either).
Since the idea of ECL races has become widely accepted (and LA completely ignored), I don't know if it'd be worth it to rewrite this article, and, certainly, it's much too late for it to have any real impact on the online community whatsoever. I wouldn't mind if it was "fixed," though. Thoughts? Snoteye 08:46, 15 August 2007 (PDT)
Use of article
Due to considerable in-game testing I have found XP totals for non-multiclass penalty, non-party penalty kills to always correspond exactly to the 2da table (at 10% XP slider value) where the level used is based on an experience point total and not ECL. I have reached the conclusion that ECL is no longer used but have not been able to locate the patch or specific notes stating when and how it was changed for official verification. If my conclusion, exactly represents the case as to what is occurring then this article would likely be in need of rewriting (or even deletion). WhiZard 19:47, May 4, 2010 (UTC)
- Looks like the expansions disabled it. The original campaign still uses ECL, but not as the character level, rather to find an amount short of the true level which is added to the monster's CR. WhiZard 22:06, May 11, 2010 (UTC)
- I have just introduced a major change to the article, adjusting the table to account for the bonus to CR (easier to express than true class level - ECL for class and more direct for calculations). Also the article is now qualified for OC and OC mods.WhiZard 14:29, May 13, 2010 (UTC)