Sir Aubergine wrote: Monster Manual 1, pp. 276-279.
Hmm. Since Remuz has a D&D repository I can look at 4e's MM to refresh my memory.
Bugbear, Doppleganger, Drow, Githyanki, Githzeria, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Koblod, Minotaur, Orc, Shadar-Kai, Longtooth Shifter, Razorclaw Shifter, Warforged...
Looking at each entry individually; the same shit that ruined every other playable species in 4e is seen smeared, each species has it's own special snowflake power all created without rhyme or reason with respect to making a player care, making them notable Encounter powers, or making any of them remotely on par with each other (e.g. when looking at the details of each supposedly playable monster species: Orc can 1[W]+Str damage & Surge, while Warforged get a 3 + (1/2 lvl) HP heal @ Bloodied, obviously not unmitigated shit,
check).
Looking at the collection of entries as a whole. The same unmitigated shit that ruined the entire
concept of having different playable species in a fantasy game (variety) in 4e was (obviously) shit on even here (seriously though, Minotaurs and Dopplegangers seem like the best options of them all, which means variety wasn't the real goal).
The inanity of your argument nearly gave me vertigo. You openly admit that the 3rd edition method for making a monster PC is "utterly shitty," but still claim superiority to 4th edition's solution of prefabricated racial packages because Frank and K come riding in on snow-white chargers to save the day?
Frank & Kieth didn't save the day. Find me the progression that Frank & Kieth made for a fucking
Phasm? How about for a Gargoyle? How about for a
Dragon? Where is the [Tome] Dragon level progression that came out with
Races of War?
Which is where the rub comes. Those CR = Level progressions weren't built when the idea was first released. Those creature progressions need to be hammered out into something playable from the rulebooks they're sourced from.
That's the one glaring detail you seem to not realize. No snow white chargers came in and delivered any Monster PC progression to my gaming table for a player to use. That level of detail needs to be figured out for each CR the dragon will be played for; and the Dragon PC will probably have to be rebuilt every time it upgrades its CR.
What Frank & Kieth did was elucidate what people knowingly opine; and even the Savage Species book flat out states*: you can play monsters out of the rulebook As-Is, and the rest of the bulk of SS' rules can be ignored.
*
Specifically:
Copypasta from SS P12:
QUICK AND DIRTY
You might want to copy a monster out of the Monster Manual, give it appropriate class levels, and start playing. We do not recommend that method, but you can do it. In some cases, such as with fey characters, you can get more skill points that
way. The ability scores are already generated and assigned. Skill points are already spent and feats are already chosen. All you really have to do is add class levels and buy equipment.
The chief drawback with this method is that all monsters have ability scores of 10 or 11, adjusted for racial modifiers.
While that makes an acceptable character according to Chapter 1: Abilities of the Player’s Handbook, such a character is not
very exciting. It is very easy to roll better than that. If you are playing in a campaign focused on your base creature, such as
one in lands primarily inhabited by orcs, your character will be like most of the NPCs you encounter. You may also wish to
choose different skills and feats, since monsters as opponents are designed to be viable for an encounter or two, and your
character should last longer than that.
If you do choose to copy a monster out of the Monster Manual, fill out a character sheet as explained in Chapter 1:
Character Creation Basics. Determine the total of the creature’s Hit Dice plus class levels and refer to Table 2–5:
Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits. If you added enough class levels to gain one or more ability score increases,
assign them now. Buy skills for your class levels. Do not multiply the base skill points by 4 for your first class level, because
your monster character is not a 1st-level character if you kept its monster Hit Dice. If you added enough class levels to gain
one or more feats, select them now. Then add the base attack bonus and base saving throw bonuses for the class levels to
those of the base creature. Roll your hit points for your class levels and add the result to your hit point total. Figure out your
Armor Class, initiative modifier, weapon statistics, and total skill bonuses based on your character’s monster kind, class,
ability modifiers, feats, and equipment. You are ready to play.
Okay, so SS
also has CR ~= PC Level rules in it as "you're not supposed to use these but....". While the rest of the book is "These are rules, but no player in their right mind will use them."
From there, the notion that you can build monster PCs based off of CR, and throw out calculating with LA, HD and ECL becomes much more apparent.
As it is, Frank & Kieth simply pointed out something that the greater D&D playing community had figured out long ago, ECL has always been a travesty against unorthodox gameplay. While SS existed, no one took it seriously; and while people talked about how cool it would be to play as a monster, it wasn't commonly done.
The interesting thing is that Frank & Kieth stating you can use CR ~= Level for creating a PC from a monster isn't a solid example of the Oberoni fallacy; since Savage Species
itself states that it's "doable" (but "shouldn't be done") to use CR ~= Level for creating PCs.
I have nothing but respect for Frank and K's exhaustive and transformative 3rd edition-inspired creations, but that is not what is being discussed here.
Making a monster character using the methods described in the 3rd edition Monster Manual or the Savage Species supplement is an exercise in boredom, a one-way ticket to an early grave, or both.
4th edition's racial stat distributions bind you to a vexingly small number of viable character classes, but it does not, at the very least, insist that you brave the world as a paper tiger, doomed to fall away into wet mush under the stiff opposition of a warm, spring rain.
Actually, 4e insists upon much worse things. Like that the wholely out of balance racial powers for 4e monster races are remotely equivalent in power with respect to each other. That a Minotaur or a Doppleganger is a perfectly fine 1st level character (that's something not even [Tome] considers in line with the idea of playing "equivalently powerful" characters).
Finally, the 4e monster rules mean that you'll have to be playing with 4e PC class levels. Where are an exercise in boredom to play with.
Finally, even if one limits themselves solely to SS rules; the "Copypasta from Monster Manual, and play As-Is" idea that was revisited in RoW
is from the rules of SS in the first place.