One of the weird issues in a 3e version of BR is the effect of controlling
a realm on the ECL of PCs. A 3rd level fighter is one thing, but a 3rd
level fighter with a bloodline who rules three provinces, four law holdings
and controls a castle is quite another. Aside from his realm, the second
fighter is likely to have personal equipment superior to that of the first
fighter. He may have a magical sword as a family heirloom, one of the
finest steeds available, fine clothes, jewelry and enough cash to buy off
most intelligent CR3 encounters he runs into. Aside from those issues, a
regent adventuring in or around his realm would have much greater influence
with the locals than a typical adventurer. While certain aspects of
role-playing, of course, will be made more difficult for regent PCs
(certain NPCs will automatically oppose characters who represent "the
establishment" or may be reluctant to interact with "the authorities") on
the whole a character who is a politically powerful figure in the region
can expect more compliance with locals and various adventure level
encounters than one who is not. All of this begs the question, What is the
ECL of controlling a realm?

I`ve been muddling around with various ways of determining ECL recently,
mostly having to do with equipment. As Falcon pointed out last month in
the Help from Parents thread (here`s a link if anyone wants to review:
http://oracle.wizards.com/scripts/wa.exe?A...hright-l&P=169)
one can determine ECL for equipment by averaging the level of the character
with the level he would typically have for the value of equipment he is
carrying on Table 2-24 on p43 of the DMG. That is, a 3rd level character
running around with 19,000gp (7th level on Table 2-24) of equipment would
have an ECL of 5.

I don`t think, however, that controlling a realm should be considered the
same as equipment, for several reasons. First, as facetious as it might
sound, PCs aren`t carrying them around. Having control of a castle(4), for
instance, is a distinct advantage for a PC, but one that doesn`t
necessarily interact at the adventure level, and the same could be said of
other aspects of controlling a realm. In addition, one could easily argue
that controlling provinces is more valuable than controlling source
holdings, or that control of temples should have a greater effect on ECL
than guilds because NPCs are more likely to aid a temporal leader than a
secular one, and that having access to the healing powers of priests in a
temple realm is of more direct value at the encounter level than the rogue
powers of guilders.

Anyone have thoughts on how much controlling a realm should effect ECL?

Gary

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