Hi there.
I’m working on establishing a campaign where I try to merge the most prominent D&D settings with as little loss of consistency as possible. However, I’m having some trouble deciding which sources should take precedence when I find different versions of some material.
An example: Some common planar races are presented differently in the Planescape Campaign Setting and the Planar Handbook. Usually I let Planescape material take precedence regarding planar content, but I’m weighing that against the fact that material created for the D&D setting likely has been playtested and balanced more extensively (or at least I hope that’s more often true than not).
Now, I realize that this difference might be because of different interpretations of what the races should be like or because it better fits the overall style of the D&D or Planescape setting. Still, it seems to me, that the main difference is that the Planar Handbook has put more emphasis on having them more closely resemble standard player races (level adjustments +0 or +1, no monster hit dice, bariaurs are medium sized).
Now that I’ve introduced bariaurs in my game and need to stat some out, I find it striking how much difference there is between the two sources, since a 1st level bariaur ranger has an ECL of 2 by the Planar Handbook and of 5 by the Planescape Campaign Setting.
What would you suggest I use, both in the specific example and in general with these situations?
My pardons, if this is the wrong forum to post in, I’m new to these boards.
Use the Planar Handbook one. I think the PSCS version is based on the Book of Exalted Deeds bariaur, which was much more powerful.
Planewalker used to have a weaker bariaur in its race chapter, and then I think they revised it when the BoED came out. They should probably change it back.