What are your thoughts on ECL races? Do they positively or negatively affect your character?

They give good bonuses, but as I like MC classes, and as MC is hard and weak itself thanks to spiffy 3E rules,I tend to stay away from them.

But, they may be great for single class NON-caster types.

There's no universal answer. The Aasimar subrace gives you a net of +4 stat points plus that little spell and some resistances at the cost of being one level behind (in terms of attack bonus, putting 2 of the 4 points you get for free is more than enough -- you also get +1 to damage apart from a solid +1 to hit, which is more than some classes gain per level (0.75 for clerics, druids, rogues, bards etc); in terms of losing the standard human +1 to skill points per level, you can put 2 points in INT and gain +1 INT modifier). It's great for single-class characters, 50/50 multiclasses, paladin and one other class or where paladin being the favoured class works. The other ones are less obvious and they work better for some classes than for others.

The Aasimar are okay, but the Deep Gnomes and Drow are a little too far behind for me. +1 ECL can be made up for or not that much of a bother. +3 ECL, well, it's too much. Yes, those classes have nice bonuses, but is being so far behind the rest of the group Xp wise worth it? I played with a DG monk and a Drow M/T, but stopped because the wizard wasn't gaining the magic levels I felt necessary. :bad:

I would say the ECL-races are very good if you use them right. They keep down the average-lvl of the party which makes their lower lvl a minor problem which may bother you only at the lower lvls. The extra ability points and other abilitys is a good bonus if you use them right. The Aasimar is very good for Paladin-based builds, clerics and for sorcs. The tiefling is good for rogues, wizards and fighting-classes. The Drow is good in almost every build if you know how to use it's bonuses and especially good for wizards. The Deep Gnome is my favorite but often require some special builds to bee really good. Their primary role is as a High-AC-decoys but they make good wizards and Clerics/Druids. The Gray Dwarf is the only ECL-race thats probably not worth it except for maybe some very unique playstyles.

I have a party consisting of 5 non-ECL characters and an Aasimar.
The fighting XP depends on the rounded down average party level.
I'm sure my party's level progression would be slower without my Aasimar because of that.
So I even get a bonus instead of the intended penalty for having an Aasimar. :) (I do no level-squatting and none of my characters has died until now.)

ECL is very good because its like automatically squatting a few levels, so you get back some (maybe all, maybe even more; I don't feel like trying to do the math) of the exp "wasted". Think of it as taking 1-3 levels in another class, except you're still considered the lower level. It's always a great idea, unless you are trying to pump a spellcasting class as fast as possible, or want to be a Half-Orc. And if you are going to play through HoF and hit level 30, an ECL race is like gatting to level 31-33 instead.

Drow and Deep Gnome are clearly the best, for the spell resistance, improved spellcasting stats, and other good abilities Aasimar and Tiefling are basically Drow Lite -- you get the improved INT/CHA but not much else. I would only choose one of them if I wanted to take advantage of the favored class.

Duergar (Gray Dwarves) are clearly some kind of mistake. Even at ECL 1 they would be medicore, but ECL 2 is a joke. Don't even think of touching them.

Yeah, you're right on that one. I was talking about Aasimar from the perspective of a normal difficulty game, playing once and from level 1 without squatting. That way, Aasimar puts you only slightly behind, while giving you a +4 to stats.

The answer for me is easy. ECL races rule and I wish they had been implemented in more games. I think the level penalty is a fair price to pay for the benefits they give and it's even better that they end up lowering your average party XP. In other words, the level penalty is no penalty at all given that you end up getting more XP anyway.

What hasn't perhaps been mentioned is the roleplaying value or the certain special character they give to your hero. After all, your paladin or cleric being Aasimar in the game or your elven assassin being not just painted black with white hair but actually drow... that's something more than a paragraph or two of a biography that you would spawn to cover this make believe aspect.

The DG inate abilities more than make up for ECL. AC bonus, mirror image, and blur lets then hold their own against tougher opponents early on. I fell even 6 man parties even out in level mid game.

Thanks for all that feedback guys! :)