Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Selgard 06-01-07, 12:19 PM	1. It's frequently come up on the boards: Racial hit die suck. Who would want a level of Humanoid when they could have a level of Ranger or Barbarian or Warsage or whatever. So, given that, how much LA would a given amount of racial HD be worth? IF a creature is for example: +1LA with 4 racial HD, how much LA would be required to get rid of the HD? (given that LA is worse than R-HD, I would assume that it wouldn't be a 1:1 ratio. would +2 la = 4HD+1la?) what do ya'll think. 2. It's also frequently come up on the boards that LA sucks, and that Racial HD are better than blank levels. So, reversing the question above: How much racial HD is each +la worth? If you have a creature with +4LA and +1 HD, how many HD would you have to give him to balance out some of those blank levels? Again assuming it's not a 1:1 basis. The assumption that neither are 1:1 is just that- an assumption. As such, it could very well be wrong. I'm not adverse to that. I'm just curious what you all think. Also- if this is the wrong board, please let me know. thanks. And thanks for your (hopefully) constructive replies. --Selgard
Khatoblepas 06-01-07, 12:27 PM	2RHD = +1LA, as I have worked out. So long as it isn't Outsider or Dragon HD. Then it gets complicated. =)
Metafictional 06-01-07, 12:34 PM	What I've done for my latest game, was I eliminate both level adjustment and Racial Hit Die from the character, and let the player replace both with levels of an NPC class (Warrior, Expert, etc.). So, for example, a Lizardman (2 Racial HD, +1 LA) would begin the game, not as a Fighter 1, 2 HD ECL 4, but possibly as a Warrior 3/Fighter 1, or even just a Warrior 3. Nobody is going to argue that NPC classes are worse than regular classes, but this ensures that there are no "blank levels", and also helps me balance races who have much better deals when it comes to Racial Hit Die (Dragons and Outsiders vs. just about anything else). Now I don't let the character enter the game before the level of their ECL. I originally did think about using ECL as a sort of guideline, how many NPC Class levels you would have to take before you can get regular Classes, but unfortunately, that still leaves a lot of front-loading issues that I'm still working on. I really wanted to allow the Succubus Aristocrat 1, but it just wouldn't fly. The Succubus Aristocrat 12, with all the abillities of a Succubus works fine; the racial benefits more than make up for the loss of Class Abilities, but they're still less powerful (we think) than a Bard 12 would be, and definitely less than a Cleric 12. Since there's an NPC Spellcaster Class (yes, I know, but it does exist!), you could still have a monstrous caster with this variant, although they will always be less powerful than a full PC Casting Class. I'd like to fix that for the next time I run a game with monster characters, but I haven't figured out how yet. While it's easy to see the conversion between, say, a Fighter 8 and a Monster Warrior 8 (loss of Feats vs. Monster abilities) this breaks down a bit when trying to compare the other NPC Classes to the nearest equivalent.
Thomar_of_Uointer 06-01-07, 08:47 PM	I use racial Hit Dice due to the credibility they afford. It keeps you from having a level 1 troll barbarian who is a glass cannon. If a player complains about caster level, I just tell them to use incarnum magic (it's very friendly to racial Hit Dice). I think level adjustment is a boon to DMs. When a player wants to play some odd monster in order to be stronger than the rest of the party (the most common reason for playing a monster race), you get to rub the LA in their face until they get sick of it and go back to playing a human. Now, I've solved both problems with this: http://www.kobolds-keep.net/Progressions.pdf