Post/Author/DateTime	Post
asiy 06-28-07, 10:27 AM	sorry for being a noob... but what is that? thank.
Omega_Grey 06-28-07, 11:17 AM	LA is short for Level Adjustment and it simply is a tool to allow people to play more powerful races alongside the standard races and not have an advantage. For instance a Hobgoblin has a Level Adjustment of +1, meaning that he has one 'level' of hobgoblin that gives him all the hobgoblin abilities. If that hobgoblin has one level of fighter, then that would make him be the same level as a level 2 human fighter, but he would only have the class abilities of a level one fighter. To make it even more tricky we get to add in racial hit dice. These are functionally a lot like level adjustment in that they increase your overall power from just being a race. You add together all racial hit dice and the level adjustment to find the total ECL, or effective character level. So if for example we have a race that has 3 racial hit dice and a 3 level adjustment we would have to be at least level 6 to even play as one, and would be the equivalent of a level 6 character. Hope this helps explain some things.
RobbyPants 06-28-07, 11:27 AM	If you start to read lots of threads on the subject, you'll probably notice that not many people are fond of the current LA system. Often times, the class abilities that you lose out on are not worth the racial abilities you pick up. This is especially true with full casting classes. One other annoying thing about the LA system is they will always round up. Take the hobgoblin from the above example. There is no way that I would consider it to be a solid LA +1, but I can see why they didn't want it to be 0. So you end up with a race that's something like LA +0.25 or LA +0.5, but there are no fractional levels, so it gets rounded up to 1. Sorry for the little rant. ;)
asiy 06-28-07, 11:31 AM	i see, i see... lol, i was thinking hard on LA.. and was thinking that maybe it was 'light armor' lol hahah. thanks,
Mentar 07-01-07, 09:34 PM	One of the main problems I have seen with the LA system is that the mid range LA characters (2-4) almost always have HD as well, thus playing one may put you well behind the curve. LA is calculated to make characters with a total ECL that would be effective with characters of the same level. After a few levels, however, they begin to feel the missing levels. Thus the LA buyoff in Unearthed Arcana. LA always ends up less effective and more detrimental as levels increase. A level 1 ogre fighter or barbarian (ECL 7) is only slightly weaker (in average hps, BAB, and feats) then a level 7 half-orc, but has reach and larger weapons. Take three more levels into account, the 4th level ogre fighter (ECL 10) is now actually slightly weaker then a 9th level half-orc. If the campaign continues to where the buyoff starts (approx 3 levels times the LA for the first buyoff, + 3 times new LA for next) the 6th level ogre (ECL 12) can still out reach the half-orc and use larger weapons, but the half-orc's added HPs, BAB, and Feats make the half-orc far more effective. I have tried playing around with it, but the best method I have come up with for replacing LA is to take every possible race with LA and add a progression chart for the racial abilities. With 4 volumes of MMs (5th on the way), Savage Species, Fiend FolioX2, and everything else out there this could take years to make balanced charts. Thus everyone here trying to see what they can shave off to reduce LAs while still keeping as much of the power as possible.
AMGriffin 07-01-07, 09:42 PM	LA= Lunar Apples Turns out it's not made of cheese.