House Rules to make life easier, in some respects [Archive] - Wizards Community

House Rules to make life easier, in some respects [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Avatar of Kokusho
06-11-07, 11:55 AM Since others have been so kind as to share their house rules with everyone, I decided that I should do the same, in hopes that people could maybe benefit from them:

1. Weapon Specialization (nothing higher) is authorized for ALL classes. If a spellcaster can get it with ray or touch spells, why can't the ranger, who has a COMBAT STYLE, specialize in his bow?
2. Spell Power works the way it used to in 3.0. The point of spell power is to make spells more powerful...and almost every class that gives it is prestige and caps out. We play high-level campaigns, and it royally sucks for the spellcasters' weapons (spells) to be mostly ineffective to the enemies.
3. What's allowed to the PCs is allowed to the enemies. When I DM, most of my bad guys are intelligent creatures with class levels. You want to go get yourself cracked out by becoming a Wiz/Sor/Ultimate Magus? Expect to see one in your future. :p
4. Spell Resistance for Time Stop. You fail on SR, the enemy's unaffected. Seems fair, when Time Stop can completely derail things.
5. Sorcerers recive a bonus feat progression just as wizards do.
6. Paladins may multiclass and go back to being a paladin...as long as the class is deity-related (such as cleric, war priest, pious templar, grey guard and the like). Monks work the same way- you know a monk prestige when you see one, right?
7. Class, feat, and class ability retraining is allowed; providing you talk to the DM. There are three DMs in the house, and right now we have three campaigns, all interrelated. Talking to all of us would probably keep things easier.
8. Personal grudges will NOT be allowed at the D&D table. If your character has a reason not to like another PC, that's fine. If you don't like the player, it's not automatically assumed that your character hates him or her either.
9. Alternate Negative HP: Your negative HP threshold, instead of being -10 for death, is a negative equal to your Constitution score.
10. You may choose your class based on any books currently in the house. This is quite a lot of books, and if any has class abilities that seem a bit weird or overpowered, do everyone a favor and point it out beforehand...
11. Strange races are allowed, but sometimes the results may hurt. There's a guy in our group who insists upon playing a drow in almost every campaign. Consequently, he's been mistaken for a raider, gets overcharged for just about everything, and sometimes gets randomly shot at by angry villagers.
12. Racial level adjustments can be tinkered with, providing you can eliminate or lessen abilities.
13. Critical fumbles do not exist. If you roll a natural 1, you lose all other attacks with that weapon. That's it.
Epic Characters Only

1. You get one epic reroll per day. You must take this roll no matter if it's better or worse, and before you know the result of the original roll.
2. Epic Death Threshold: Your negative HP threshold is equal to either your Con score or your HD, whichever is better.
3. Skill Points for Feats: Every three levels, you may spend ten skill points to buy a feat. You must meet all prerequisites for this feat.

I would like to know what you think of these, and provide any insight as needed. Thanks :)
CrazyOzzy
06-13-07, 02:03 PM Heya,

First of all, please reconsider your Font type and size, it is really hard on the eyes!

1. Weapon Specialization (nothing higher) is authorized for ALL classes. If a spellcaster can get it with ray or touch spells, why can't the ranger, who has a COMBAT STYLE, specialize in his bow?

Ok. But give your Fighter something nice to compensate.

2. Spell Power works the way it used to in 3.0. The point of spell power is to make spells more powerful...and almost every class that gives it is prestige and caps out. We play high-level campaigns, and it royally sucks for the spellcasters' weapons (spells) to be mostly ineffective to the enemies.

I am not familiar at all with 3.0, but aren't spells powerful enough as they are at high levels?

3. What's allowed to the PCs is allowed to the enemies. When I DM, most of my bad guys are intelligent creatures with class levels. You want to go get yourself cracked out by becoming a Wiz/Sor/Ultimate Magus? Expect to see one in your future. :p

Great stuff! Just advise the players of this at the beginning of the campain and try and balance your optimized NPCs to the PCs' level. Optimized opponents are tough.

4. Spell Resistance for Time Stop. You fail on SR, the enemy's unaffected. Seems fair, when Time Stop can completely derail things.

OK.

5. Sorcerers recive a bonus feat progression just as wizards do.

Ok, why not. But, again, if you take some class specific from a certain class try and give the class you gave it from something else.

6. Paladins may multiclass and go back to being a paladin...as long as the class is deity-related (such as cleric, war priest, pious templar, grey guard and the like). Monks work the same way- you know a monk prestige when you see one, right?

I assume they have to keep the same alignment that Paladin/Monk requires? I would include some roleplaying with the class changes to avoid just jumping from a class to another. Ex : have the paladin rejoin his faith's clergy, have the monk quest to rejoin his monastery.

7. Class, feat, and class ability retraining is allowed; providing you talk to the DM. There are three DMs in the house, and right now we have three campaigns, all interrelated. Talking to all of us would probably keep things easier.

Cool.

8. Personal grudges will NOT be allowed at the D&D table. If your character has a reason not to like another PC, that's fine. If you don't like the player, it's not automatically assumed that your character hates him or her either.

Goes without saying really, should be the rule everywhere.

9. Alternate Negative HP: Your negative HP threshold, instead of being -10 for death, is a negative equal to your Constitution score.

I like this. Adds more durability to CON-tastic characters.

10. You may choose your class based on any books currently in the house. This is quite a lot of books, and if any has class abilities that seem a bit weird or overpowered, do everyone a favor and point it out beforehand...

Nice rule, giving the players more options instead of restricting them. Be aware YOURSELF, of all these classes, their abilities, etc so nothing gets out of hand.

11. Strange races are allowed, but sometimes the results may hurt. There's a guy in our group who insists upon playing a drow in almost every campaign. Consequently, he's been mistaken for a raider, gets overcharged for just about everything, and sometimes gets randomly shot at by angry villagers.

Be careful with this, monster races with racial HD and LA, etc.

12. Racial level adjustments can be tinkered with, providing you can eliminate or lessen abilities.

Nice! You seem to like customization and options for players. You are like me!

13. Critical fumbles do not exist. If you roll a natural 1, you lose all other attacks with that weapon. That's it.

Good. I use the -10/+10 rule, can't stand this automatic hit and miss ****.

No comments about the Epic stuff, I have almost no experience of it.

All the best with your game! :)
Tomkin
06-13-07, 02:38 PM No comment on most, except for the following:

4. Spell Resistance for Time Stop. <snip>Personally, I think that makes no sense - Time Stop speeds you up, it doesn't slow them down. It says right in the spell description, it only targets you. Of course, if you allow SR, you'll get things like this:
-Spellcaster takes Greater Spell Penetration, Assay Resistance, etc. to beat SR.
-Spellcaster's allies all take items that give SR.
-Spellcaster casts time stop, voluntarily failing his SR roll against his allies. Whoop-de-doo! 2-5 extra turns for everyone!

9. Alternate Negative HP <snip>Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved uses this. It also rules that you aren't just disabled at 0 hp, but from 0 hp to -(your Con Mod) - for example, a character with Con 17 would be Disabled at 0 to -3 hp, and Dying from -4 to -16 (dead at-17).

10. You may choose your class based on any books currently in the house. <snip>
11. Strange races are allowed <snip>
12. Racial level adjustments can be tinkered with <snip>Be careful with these, they could be abused.

Those are my thoughts.
Sphyre
06-13-07, 05:20 PM 4. Spell Resistance for Time Stop. You fail on SR, the enemy's unaffected. Seems fair, when Time Stop can completely derail things.

I assume you play 3.5, due to the fact that you mentioned 3.0 in the past tense. In 3.5, you can't effect anyone during your timestop unless it's something like a delayed blast fireball. Are you saying, that you're adding an additional SR check to see if the delayed spells hurt as another balancing factor, or letting timestop act like 3.0 timestop? ... It doesn't make much sense.

Time Stop
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 9, Trickery 9
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1d4+1 rounds (apparent time); see text
This spell seems to make time cease to flow for everyone but you. In fact, you speed up so greatly that all other creatures seem frozen, though they are actually still moving at their normal speeds. You are free to act for 1d4+1 rounds of apparent time. Normal and magical fire, cold, gas, and the like can still harm you. While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target such creatures with any attack or spell. A spell that affects an area and has a duration longer than the remaining duration of the time stop have their normal effects on other creatures once the time stop ends. Most spellcasters use the additional time to improve their defenses, summon allies, or flee from combat.
You cannot move or harm items held, carried, or worn by a creature stuck in normal time, but you can affect any item that is not in another creature’s possession.
You are undetectable while time stop lasts. You cannot enter an area protected by an antimagic field while under the effect of time stop.

13. Critical fumbles do not exist. If you roll a natural 1, you lose all other attacks with that weapon. That's it.

Isn't missing, when you could otherwise hit, penalty enough? I know you're talking about epic in the first place... so at that level fighters need all the love they can get. Chances are with their +50 to hit, they would have hit on a 51 anyway, so why take away all the other attacks because you made them miss when they otherwise would have hit?
Avatar of Kokusho
06-13-07, 08:44 PM Well, I've heard horror stories on what happens to some people when they roll a 1. Ew.

As for the Time Stop alternate rule, there is no way in this world or the next that any of us would allow it to work for anyone but the caster. The SR option is just for enemies, so that you can't do broken stuff such as set a trio of energy admixed delayed blast fireballs that are maximized to go off at your enemy's feet, or other such stupidity.

I know that people can abuse the strange races clause, but they usually regret playing a 1 HD character when the rest of the party is walking around with 8-10.
Tomkin
06-13-07, 09:15 PM Low hit dice are compensated for by races that have a strong CON modifier. For example, at ECL 8 or so a half-giant barbarian will have equal hit points and attack bonus to his human counterpart, and will be wielding a Large weapon, using stomp once per day and taking psionic-focus feats. Of course, iterative attacks will come later, and it is difficult to make up for LA in spellcasting, but some races (such as half-giants) do work. I'd play a half-giant barbarian over a human one any day. Or probably a rakshasa sor1/rogue-X, etc. (Although I haven't crunched the numbers on that one, DR 15/good AND piercing makes up for HP loss, you can dim-door and sneak and just be generally awesome.)
Harbin_Dunewalker
06-13-07, 11:24 PM Conveniently, half-giants and goliaths are some of the few races with LA that do work reasonably well. It's important to remember that their LA is LOW- -1 level only hurts a tiny little bit, but once you get past that, you start getting seriously crippled, or even affected by a Blasphemy or Cloudkill that was only supposed to keep out various mooks and redshirts.
Avatar of Kokusho
06-17-07, 10:15 AM Forgot one- vorpal weapons. The idea of a critical hit instantly beheading anything is ridiculous, to all of us. Therefore, vorpal increases the crit multiplier by 2. For instance, a vorpal longsword has a x4 crit, while a vorpal scythe has a x6...which can make you wish you were beheaded. :p
Cheza
06-17-07, 09:57 PM I know that people can abuse the strange races clause, but they usually regret playing a 1 HD character when the rest of the party is walking around with 8-10.

Rakshasa

Level Adjustment +7

but

HitDice: 7x d8 = cleric at lvl 7
BAB: +7 = fighter at lvl 7
Saves: 5/5/5 = monk at lvl 7
Skills: 8 + Int = rogue at lvl 7

+6 Constitution & Charisma
+4 Dexterity
+2 any other attribute

+9 natural armor

Feats: 3 feats
damage reduction: 15/good AND piercing
spell resistance: 20+all levels (including monster levels)
spells per day: 7 levels as a sorcerer (added to class-levels)
...

So you're right. Taking strange races causes MULTIPLE disadvantages...
Storymaster
06-18-07, 01:05 AM Forgot one- vorpal weapons. The idea of a critical hit instantly beheading anything is ridiculous, to all of us. Therefore, vorpal increases the crit multiplier by 2. For instance, a vorpal longsword has a x4 crit, while a vorpal scythe has a x6...which can make you wish you were beheaded. :p

A vorpal weapon can only cut off somebody's head on a natural roll of 20 (followed by a confirmation roll), not merely a critical hit. If it increased the critical multiplier, then I'd actually consider taking it. As it stands, I hardly think it's worth the +5 bonus that it costs.
eamon
06-18-07, 06:45 AM Rakshasa

Level Adjustment +7

but

HitDice: 7x d8 = cleric at lvl 7
BAB: +7 = fighter at lvl 7
Saves: 5/5/5 = monk at lvl 7
Skills: 8 + Int = rogue at lvl 7

+6 Constitution & Charisma
+4 Dexterity
+2 any other attribute

+9 natural armor

Feats: 3 feats
damage reduction: 15/good AND piercing
spell resistance: 20+all levels (including monster levels)
spells per day: 7 levels as a sorcerer (added to class-levels)
...

So you're right. Taking strange races causes MULTIPLE disadvantages...

Rakshasa's have a level adjustment of +7. This is before racial HD are counted. You should compare a basic rakshasa @ 7HD level thus with a 14th level character. Or if you wish, a 20th level normal human character vs. a rakshasa + 6 levels. You're losing 7 HD, and the forced monstrous HD might not have the class abilities you want (sure, if you're a sorc. it's fine, but then you're 3.5 spell levels behind a full-progression caster!!!)
eamon
06-18-07, 06:52 AM To further clarify; I think a rakshasa ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/rakshasa.htm ) is quite OK, but a pixie ( http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/monstersS.html#pixie ) is probably a better sorcerer. Permanent invis, 60 ft. fly (good manuverability), and virtually identical spell resistance (just two lower), but 3 more caster levels... ... is worth a lot!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Avatar of Kokusho 06-11-07, 11:55 AM	Since others have been so kind as to share their house rules with everyone, I decided that I should do the same, in hopes that people could maybe benefit from them: 1. Weapon Specialization (nothing higher) is authorized for ALL classes. If a spellcaster can get it with ray or touch spells, why can't the ranger, who has a COMBAT STYLE, specialize in his bow? 2. Spell Power works the way it used to in 3.0. The point of spell power is to make spells more powerful...and almost every class that gives it is prestige and caps out. We play high-level campaigns, and it royally sucks for the spellcasters' weapons (spells) to be mostly ineffective to the enemies. 3. What's allowed to the PCs is allowed to the enemies. When I DM, most of my bad guys are intelligent creatures with class levels. You want to go get yourself cracked out by becoming a Wiz/Sor/Ultimate Magus? Expect to see one in your future. :p 4. Spell Resistance for Time Stop. You fail on SR, the enemy's unaffected. Seems fair, when Time Stop can completely derail things. 5. Sorcerers recive a bonus feat progression just as wizards do. 6. Paladins may multiclass and go back to being a paladin...as long as the class is deity-related (such as cleric, war priest, pious templar, grey guard and the like). Monks work the same way- you know a monk prestige when you see one, right? 7. Class, feat, and class ability retraining is allowed; providing you talk to the DM. There are three DMs in the house, and right now we have three campaigns, all interrelated. Talking to all of us would probably keep things easier. 8. Personal grudges will NOT be allowed at the D&D table. If your character has a reason not to like another PC, that's fine. If you don't like the player, it's not automatically assumed that your character hates him or her either. 9. Alternate Negative HP: Your negative HP threshold, instead of being -10 for death, is a negative equal to your Constitution score. 10. You may choose your class based on any books currently in the house. This is quite a lot of books, and if any has class abilities that seem a bit weird or overpowered, do everyone a favor and point it out beforehand... 11. Strange races are allowed, but sometimes the results may hurt. There's a guy in our group who insists upon playing a drow in almost every campaign. Consequently, he's been mistaken for a raider, gets overcharged for just about everything, and sometimes gets randomly shot at by angry villagers. 12. Racial level adjustments can be tinkered with, providing you can eliminate or lessen abilities. 13. Critical fumbles do not exist. If you roll a natural 1, you lose all other attacks with that weapon. That's it. Epic Characters Only 1. You get one epic reroll per day. You must take this roll no matter if it's better or worse, and before you know the result of the original roll. 2. Epic Death Threshold: Your negative HP threshold is equal to either your Con score or your HD, whichever is better. 3. Skill Points for Feats: Every three levels, you may spend ten skill points to buy a feat. You must meet all prerequisites for this feat. I would like to know what you think of these, and provide any insight as needed. Thanks :)
CrazyOzzy 06-13-07, 02:03 PM	Heya, First of all, please reconsider your Font type and size, it is really hard on the eyes! 1. Weapon Specialization (nothing higher) is authorized for ALL classes. If a spellcaster can get it with ray or touch spells, why can't the ranger, who has a COMBAT STYLE, specialize in his bow? Ok. But give your Fighter something nice to compensate. 2. Spell Power works the way it used to in 3.0. The point of spell power is to make spells more powerful...and almost every class that gives it is prestige and caps out. We play high-level campaigns, and it royally sucks for the spellcasters' weapons (spells) to be mostly ineffective to the enemies. I am not familiar at all with 3.0, but aren't spells powerful enough as they are at high levels? 3. What's allowed to the PCs is allowed to the enemies. When I DM, most of my bad guys are intelligent creatures with class levels. You want to go get yourself cracked out by becoming a Wiz/Sor/Ultimate Magus? Expect to see one in your future. :p Great stuff! Just advise the players of this at the beginning of the campain and try and balance your optimized NPCs to the PCs' level. Optimized opponents are tough. 4. Spell Resistance for Time Stop. You fail on SR, the enemy's unaffected. Seems fair, when Time Stop can completely derail things. OK. 5. Sorcerers recive a bonus feat progression just as wizards do. Ok, why not. But, again, if you take some class specific from a certain class try and give the class you gave it from something else. 6. Paladins may multiclass and go back to being a paladin...as long as the class is deity-related (such as cleric, war priest, pious templar, grey guard and the like). Monks work the same way- you know a monk prestige when you see one, right? I assume they have to keep the same alignment that Paladin/Monk requires? I would include some roleplaying with the class changes to avoid just jumping from a class to another. Ex : have the paladin rejoin his faith's clergy, have the monk quest to rejoin his monastery. 7. Class, feat, and class ability retraining is allowed; providing you talk to the DM. There are three DMs in the house, and right now we have three campaigns, all interrelated. Talking to all of us would probably keep things easier. Cool. 8. Personal grudges will NOT be allowed at the D&D table. If your character has a reason not to like another PC, that's fine. If you don't like the player, it's not automatically assumed that your character hates him or her either. Goes without saying really, should be the rule everywhere. 9. Alternate Negative HP: Your negative HP threshold, instead of being -10 for death, is a negative equal to your Constitution score. I like this. Adds more durability to CON-tastic characters. 10. You may choose your class based on any books currently in the house. This is quite a lot of books, and if any has class abilities that seem a bit weird or overpowered, do everyone a favor and point it out beforehand... Nice rule, giving the players more options instead of restricting them. Be aware YOURSELF, of all these classes, their abilities, etc so nothing gets out of hand. 11. Strange races are allowed, but sometimes the results may hurt. There's a guy in our group who insists upon playing a drow in almost every campaign. Consequently, he's been mistaken for a raider, gets overcharged for just about everything, and sometimes gets randomly shot at by angry villagers. Be careful with this, monster races with racial HD and LA, etc. 12. Racial level adjustments can be tinkered with, providing you can eliminate or lessen abilities. Nice! You seem to like customization and options for players. You are like me! 13. Critical fumbles do not exist. If you roll a natural 1, you lose all other attacks with that weapon. That's it. Good. I use the -10/+10 rule, can't stand this automatic hit and miss ****. No comments about the Epic stuff, I have almost no experience of it. All the best with your game! :)
Tomkin 06-13-07, 02:38 PM	No comment on most, except for the following: 4. Spell Resistance for Time Stop. <snip>Personally, I think that makes no sense - Time Stop speeds you up, it doesn't slow them down. It says right in the spell description, it only targets you. Of course, if you allow SR, you'll get things like this: -Spellcaster takes Greater Spell Penetration, Assay Resistance, etc. to beat SR. -Spellcaster's allies all take items that give SR. -Spellcaster casts time stop, voluntarily failing his SR roll against his allies. Whoop-de-doo! 2-5 extra turns for everyone! 9. Alternate Negative HP <snip>Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved uses this. It also rules that you aren't just disabled at 0 hp, but from 0 hp to -(your Con Mod) - for example, a character with Con 17 would be Disabled at 0 to -3 hp, and Dying from -4 to -16 (dead at-17). 10. You may choose your class based on any books currently in the house. <snip> 11. Strange races are allowed <snip> 12. Racial level adjustments can be tinkered with <snip>Be careful with these, they could be abused. Those are my thoughts.
Sphyre 06-13-07, 05:20 PM	4. Spell Resistance for Time Stop. You fail on SR, the enemy's unaffected. Seems fair, when Time Stop can completely derail things. I assume you play 3.5, due to the fact that you mentioned 3.0 in the past tense. In 3.5, you can't effect anyone during your timestop unless it's something like a delayed blast fireball. Are you saying, that you're adding an additional SR check to see if the delayed spells hurt as another balancing factor, or letting timestop act like 3.0 timestop? ... It doesn't make much sense. Time Stop Transmutation Level: Sor/Wiz 9, Trickery 9 Components: V Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: 1d4+1 rounds (apparent time); see text This spell seems to make time cease to flow for everyone but you. In fact, you speed up so greatly that all other creatures seem frozen, though they are actually still moving at their normal speeds. You are free to act for 1d4+1 rounds of apparent time. Normal and magical fire, cold, gas, and the like can still harm you. While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target such creatures with any attack or spell. A spell that affects an area and has a duration longer than the remaining duration of the time stop have their normal effects on other creatures once the time stop ends. Most spellcasters use the additional time to improve their defenses, summon allies, or flee from combat. You cannot move or harm items held, carried, or worn by a creature stuck in normal time, but you can affect any item that is not in another creature’s possession. You are undetectable while time stop lasts. You cannot enter an area protected by an antimagic field while under the effect of time stop. 13. Critical fumbles do not exist. If you roll a natural 1, you lose all other attacks with that weapon. That's it. Isn't missing, when you could otherwise hit, penalty enough? I know you're talking about epic in the first place... so at that level fighters need all the love they can get. Chances are with their +50 to hit, they would have hit on a 51 anyway, so why take away all the other attacks because you made them miss when they otherwise would have hit?
Avatar of Kokusho 06-13-07, 08:44 PM	Well, I've heard horror stories on what happens to some people when they roll a 1. Ew. As for the Time Stop alternate rule, there is no way in this world or the next that any of us would allow it to work for anyone but the caster. The SR option is just for enemies, so that you can't do broken stuff such as set a trio of energy admixed delayed blast fireballs that are maximized to go off at your enemy's feet, or other such stupidity. I know that people can abuse the strange races clause, but they usually regret playing a 1 HD character when the rest of the party is walking around with 8-10.
Tomkin 06-13-07, 09:15 PM	Low hit dice are compensated for by races that have a strong CON modifier. For example, at ECL 8 or so a half-giant barbarian will have equal hit points and attack bonus to his human counterpart, and will be wielding a Large weapon, using stomp once per day and taking psionic-focus feats. Of course, iterative attacks will come later, and it is difficult to make up for LA in spellcasting, but some races (such as half-giants) do work. I'd play a half-giant barbarian over a human one any day. Or probably a rakshasa sor1/rogue-X, etc. (Although I haven't crunched the numbers on that one, DR 15/good AND piercing makes up for HP loss, you can dim-door and sneak and just be generally awesome.)
Harbin_Dunewalker 06-13-07, 11:24 PM	Conveniently, half-giants and goliaths are some of the few races with LA that do work reasonably well. It's important to remember that their LA is LOW- -1 level only hurts a tiny little bit, but once you get past that, you start getting seriously crippled, or even affected by a Blasphemy or Cloudkill that was only supposed to keep out various mooks and redshirts.
Avatar of Kokusho 06-17-07, 10:15 AM	Forgot one- vorpal weapons. The idea of a critical hit instantly beheading anything is ridiculous, to all of us. Therefore, vorpal increases the crit multiplier by 2. For instance, a vorpal longsword has a x4 crit, while a vorpal scythe has a x6...which can make you wish you were beheaded. :p
Cheza 06-17-07, 09:57 PM	I know that people can abuse the strange races clause, but they usually regret playing a 1 HD character when the rest of the party is walking around with 8-10. Rakshasa Level Adjustment +7 but HitDice: 7x d8 = cleric at lvl 7 BAB: +7 = fighter at lvl 7 Saves: 5/5/5 = monk at lvl 7 Skills: 8 + Int = rogue at lvl 7 +6 Constitution & Charisma +4 Dexterity +2 any other attribute +9 natural armor Feats: 3 feats damage reduction: 15/good AND piercing spell resistance: 20+all levels (including monster levels) spells per day: 7 levels as a sorcerer (added to class-levels) ... So you're right. Taking strange races causes MULTIPLE disadvantages...
Storymaster 06-18-07, 01:05 AM	Forgot one- vorpal weapons. The idea of a critical hit instantly beheading anything is ridiculous, to all of us. Therefore, vorpal increases the crit multiplier by 2. For instance, a vorpal longsword has a x4 crit, while a vorpal scythe has a x6...which can make you wish you were beheaded. :p A vorpal weapon can only cut off somebody's head on a natural roll of 20 (followed by a confirmation roll), not merely a critical hit. If it increased the critical multiplier, then I'd actually consider taking it. As it stands, I hardly think it's worth the +5 bonus that it costs.
eamon 06-18-07, 06:45 AM	Rakshasa Level Adjustment +7 but HitDice: 7x d8 = cleric at lvl 7 BAB: +7 = fighter at lvl 7 Saves: 5/5/5 = monk at lvl 7 Skills: 8 + Int = rogue at lvl 7 +6 Constitution & Charisma +4 Dexterity +2 any other attribute +9 natural armor Feats: 3 feats damage reduction: 15/good AND piercing spell resistance: 20+all levels (including monster levels) spells per day: 7 levels as a sorcerer (added to class-levels) ... So you're right. Taking strange races causes MULTIPLE disadvantages... Rakshasa's have a level adjustment of +7. This is before racial HD are counted. You should compare a basic rakshasa @ 7HD level thus with a 14th level character. Or if you wish, a 20th level normal human character vs. a rakshasa + 6 levels. You're losing 7 HD, and the forced monstrous HD might not have the class abilities you want (sure, if you're a sorc. it's fine, but then you're 3.5 spell levels behind a full-progression caster!!!)
eamon 06-18-07, 06:52 AM	To further clarify; I think a rakshasa ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/rakshasa.htm ) is quite OK, but a pixie ( http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/monstersS.html#pixie ) is probably a better sorcerer. Permanent invis, 60 ft. fly (good manuverability), and virtually identical spell resistance (just two lower), but 3 more caster levels... ... is worth a lot!