Post/Author/DateTime	Post
PsyBomb 01-25-05, 12:33 AM	I've come up with a rough house rule for use in games for templates. Tell me if it's already been printed somewhere, since the idea is still very rough at the moment. Characters must start out LA 0. However, during the game, they can "bank" a level instead of levelling up. These banked levels ac as levels of Commoner until used. Once you have enough of them to equal the LA for a template or species, you can awaken it within you (lame, I know, but it's cool). In effect, you take level drain off of the Commoner levels and gain the template. You can do this for any template or LA you want, as often as you want, but it is subject to a couple of restrictions. First, if you are not behaving like the template or haven't met conditions they would have to, you can't take it (example: someone banking for "Saint" must be good, have the Exalted feats, etc... while someone who wants to be a Drow should start as an Elf). Second, you must understand that the decision is irrevokable, and if you have banked levels at the end of the campain, they are wasted.
MythMage 01-25-05, 01:03 AM	As long as your players don't mind the fairly flat and lame concept, it's a fine idea. It seems balanced, and if you put in a bit more time, I bet you could get a better concept for it, too. Good mechanic. :bow:
PsyBomb 01-25-05, 01:41 AM	:dancin: I can't believe it! I actually got my first worship smiley! Anyway, the rule hasn't come into effect yet, and I am trying to make it more flavorful for use in my next campaign. Possibilities besides the "awaken your Blood" thing could be some kind of shrine or a powerful transmuter that turns your own life energies to empower yourself (once again, a very rough idea.)
Kyaran 01-25-05, 02:46 PM	The only problem is: anyone that does this suffers all the negative effects of LA with no benefits until they've 'saved' enough to 'buy' their template. A better idea would be to progress them in the template directly. This has been covered in the Savage Progressions articles (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/sp), and there are several good examples are in the Gaining a Template Midcampaign (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a) and Level-Adjusted Races (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a) articles in that section. With this method, you gain part of the abilities and benefits for the new template/race while only suffering a commensurate LA, and the in-game transition is slower and smoother. For example: Rather than a character waking up one morning with wings, a breath weapon, +14 to abilities, and energy immunity, the Half-Dragon template class spreads these changes over 3 levels.
Kanne 01-28-05, 05:31 PM	We do exact same thing in our campaing, but we add different prerequisits based on the template, for example if you wanted to become a Half-Celestial you would have to obtain either a tear drop or a vial of blood from a celestial creature. and the reverse for thoes wanting to become half-fiendish. The only thing i have noticed is that some of the templates are overly powerful like the Monster of Legend in MM2.