OneWinged4ngel
First Post
Thought some folks might appreciate this here, so here's a repost of an oldie but a goodie. An LA replacement that'll handle whatever you throw at it much more easily and in a far more balanced fashion.
Another house rule from my tabletop, this one letting you play MONSTERS. Cuz let's face it, the rules as written don't really let you play monsters.
Why don't they really play monsters?
Well, the LA and ECL system generally ends up with you hideously underpowered, subject to mookclearing spells (nothing like being the one guy in the party who dies with no save from Cloudkill thanks to his lacking HD :wall). In the few cases it doesn't, it shoehorns you extremely heavily into a very limited selection of classes, and this is usually just with a tiny little +1 LA!
On the other hand, the Monster Class system let's you play monsters from level one... except they lack their Essential traits that defines them as monsters! (More on that later). It just doesn't make sense for you to start play as a baby dragon, kill a few orcs for a few weeks, then be a gigantic monster. Not to mention that I don't even know how you call yourself a medusa without stone gaze or anything. Basically, you're not playing the monster, you're playing some... thing until you get to a significantly high level where you're kinda like a monster, and by then you more or less have LA anyways.
Myself, I've long since stopped using LA, recognizing that it just didn't work. However, I wasn't going to let WotC's ineptitude get in the way when someone asked me to play a monster, oh no. :nonono
So here's my band-aid on the problem. It's not perfect (and indeed rather ad hoc), but hey, it works well, gives you no LA, is pretty much balanced with a human, and lets you play minotaurs and whatever right off. Players can be whoever they want to be without feeling chastised for their decision.
Essentialist philosophy really simply explains the nature of this little band-aid fix. All things are posessed of "Essential" traits, traits that define a thing and without those traits, that thing is not that thing anymore. For example a medusa's stone gaze or snaky hair is essential to a medusa being a medusa. If you can't petrify people by winking at them, you're not a medusa. And if you don't have snaky hair, you're not a medusa. On the other hand, all things are also possessed of "accidental" traits, traits that a thing happens to have, but without them it would still be that thing. For example, a medusa's HD number. A medusa with 6 HD is a medusa as much as a medusa with 8 HD.
The thing is, by removing the "accidental" traits of a race and boiling it down to the "essential" traits, and using a bit of mechanical creativity, you can rather easily pare down most monsters (particularly "character" monsters, as opposed to things like... puzzle monsters or glass cannons that aren't even remotely well rounded) to a pretty low level. You get rid of aaaall the accidental traits. Done right, this actually leaves you with a pretty good LA zero (although you may have a "minimum level to play" requirement. See "Powerful Racial Traits below). In fact, it's often still weaker than playing a Human, the focus of many a charop build.
Some specific things to consider:
-High ability scores. If a monster has a "20 cha," do we really need to give that LA zero template +10 Cha, and THEN apply your "heroic scores" after that to get 28 or something? No! Instead, have the player set up his point buy according to his race, and then add a smaller bonus. Said monster might have +2 Cha, and the player invests a 16 in Cha. 18 Cha is close enough. So, instead of playing a "super heroic statted human" you play a "relatively normal statted monster" which is okay, because an adventuring monster is extraordinary enough already.
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-Powerful racial abilities. Let's take a look at the medusa. They want Stone Gaze, but Stone Gaze kills folks with petrification! *Gasp!* That's like, a 5th level spell right there. So... it's like one level appropriate ability for a 9th level character, you say? Well then! Instead of making people use 9 class levels for a non-scaling ability and messing up their geometric progression, why not just have a "minimum level to play this race" requirement and use up a feat slot or two with "I'm a medusa and can look at people to turn them to stone." You could lower the minimum level a bit by nerfing the ability some (and maybe having it grow later with more racial feats) such as "4e / Lost Odyssey style medusa gaze." Sure, you can't play the racial concept at level 1, but wanting to play an Ice Giant as a level 1 character is about as reasonable a concept as wanting all the talents of Elminster at level 1. Thing is, at level X when it is appropriate, you can have full class levels and be a balanced character with everyone else, and that's awesome.
-Melding stuff into class. A great example of this is the Dragonmarked Sorcerer variant from Dragon Magazine, where instead of using up feats on Dragonmarks (which are kinda like racial feats that givee you SLAs in the Eberron setting), you just add those spells to your Spells Known. Making a Sorcerer demon? Roll in some of those SLAs to your spell list! Playing a mind flayer psion? Pull in those psionic abilities to your repertoire from class! Remember, all the mechanics involved in your character are involved in the same construct that is "you." Your race and class abilities don't actually need to be seperate. That succubus bard or sorcerer could have her Charm ability from her Bard levels, rather than a racial ability.
So for an example of this theory applied (actually an example a buddy of mine gave from his latest game after he used my system. I like it because it shows how other people can use it too!): A player comes up to you and says she wants to play a fallen angel who has become a Succubus. The DM says "what defines a succubus for you?" The answer comes as "it's gotta have the ability to change shape into other humanoid forms, use a charm SLA, be socially adept, and telepathy! She doesn't need wings, because they were torn off when she was cast from heaven." So the DM says "Okay, you have +2 Cha / -2 Con and allot your point buy appropriately to model a succubus, a changeling's minor shapechage, Charm from your Bard class (or as an SLA 1/day at first level), mind link like a Kalashtar, and +2 to two social skills of your choice. Your first feat is taken up by "I'm a succubus." The player allots her stats in a Succubus-like way, such as maxxing out Charisma for a total of 20. Bam, the player now looks very much like a succubus. She isn't a very powerful one, and she lacks wings and teleportation and demon summoning, but that's not essential to her vision of a succubus, and she can get those things later in her progression. And she can seriously play that from level 1 and not break the game. Heck, people would still take Human over it, because they're getting 2 more feats out of the deal
It's worked out great in every game I've used it. No real trouble with balance, and the monster players are happy as can be. Great fun was had by all. Obviously, some of these templates are gonna be rather strong, but in every case it's been simply a matter of me allowing a player to play a unique concept, not a matter of "I want to optimize my character more with a minotaur." As I said, it's a band-aid for practical gaming, not a complete fix (that would require a complete overhaul rewriting all races and monsters). And it's a helluva lot more viable than monster classes or LA, that's for sure! Not to mention that it avoids you having to say those horrible words "No, you can't be who you want to be, because the mechanics suck."
Anyways, hope you find this useful. Also, please bother to actually read and understand the entire system before you post some kneejerk reaction, because last time I posted this... well, everything that came up was actually addressed in the first post anyways, a few select people just didn't have the courtesy to read more than a paragraph. That said, I'd absolutely love if someone could point out some hole in this (please provide an actual example and details so your issue can be properly addressed) so that I could improve it.
-Signed,
Another house rule from my tabletop, this one letting you play MONSTERS. Cuz let's face it, the rules as written don't really let you play monsters.
Why don't they really play monsters?
Well, the LA and ECL system generally ends up with you hideously underpowered, subject to mookclearing spells (nothing like being the one guy in the party who dies with no save from Cloudkill thanks to his lacking HD :wall). In the few cases it doesn't, it shoehorns you extremely heavily into a very limited selection of classes, and this is usually just with a tiny little +1 LA!
On the other hand, the Monster Class system let's you play monsters from level one... except they lack their Essential traits that defines them as monsters! (More on that later). It just doesn't make sense for you to start play as a baby dragon, kill a few orcs for a few weeks, then be a gigantic monster. Not to mention that I don't even know how you call yourself a medusa without stone gaze or anything. Basically, you're not playing the monster, you're playing some... thing until you get to a significantly high level where you're kinda like a monster, and by then you more or less have LA anyways.
Myself, I've long since stopped using LA, recognizing that it just didn't work. However, I wasn't going to let WotC's ineptitude get in the way when someone asked me to play a monster, oh no. :nonono
So here's my band-aid on the problem. It's not perfect (and indeed rather ad hoc), but hey, it works well, gives you no LA, is pretty much balanced with a human, and lets you play minotaurs and whatever right off. Players can be whoever they want to be without feeling chastised for their decision.
Essentialist philosophy really simply explains the nature of this little band-aid fix. All things are posessed of "Essential" traits, traits that define a thing and without those traits, that thing is not that thing anymore. For example a medusa's stone gaze or snaky hair is essential to a medusa being a medusa. If you can't petrify people by winking at them, you're not a medusa. And if you don't have snaky hair, you're not a medusa. On the other hand, all things are also possessed of "accidental" traits, traits that a thing happens to have, but without them it would still be that thing. For example, a medusa's HD number. A medusa with 6 HD is a medusa as much as a medusa with 8 HD.
The thing is, by removing the "accidental" traits of a race and boiling it down to the "essential" traits, and using a bit of mechanical creativity, you can rather easily pare down most monsters (particularly "character" monsters, as opposed to things like... puzzle monsters or glass cannons that aren't even remotely well rounded) to a pretty low level. You get rid of aaaall the accidental traits. Done right, this actually leaves you with a pretty good LA zero (although you may have a "minimum level to play" requirement. See "Powerful Racial Traits below). In fact, it's often still weaker than playing a Human, the focus of many a charop build.
Some specific things to consider:
-High ability scores. If a monster has a "20 cha," do we really need to give that LA zero template +10 Cha, and THEN apply your "heroic scores" after that to get 28 or something? No! Instead, have the player set up his point buy according to his race, and then add a smaller bonus. Said monster might have +2 Cha, and the player invests a 16 in Cha. 18 Cha is close enough. So, instead of playing a "super heroic statted human" you play a "relatively normal statted monster" which is okay, because an adventuring monster is extraordinary enough already.
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[/sblock]One of my other posts said:Heroic Attribute Points:
If I want to have a monster with +4 strength and +4 dexterity and +4 intelligence at level one, that's totally fine and totally balanced with a normal level 1 human. No, really. Here's why. Assume for the moment we're keeping to just a point buy system. You usually have 18 heroic points (that's point buy points) with which to build up your character above the average generic person of your race, and you can get extra points by taking scores down from your base (for instance, +2 points if a human knocks down their dex to 8). A human has "Base stats: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10" and 18 heroic attribute points to raise them above the normal human. A half orc has "Base stats: 12, 10, 10, 8, 10, 10" and 18 heroic attribute points to raise them above the normal half-orc. Aforementioned would-be LA creature has "Base stats 14, 14, 10, 14, 10, 10" and only 6 heroic attribute points to raise themselves above the norm. Instead of having "super awesome human" you have "slightly better than normal super-race." And that's totally fine and equal, and nowhere near as restrictive as LA. You can also get those scores up even higher than 20 for "minimum level" races.
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With the problem of racial bonuses and penalties in point buy situations in mind (the adjustments actually make EVERYTHING ELSE better or worse if you raise that stat past a certain threshold, rather than actually making that one stat better or worse), you can better understand how this simple change is an obvious improvement. Note that this behavior doesn't apply when rolling stats.[/sblock]Yet another one of my posts... said:Okay. So, first, the preface.
Racial penalties suck. Especially with point buy. Why is this?
First off, what are racial penalties (and bonuses for that matter) for? Well, quite simply, the half-orc is supposed to get +2 strength and -2 intelligence to make him more "orcish." Basically, orcs are stronger than humans, but less intelligent than humans. However... there are two major problems with this.
The first obvious problem is that it shoehorns you into class roles. The game just plain hates you for even thinking of trying to play an orc wizard or something.
The second problem is that it doesn't do what it's intended to do. It doesn't actually *make you more orcish,* particularly with Point Buy. Here's how it actually works: Take two wizards. One is a human, one is a half-orc. Let's even say they're going for grapplemancers or something so that they both want strength after int. They both want 16 intelligence. The orc, however, pays 6 extra points for intelligence compared to the human. The human uses those 6 points to invest in his secondary stat, Strength. The human and half-orc have spent the same number of points, and yet the human has 14 strength and 16 int, and the half-orc has 10 strength and 16 int. Tell me, who is more "orcish" in this equation? That's right, the human.
So... basically, this system doesn't work at all. All it really does is say "you are less effective at everything else if you raise this stat up past X (12 in the case of the half-orc)." In the case of bonuses, it's the reverse. You're not better at strength with the half orc, you're better at everything *else* because you have more points left over after you spent them on strength to apply to other areas. It doesn't emphasize strengths and weaknesses, it just makes you suck more at everything if you're not boosting your strength to the extremes of heroic levels, or vice versa.
-Powerful racial abilities. Let's take a look at the medusa. They want Stone Gaze, but Stone Gaze kills folks with petrification! *Gasp!* That's like, a 5th level spell right there. So... it's like one level appropriate ability for a 9th level character, you say? Well then! Instead of making people use 9 class levels for a non-scaling ability and messing up their geometric progression, why not just have a "minimum level to play this race" requirement and use up a feat slot or two with "I'm a medusa and can look at people to turn them to stone." You could lower the minimum level a bit by nerfing the ability some (and maybe having it grow later with more racial feats) such as "4e / Lost Odyssey style medusa gaze." Sure, you can't play the racial concept at level 1, but wanting to play an Ice Giant as a level 1 character is about as reasonable a concept as wanting all the talents of Elminster at level 1. Thing is, at level X when it is appropriate, you can have full class levels and be a balanced character with everyone else, and that's awesome.
-Melding stuff into class. A great example of this is the Dragonmarked Sorcerer variant from Dragon Magazine, where instead of using up feats on Dragonmarks (which are kinda like racial feats that givee you SLAs in the Eberron setting), you just add those spells to your Spells Known. Making a Sorcerer demon? Roll in some of those SLAs to your spell list! Playing a mind flayer psion? Pull in those psionic abilities to your repertoire from class! Remember, all the mechanics involved in your character are involved in the same construct that is "you." Your race and class abilities don't actually need to be seperate. That succubus bard or sorcerer could have her Charm ability from her Bard levels, rather than a racial ability.
So for an example of this theory applied (actually an example a buddy of mine gave from his latest game after he used my system. I like it because it shows how other people can use it too!): A player comes up to you and says she wants to play a fallen angel who has become a Succubus. The DM says "what defines a succubus for you?" The answer comes as "it's gotta have the ability to change shape into other humanoid forms, use a charm SLA, be socially adept, and telepathy! She doesn't need wings, because they were torn off when she was cast from heaven." So the DM says "Okay, you have +2 Cha / -2 Con and allot your point buy appropriately to model a succubus, a changeling's minor shapechage, Charm from your Bard class (or as an SLA 1/day at first level), mind link like a Kalashtar, and +2 to two social skills of your choice. Your first feat is taken up by "I'm a succubus." The player allots her stats in a Succubus-like way, such as maxxing out Charisma for a total of 20. Bam, the player now looks very much like a succubus. She isn't a very powerful one, and she lacks wings and teleportation and demon summoning, but that's not essential to her vision of a succubus, and she can get those things later in her progression. And she can seriously play that from level 1 and not break the game. Heck, people would still take Human over it, because they're getting 2 more feats out of the deal
It's worked out great in every game I've used it. No real trouble with balance, and the monster players are happy as can be. Great fun was had by all. Obviously, some of these templates are gonna be rather strong, but in every case it's been simply a matter of me allowing a player to play a unique concept, not a matter of "I want to optimize my character more with a minotaur." As I said, it's a band-aid for practical gaming, not a complete fix (that would require a complete overhaul rewriting all races and monsters). And it's a helluva lot more viable than monster classes or LA, that's for sure! Not to mention that it avoids you having to say those horrible words "No, you can't be who you want to be, because the mechanics suck."
Anyways, hope you find this useful. Also, please bother to actually read and understand the entire system before you post some kneejerk reaction, because last time I posted this... well, everything that came up was actually addressed in the first post anyways, a few select people just didn't have the courtesy to read more than a paragraph. That said, I'd absolutely love if someone could point out some hole in this (please provide an actual example and details so your issue can be properly addressed) so that I could improve it.
-Signed,
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