How to make LA+2 Elf race capable spellcasters?

[shmoo2]

In my campaign, I wanted to make the elves magical beings worthy of respect, so I've boosted elves up to a LA+2 race, modeled on the Drow in the SRD. The stats are listed below.

Problem is, with a LA of +2, at any given party level elf sorcerers are _worse_ than the human sorcerers, albeit with better CHA, spell resistance, and a few extra low-level spells. E.g. at 6th level, when humans gain access to fireball, the elf is rolling flaming sphere around.

How can I boost the race to make them worthy spellcasters?
Possible solutions I've thought of:
1) Give the race a couple of humanoid hit dice, Practiced Spellcaster as a bonus feat, and reduce the LA to +1. This might make things worse.
2) Practiced Spellcaster as a bonus feat.
3) Everyone accepts that, thought an elf of a given sorcerer level is better than a human, within the party, PC elves pay for their great stats and SR.

Is there any better solution, or are LA races simply hosed as spellcasters?

 

[shmoo2]

LA+2 elves

Elf racial stats:
- +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma.
- Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
- Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.
-Spell-Like Abilities: Elves can use the following spell-like abilities once per day: calm animals, detect magic, faerie fire. Caster level equals the elf’s class levels.
- Low-light vision.
-Spell resistance equal to 11+class levels.
- Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, longbow, and shortbow as bonus feats.
- +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
-Favored Class: Sorcerer
-LA for elves is +2.

 

[Jdvn1]

You could give them a +2 caster level.

 

[RangerWickett]

Depending on how much work you want to do with the campaign, you could convert to Elements of Magic. In EOM, it's easy to grant 'caster levels' as a racial bonus ability. In fact, there are a lot of places you could tweak a race to make them better at magic than humans. In my own game, I give Elves an MP Limit bonus, which basically means that when humans are casting 4th level spells, Elves are casting 4th-and-a-half level spells.

 

[shmoo2]

Giving the elves a caster level bonus would not grant access to higher level spells as fast as humans, correct?

In any case, should a caster level bonus raise the LA above +2?
If so, doesn't this now hose non-spell caster elves?

 

[ARandomGod]

There's really no way to make +ECL "worth it" to a caster, without granting also +caster levels AND +bonus spells equal to what they're losing.

 

[Arkhandus]

2 humanoid hit dice with a +1 LA and Practiced Spellcaster as a bonus feat would be fair (possibly even a bit underpowered, but not by much if so). But it's not what I'd reccomend.

Jack up their Dex and Cha to +4 instead of +2. Give them +2 effective caster levels for purposes of spell effects and overcoming Spell Resistance. And maybe give them 1 or 2 bonus spells per day of the highest level they can cast (such that the bonus slot(s) would increase in level as they gained access to higher-level spells). They may be casting spells of a level lower, but their DCs will be superior and they won't lose out on anything besides access to 1 spell level.

Or, *gasp*, you could just give them the racial ability to cast spells as per a 2nd-level sorcerer, stacking with any actual sorcerer levels (though only for spellcasting; not for familiars or whatnot; they wouldn't gain a familiar unless they gained actual sorcerer or wizard levels). Dragons and some other critters gain pretty much the same thing; inherant sorcery; though Dragons normally don't get access to class levels. But erinyes and other spellcasting fiends do, IIRC.

As it stands right now, the race as presented is a weak LA +2; it's SR is the only thing it gets for its second point of LA, and while that's significant SR, it doesn't really help in any active way. Hrm. If you give them 2 innate levels of sorcerer spellcasting, you might want to reduce the SR to 6 + actual character level, or 8 + actual character level.

 

[shmoo2]

2 humanoid hit dice with a +1 LA and Practiced Spellcaster as a bonus feat would be fair (possibly even a bit underpowered, but not by much if so). But it's not what I'd reccomend.

Jack up their Dex and Cha to +4 instead of +2. Give them +2 effective caster levels for purposes of spell effects and overcoming Spell Resistance. And maybe give them 1 or 2 bonus spells per day of the highest level they can cast (such that the bonus slot(s) would increase in level as they gained access to higher-level spells). They may be casting spells of a level lower, but their DCs will be superior and they won't lose out on anything besides access to 1 spell level.

Or, *gasp*, you could just give them the racial ability to cast spells as per a 2nd-level sorcerer, stacking with any actual sorcerer levels (though only for spellcasting; not for familiars or whatnot; they wouldn't gain a familiar unless they gained actual sorcerer or wizard levels). Dragons and some other critters gain pretty much the same thing; inherant sorcery; though Dragons normally don't get access to class levels. But erinyes and other spellcasting fiends do, IIRC.

As it stands right now, the race as presented is a weak LA +2

Arkhandus, those are all helpful ideas.

This race is based on the Drow as presented in the Monster Manual- which have the same sized Stat mods, SR, and spells/day. Is the Drow considered a weak LA+2 race?

Has anyone played a Drow spellcaster? How have you dealt with this issue?

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Give them 1 extra spell per day of every level. Or give them zero spells per day (and 1 spell known) of one level higher than the highest level they can cast (so if you have a high score you can gain a spell per day higher than you normally could.
In my games I reduce drow LA to +1 so it isn't too bad for them since they get +2 int.

I like your elf alot btw. Would you mind if I borrowed it for future games of mine?

 

[Khaalis]

Arkhandus, those are all helpful ideas.

This race is based on the Drow as presented in the Monster Manual- which have the same sized Stat mods, SR, and spells/day. Is the Drow considered a weak LA+2 race?

Has anyone played a Drow spellcaster? How have you dealt with this issue?

I would NOT give the race the ability to cast as a 2nd level sorcerer.
1) No other race has any similar ability. They instead gain X number of spell-like (or psi-like) abilities.
2) Giving them the same class ability as a 2nd level class is worth +2 ECL just by itself.

Modeling after the Drow is a fir benchmark. Though they do tend to be seen as a weak LA+2 race from most of what I have read of people's opinion. They do also suffer as spellcasters, just as any race with a LA. However the LA+2 comes from having unbalanced ability scores (+4 total bonus), SR, and SLA's.

The only way to really get around this, would be to implement the UA rules for buying off LA. This way the elf could buyoff their LA+2 by (I tink) 6th level. In the end they will be just as powerful in their spellcasting class as any other race, but at a slightly higher XP expenditure to get there.


As to the race, I would make a few slight wording changes to bring it a bit more up to date from the old drow entry:

"-Spell-Like Abilities: Elves can use the following spell-like abilities once per day: calm animals, detect magic, faerie fire. The caster level for these spells is equal to their character level. The DC's are Charisma based."

"-Spell resistance equal to 11+character level."

Also on the topic of the race and weapons.
If you continue to give them the martial weapon proficiency, I might think about adding:
"Weapon Familiarity: Elves may treat any elven exotic weapon, such as the Elven Thinblade, as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons."


Some other options to make a sorcerer oriented elven race.

Option 1: Derivative of Base Elf
* +2 Charisma, –2 Constitution
* Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
* Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.
* Low-Light Vision
* Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, longbow (including composite longbow), and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats.
* +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
* Automatic Languages: Common and Elven. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan.
* Favored Class: Sorcerer
* LA+0


Option 2: Gish Elf
* +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
* Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
* Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.
* Low-Light Vision
* Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, longbow (including composite longbow), and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats.
* Weapon Familiarity: Elves may treat any elven exotic weapon, such as the Elven Thinblade, as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.
* +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
* Automatic Languages: Common and Elven. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan.
* Favored Class: Sorcerer
* LA+1


Option 3: Magical Sorcerer Elf
* +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution
* Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
* Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.
* Low-Light Vision
* Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, longbow (including composite longbow), and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats.
* Arcane Feat^
* +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
* Automatic Languages: Common and Elven. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan.
* Favored Class: Sorcerer
* LA+1

^Arcane Feat: Choose an arcane feat you feal fits your image of the sorcerous elf, or even grant:
"Bonus Feat: The elf may choose on of the following feats as a bonus racial feat."

Some Examples:
Arcane Mastery (CA) = Take 10 on caster level checks
Bloodline of Fire (PGtF) = +4 bonus on saves against fire; +2 to caster level for sorcerer spells with fire descriptor
Elemental Spellcasting (PlanarHB) = +1 caster level for spells with an elemental descriptor
Eschew Materials (PHB) <Note most people give this as a free sorcerer feat anyway...>
Magical Training (PGtF) = May cast several 0-level arcane spells as a sorcerer
Nonverbal Spell (PlanarHB) = Cast verbal spells without enunciating
Spell Penetration (PHB) = +2 bonus on caster level checks to defeat SR

Hope that gives you some more ideas.