Planetouched LA - Please help!

[Desdichado]

I was reading the 3.5 update to Oriental Adventures in Dragon Magazine (yes, I know, old news) and was surprised to see that with the change in type from Shapeshifter to Humanoid (Shapeshifter) the Hengeyokai were reduced from an LA +1 race to a standard race with no LA.

Serendipitously, I have been doodling around with a homebrew which focuses a lot on Planetouched races, and I was thinking of changing their type from Outsider (Native) to simply Humanoid.

Do you think that would be sufficient to remove the LA +1 adjustment to the six basic Planetouched types (aasimar, tiefling, the four basic genasi) or not? I'm very much in favor of removing the LA +1 to those races if possible, but I'm not sure I'm completely convinced that changing the type is sufficient; it wouldn't even have occured to me that it might be, in fact, if it wasn't for the OA update. It had also occured to me to remove darkvision possibly, and I'm pretty sure that the combination is sufficient, but I want some feedback on the two changes.

 

[Bastoche]

I think most of these races has one cool hability that would leave them at +1 IMO. For instance, the tiefling and aasimar both have 2 +2 vs 1 -2 and there's the air genasi with the no breathing ability that is quite strong. Just on the top of my head... The outsider thingy isn't as strong as those other abilities IMO. YMMV.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I agree with Batoche-- even as Humanoids, the planetouched races are generally too good to be LA +0. Compare them to Hobgoblins, what I would consider to be the bare minimum of an LA +1 race (as written). Pretty much all planetouched (except the poor, anemic Genasi) are significantly better than the Hobgoblin, and the Genasi are generally comparable, if not slightly better.

I honestly prefer them as Humanoids, myself, but if you cut them down to Humanoids, you should give them back a little boost to keep them on firm LA +1 ground.

 

[Knight Otu]

The Player's Guide to Faerûn (in an appendix describing 'lesser variants' for powerful races) does that, in a way. In addition to making them Humanoid (Planetouched), they are also suspectible to spells that specifically target outsiders, though.

 

[Desdichado]

Huh? I don't have that book; can you please expand on that? I'm a little confused--does it do anything other than change their type?

 

[Ferret]

It makes them susceptable to outsider only spells, like banishment.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Huh? I don't have that book; can you please expand on that? I'm a little confused--does it do anything other than change their type?

The only change I've seen in Races of Faerûn is the type change; for some reason, actual race information isn't included. I don't remember how they're subject to banishment, but I could probably have a look at it again. (I need to check out the Planetouched racial feats, anyway.)

They don't remove the Level Adjustment, though.

 

[Knight Otu]

Huh? I don't have that book; can you please expand on that? I'm a little confused--does it do anything other than change their type?

As I said - they essentially become humanoids with the planetouched subtype. Also, they are affected by spells that specifically target humanoids (charm person) and outsiders (the book gives banishment as an example, curiously). That is pretty much all there is to it, except that those lesser planetouched would of course replace all planetouched in the campaign. They retain all other characteristics of their kind.

I don't remember how they're subject to banishment, but I could probably have a look at it again.

Presumably, a banishment would force them onto the astral, as that has been established as the "place you go when you can go nowhere else," though I'm not sure if that would apply to Joshua's campaign. That's at least how I remember it, and may easily be wrong.