Why do you use LA in your campaign?

[notjer]

Now I've read a lot of topics which is about Level adjustment, how to lower it and pay it off etc.. The level adjustment system is very logical. It keeps people from power play in the game and make more or less every race attractive and equal to play.

My DM dislike the idea of LA and so do I. Some races are just better than other. I don't think a vampire PC or a drow should be punished with LA just because of the fact that they're more superior than other races.

What do you think about it? I would like to see some opinions or arguements for both opinions (if I'm not the only one who dislike LA ).

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

LA was poorly executed, and for the longest time (and still is sporatically) specifically used to enforce PHB races above others by making them suboptimal. I have never liked them and do not use them.

Instead my campaigns have fully adopted the racial class ideas borrowed from AU. I use Upper Krust's CR system to balance the racial classes against PC classes and it allows unusual and unique races to be played without handicapping a character by taking away their most critical attributes: Hit Points, Saves, and BAB. Then again my homebrew is rather odd and changes many assumptions of the PHB.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

In my game, if someone wants to play a character with LA, I let him, from first level onwards. He begins with the minimum xp required at that level. We've found that the xp system makes sure the others catch up soon enough - by the time someone with LA +5 has gained one level, the others have picked up three or more...

 

[questing gm]

my only qualm against LA is that if it's too high, it becomes optimally pointless to take that race.

This was seen when i had a pixie PC that stayed as a level one rogue when everyone was level 7. Sure, permenant invisibility is nice but that was almost the only thing the pixie had over the level 7 wizard that cast the same spell and just be as effective for a shorter period of time.

I just don't think LA at a certain level is just worth it anymore.

 

[robberbaron]

The main problem I see with not using LAs is that templated/monster PCs could be so much more powerful than standard ones of the saem experience that all PCs would be templated/monster races. This would mean having to beef up encounters to suit, making life very difficult for any player brave/foolhardy enough to use a non-LA character.

Would you also not use the monster 'levels' for monster PCs? This is something I have considered while keeping the LA.

 

[RedFox]

I'm not particularly fond of the way that Level Adjustment works. It feels inelegant, and produces often sub-optimal results.

I think possibly the worst offender is the way that Level Adjustment invariably penalizes PCs via reduced Hit Dice. Each Level Adjustment means a lost Hit Die, and the game wasn't really built on the assumption that less Hit Dice would balance out against other capabilities. So you end up with real paper tigers that have some really buff abilities and stats but go down very quickly. That's great for a monster encounter, but translates piss-poorly to a playable character.

The second biggest problem is perma-opportunity cost of things like caster levels. Is playing a druid lizardfolk really at all attractive when you're facing +1 Level Adjustment and 2 HD worth of humanoid levels you can never get back? For a bunch of physical stat boosts that become meaningless the moment you get access to wild shape? The favored class pick is almost a joke.

While you can ameliorate that somewhat with the optional mechancs for buying down level adjustment, there's simply no way to trade in monster levels, and if the LA is +3 or greater, it's going to take you into epic levels to buy off the LA anyway.

And of course, there's no reverse Level Adjustement. So playing an obviously sub-optimal creature like a kobold or goblin gets you no sort of compensation to bring you back up to ECL 1.

 

[smootrk]

I hope that when there is a new edition (something inevitable at some point), that they do away with the whole LA thing. In fact, I would hope that they re-imagine monsters so that any or all monsters races are scalable all the way back to level one. Want a Mind-Flayer mage at first level... no problem, but you have to gain access to your 'monstrous powers' over several levels. Seems much more intuitive anyhow.

 

[Delta]

My only problem with LA is the presumption that every hit die is worth one level (in addition to the Level Adjustment). In this regard I prefer the system set out in the original 3.0 DMG, where that wasn't assumed -- every race was to be analyzed as a whole package for its level-value. That's another 3.5 change that I think was ill-advised.

 

[jgbrowning]

I don't think a vampire PC or a drow should be

I agree.

joe b.

 

[pawsplay]

It works fine for me. Sure, it gets weird when LA is high relative to actual hit dice... so that creature is obviously not ideal for that level of play.

People kvetch a lot about losing caster levels. well, if you die before you reach levels and have to be raised, you end up a caster level behind anyway. Sure, a hit on caster level sucks... if you think you're never going to die and those abilities won't keep you alive at some point.