A solution to LA?

[frankthedm]

Take a drow, for instance. It's LA +2. So if you want to play a drow ranger (effectively a 3rd level character), you'd play a drow Commoner 2/Ranger 1. No more adjustments, adding LA here but not there, etc. It has two levels of Commoner to "eat up" the LA.

Replacing empty LA levels with commoner levels is a really intriguing idea. It does not change too much except the character is not as far behind in the HP department and is affected the same as other PCs when the "Have X HD or You Die" effects go off. And even lets a LA+1 race start at first level.

 

[Kerrick]

Ah, I'm back after my involuntary hiatus. I moved to a new place and just finally got my internet hooked up.

Seems a little hit and miss. While I agree with multiple weaker creatures are each weaker than a single stronger foe, he seems to neglect the fact that multiple foes get more combined actions between them. For example, 3 balors (or make that 6, if you have the 3 balors summon in 3 more balors) can easily daze-lock the entire party with blasphemy (and then alternate that with other attacks like implosion or dominate monster), something a single demogorgon would have trouble accomplishing. Likewise, I daresay from experience that 2 wizards are much tougher than a single wizard 2 lvs higher, simply because they get to unload twice as many spells.

Yeah, but I'd think that if the party were high enough to be fighting multiple balors, their SLAs wouldn't have a whole lot of effect.

Revising the class npcs' cr was a nice touch though. I have been searching for a suitable formula for quite a while now, and his seems consistent enough that I would consider using it.

Some other articles I don't agree with (like his revised fighter), but that is another debate for another time.

I don't really agree with his revised classes either, but I like the CR system, and that's really all that counts for me.

I still beg to differ.

Okay, so they're not exactly the same, but they both measure relative power. CR and ECL are interrelated, as UK has shown; he's made mention of monsters being ECL such-and-so, like the vampire being ECL +3, so it's my hope that I can ditch the CR system entirely and go to the ECL system.

 

[Runestar]

On a side note, has anyone contemplated using LA like the bloodline system in UA?

I think that overall, many of the existing LAs/ECLs will also need to be revised. The way they were assigned seemed rather random to me...

 

[Kerrick]

On a side note, has anyone contemplated using LA like the bloodline system in UA?

I did a revised sorcerer based on the bloodlines, but I never considered doing monsters like that.

I think that overall, many of the existing LAs/ECLs will also need to be revised. The way they were assigned seemed rather random to me...

Yeah.. I'm wondering how they came up with their numbers too.