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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 2979004" data-attributes="member: 13966">I've had little computer access lately, but......1) What do you mean by 'discount rate per level'?  Is it supposed to be a positive or negative number?  What exactly is it supposed to represent?  I'm guessing at a glance that you mean it to be the amount by which any given racial benefit diminishes in value (depreciates, to use accounting terms) for each level gained?  I.E. +2 to an ability score is less significant when you're 15th-level and already have a bundle of +4 or +6 ability-boosting magic items, so +2 Strength or whatnot is less valuable for a high-ECL race than for a low-ECL race, basically.  I'm still not sure if you mean it to be a positive or negative number.2) I don't like algebra.  I really, really learned to hate it so far in college, and almost as much back in high school.  Thus, while I could probably figure out the equation and what it's intended results would represent, I really don't want to bother.  Several pointless semesters worth of algebra wasting my time for an unrelated major have made me loathe equations.  Just thought I'd point that out.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />3) The CR system is very, very abstract and unusual.  Upper_Krust, I'm told, does a better job of calculating appropriate Challenge Ratings than Wizards of the Coast does, and I'm inclined to agree given some of what I've seen in WotC products, what I've witnessed in play, what I've calculated myself, and what I've read about some presumptions WotC staff uses in calculating CRs.  Don't use the CR system as any kind of reference when dealing with Level Adjustments.4) To clarify an earlier point: I would consider a +0 LA race to have up to 4 feats worth of racial traits, after racial drawbacks are considered, under the standard rules.  Though in my homebrew settings I tend to up the amount to 5, 6, or 7 feats worth of racial traits, which is similar to what the 3E dwarf receives under the core rules.  I would consider a +1 LA race to have up to 12 feats worth of racial traits in total; the 4 from LA+0, and a further 8 from the LA+1.  Thus an LA+2 race would likely have up to 20 feats worth of racial traits in total, and so on and so forth.The upper end of my scale, the 9-12 part, is actually just what I use in certain homebrews, and only for certain circumstances (like if the race's traits are pretty disparate and don't complement each other, making them slightly good at various things but without any real focus).  However, the higher that a race's Level Adjustment is, the more likely it is that they deserve a bit of extra power from that LA; so for instance, an LA+4 race might deserve a total of 38 or 39 feats worth of racial traits, rather than just 35 or 36.  The higher the LA, the more significantly the loss of Hit Dice/Hit Points, caster levels, feats, or whatnot, will be felt.Also, note that these are my 'maximums'; I'm fine with an LA+0 race having just 2 feats worth of racial traits, or an LA+1 race having just 8 feats worth of racial traits.  Going lower than that might make the race very obviously not worthwhile, suffering too much of a disadvantage compared to their comrades belonging to core races.  The WotC level adjustments are mostly intended to make monstrous races mildly or moderately disadvantaged in exchange for being more 'interesting', but that really just punishes people who have played a long time and want something different, or newbies who want to try something wierd and cool to start with.  Punishing roleplay and 'fun' choices is bad in my book, because D&D is a game.</blockquote>

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