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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Awakened Animals as Player Characters
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7531812" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>The vast majority of LA comes from having net positive attributes. Anything, whether an awakened animal or not, with net positive attribute adjustments needs to have some sort of +LA. Eventually, attributes exceed HD. That is to say, for some HD 'n', there is a HD 'n-m' where you'd rather play the character that forgoes 'm' HD if you have unbalanced stats. Pretty much everything that HD gives you, you can get through stats. Skill points? Intelligence + attribute bonuses. BAB? Strength. Hit Points? Constitution. Savings throws? Attribute bonuses. </p><p></p><p>This is why you can never balance +LA characters. At low level, losing all that HD sucks. But as your HD increases, the HD multiplies the effect of your higher ability scores, until eventually they become more valuable than the HD. Consider a trivial case: an 18th level fighter would totally be willing to trade one level of fighter for a permanent +4 increase in STR and CON, two levels for a +8 increase, and even three levels for a +12 increase. We could quibble around the break even point, but clearly there is a point where you are willing to trade several HD for a +LA race. Typically though, this point is at a high enough level that you never try to advance this character from a starting point. </p><p></p><p>Anyway, my point is that there is no easy formula for figuring out what LA you should assign. It depends on ability bonus primarily, but to a lesser extent access to things that otherwise would be difficult to get, but which have long term value - advanced flight, advanced senses, natural armor bonuses, etc.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7531812, member: 4937"] The vast majority of LA comes from having net positive attributes. Anything, whether an awakened animal or not, with net positive attribute adjustments needs to have some sort of +LA. Eventually, attributes exceed HD. That is to say, for some HD 'n', there is a HD 'n-m' where you'd rather play the character that forgoes 'm' HD if you have unbalanced stats. Pretty much everything that HD gives you, you can get through stats. Skill points? Intelligence + attribute bonuses. BAB? Strength. Hit Points? Constitution. Savings throws? Attribute bonuses. This is why you can never balance +LA characters. At low level, losing all that HD sucks. But as your HD increases, the HD multiplies the effect of your higher ability scores, until eventually they become more valuable than the HD. Consider a trivial case: an 18th level fighter would totally be willing to trade one level of fighter for a permanent +4 increase in STR and CON, two levels for a +8 increase, and even three levels for a +12 increase. We could quibble around the break even point, but clearly there is a point where you are willing to trade several HD for a +LA race. Typically though, this point is at a high enough level that you never try to advance this character from a starting point. Anyway, my point is that there is no easy formula for figuring out what LA you should assign. It depends on ability bonus primarily, but to a lesser extent access to things that otherwise would be difficult to get, but which have long term value - advanced flight, advanced senses, natural armor bonuses, etc. [/QUOTE]
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