Buying back levl adjustment

[MithrasRahl]

I've read it through a few times, and am still having trouble with it.

If I have 231,000 exp to play with, and I want to make an Avoral Guardinal (8 HD and +7 lvl adj for an ECL of 15) with as many Fighter lvls as possible, how many lvls of fighter would I get, and what would my Exp be at (since you have to spend exp to buy back lvl adj)?

My guess is that I would be at an ECL of 20 (13 from Avoral, 7 ranks of Fighter), and have 195,000 exp

My second question is then about Feats and Attribute bonus. When would I get them?

 

[Prism]

You can buy back your first level when your class level not including racial HD reaches three times your LA. Therefore you would have to wait until you were a 21st level fighter which would mean you would need to be a 36th level character.

So you'll be 22nd level here with 7 levels of fighter. You would have a total of 15HD and so therefore 6 feats and 3 stat boosts

I think you'll be pretty weak in a 22nd level party

 

[airwalkrr]

Yes, but the advantage is that the 3e XP system is self-correcting, so eventually, it will be as if you never took that LA at all.

Personally, if you are a DM, I do not recommend using this system unless you are fine with PCs getting ahead of others in power. Races with high LAs have that high LA for a reason. Letting PCs with LA buy it back and then catch up in XP to other PCs means they will eventually jump well ahead of those PCs in power. It can potentially sour a campaign when one or two PCs begin hogging the spotlight because they are so uber-1337.

 

[Question]

You will never reach 36th level to buy back your LA unfornately. Too high.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

While I personally feel this to be an excellent system, the system itself is designed to be self correcting. Most of your LA +1 or LA +2 abilities are rather minor by the time you catch up in XP, so being the same level as everyone else with a few added perks is not that big of a deal. I ran a drow through the numbers and even if they leveled exactly when they were allowed (even mid-combat since it is technically 13.33 encounters to a new level, right?) they still only caught up roughly by level 20. Even then they were a few thousand off. But by the time you've reached level 20, what's a few thousand XP?

But, the system is self-correcting in the other direction. By requiring 3 times your LA to buy it off, the system expands to compensate for the significance of the LA. Creates with huge LAs tend to have powers that do make a difference even later in the game. Thus, the level that they can start ot buy it back is jacked up so high that by the tme you get there it is less significant.

For example, to completely buy off a +7 LA you would start at class level 21 (7*3) to make it a +6. Then you would have to be class level 39 (21+6*3) to make it a +5. Then class level 54 (39+5*3) to make it LA +4. Then class level 66 (54+4*3) to get it down to +3. Then class level 75 (66+3*3) to get it to a +2. Then class level 81 (75+2*3) to get it to a +1. Finally, at class level 84 (81+1*3) you can reduce your final point of LA. I think I did the math right. And remember, starting HD don't count, so it goes off of class levels, not ECL!

Chances are that by the time you are ECL 84 ... your LA abilities will still be important but hardly game breaking!

 

[MithrasRahl]

Yeah, I figured I was doing it wrong. Here is the character I've been tinkering with, let me know what you think.

http://www.campaign-blog.com/view.php?id=3314