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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khaalis" data-source="post: 1769538" data-attributes="member: 2167">I see where Hash is going with this and I see some inherent problems.The "Buy Off" system allows you to buy off suboptimal 'levels' of racial 'Level Adjustment'.  The reason it does this is because at high levels, being an LA+X race such as a Drow means very little powerwise when compared to the cost - loss of 2 class levels (class abilities, BAB, HD, Saves, Skills, etc.).  However, most LA+X races are considered to be more powerful because they unbalance the game at lower levels, thus the LA.The problem with allowing this system to "Buy Off" an effective class level by simply reducing the character's Effective Character level, is that the character will be more powerful at 20th level than any other class since you state that they retain their abilities gained in the class level(s) being bought off.  I understand the point in the elf example, for instance, would be to allow the character to not count their Wizard level toward total LA and thus become a 20th level Fighter without going Epic.  However, they would in fact have the power of a 21st level character at 20th.Now what I think would work along this line, is allowing a character to spend the XP listed in the "Buy Off" to allow them to DROP a class level and exchange it for an Optimal class choice instead. This means to entirely lose the old class level as if they had never trained in it. This allows a character to remove a mistake made at earlier levels but still places a cost above and beyond normal leveling to do so.  It would act in almost exactly the same way as the "Buy Off" but instead of just gaining a -1 LA and keeping all abilities, the character would pay the XP, and actually exchange the lot level for a level in the beneficial class.Example #1: A PC starts off as 1st level elven wizard, but after having one too many near-death experiences caused by low hit points and no armor, decides to gain his next level as a fighter to increase his survivability. The PC decides based on the experience that a more violent and combative style of play is more to his taste, so he takes 2 more fighter levels. At this point, he is a wizard 1/fighter 3, and becomes eligible to buy off his nonassociated class (wizard, in this case). The character has dedicated themselves to the fighter style and pays 3,000 XP to drop his level of Wizard, acquiring a level of Fighter in its place. This leaves the character 3,000XP behind the rest of the party, but still at the same ECL as everyone else."I once trained as a Wizard long, long ago, but found that the life of the warrior was my calling. It has been so long since that training I remember nothing of it anymore."Thoughts?</blockquote>

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