(Psi)SeveredHead said:
No, I disagree for two reasons.
One, LA rules have nothing to do with game flavor. In some settings, drow are not hated. (In Eberron, for instance, they're feared and misunderstood, but not hated. Do you need different LAs for drow from Eberron compared to FR?)
Two, so many PC drow aren't evil. They're either Drizzt-clones (in terms of motivation) or Eilistraeens. Lolth doesn't mind control drow. Drow only need to do what Lolth wants if they're priestesses of Lolth or they're in a drow city - neither is particularly common among drow adventurers.
Ok, except I specificially stated "for my game" and "IMC".*
From a game balance viewpoint with reguards to a players advantages versus disadvantages in a game that actually RPs, yes, I probably would need different LAs for Drow from Eberron compared to FR. If one setting makes it harder for a player, then it should be shown and accounted for. That the LA rules do not take account of this, just goes to show they are just poorly designed (along with the XP system in general IMHO). Say one person takes a normal elf race and another takes an elf with black skin that is racially a Drow as per earlier suggestions for a LA +0 race. If playing in a world where Drow are hated it wouldn't be fair for them both any more than making a character class just like the paladin without the alignment or code restrictions. It may be a good judge of choosing combat CRs, but one in a setting where Drow are hated, the Drow suffers while the other does not in a game where there is actual RPing going on.
Editted later to add:
For the most part, the LA rules pretty much fail at being a workable part of D&D. It's a quick kludge that will do in a pinch but is not a serious solution or one that fits the game. For a solution to fit the game, it would have to allow for a character of such a race to enter and be played at the same level as any other race. There are ways to do this:
One would be similar to the Savage Species rules and have racial levels instead of an LA. In such a case, I don't think that I'd mandate that all racial levels must be taken first but rather just that such racial levels would be their favored class.
A similar approach would be with the bloodline idea where powers are granted throughout the life of a character but they must "spend" levels similar to multi-classing or suffer XP penalty. However, I don't think, with 3.xE shallow XP grade, that it is ever really worth spending those levels and you'd be ahead just taking the XP penalty.
Another possibility, would be to have the abilities as racial feats. Chop up the racail abilities into separate feats that can be taken only by members of the appropriate race.
*You don't even want me to go into what my elves including Drow are like IMC. That's a whole 'nother thread and not important to this discussion.
