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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seankreynolds" data-source="post: 2432799" data-attributes="member: 3029">And I don't think that someone who chooses to play a core race should be "penalized" for doing so in a group where everyone else isn't playing a core race.Think of it this way: LAs are in whole number increments because character levels are in whole number increments. By assigning a creature a whole number LA, we have one of three possibilities:1) The LA is too low, and the character is better than a human of the same ECL.2) The LA is too high, and the character is worse than a human of the same ECL.3) The LA is exactly right, and the character is exactly the same power as a human of the same ECL.Option 1 means there's an incentive to play the non-human character because not only do you get fun racial abilities, you end up better than a same-ECL human overall.Option 2 means there's an incentive to play the human character (the "normal" character) because the human is slightly more powerful at each ECL. People who want to play the "weird" character are still likely to do so because they really want to play a weird character.Option 3 means there is no incentive either way.Now, given that it's almost impossible to achieve option 3, when given the choice between 1 and 2, which do you choose? A smart game designer chooses option 2 because if you choose option 1 you may as well ignore the PH races because they're worse that what you're creating. Then someone who comes along after you makes a new race, chooses option 1, and now your too-good race is weak because someone else's too-good race is even better for the same LA, even if only a little bit.Andy makes a really good point (thanks, Andy) and I'll not waste my time or his rephrasing it other than to say: the game is evolving, as is our awarness, and we're going to continue to make refinements as time goes on with the intent of creating the best play experience.I'd change how LA hinders spellcasters more strongly than non-spellcasters. Not sure exactly how to do it yet, but I have some ideas.I agree, there's a lot of guesswork.I agree, that would be awesome (we've talked about that several times on my boards) ... have a real level progression for an ogre, with HD, ability score adjustments, and racial abilities incrementing just like a PH class at every level. Sorta like the racial levels that Monte did for AU/AE, actually.That sounds familiar, but the only thing I'm remembering is in context of a battle with some drow wizards who were levitating, so I don't know if I'm remembering a racial ability or a spell. We'll have to wait until someone else chips in with an actual game book reference. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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