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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 2437810" data-attributes="member: 13966">I just don't think a creature's extra traits should be measured with LA alone, their racial HD should factor into it too, yet I see that a lot of monster races don't seem to consider the weakness of racial HD compared to class levels.  I.E. Humanoid hit dice are only around half as potent as class levels, give or take a little bit, so 2-3 Humanoid HD should include a +1 LA worth of racial traits for free.  And critters should have something to avoid discouraging them from being worthwhile spellcasters (i.e. if they have a large LA or racial HD, they should get a few caster levels or something out of the deal, if they actually acquire a spellcasting class).For my Rhunaria homebrew, the only common races with LA are lizardfolk and bugbears (well, they're the least-common of the common races, anyway), but I've tweaked them to be fair for their racial HD and LA.  Rhunarian lizardfolk get +5 AC, +4 Constitution, and +2 Wisdom (amongst other traits) that keep them from sucking too much as spellcasters for their total ECL of +3 (2 HD + 1 LA).  They aren't great spellcasters, but then, their society has few spellcasters anyway, and they don't give up too much for choosing to be a cleric or druid (they still have decent HP, superior AC, and better melee prowess than human clerics or druids, though their spellcasting is somewhat weaker; still better than a human bard's spellcasting though).  Rhunarian bugbears get +2 Dex and Con, +3 AC, darkvision, 1d6 Sneak Attack, mighty build (+2 on anything a Large critter would get +4 on, and more carrying capacity), and an ability called subterfuge (amongst other traits).  Their subterfuge ability gives them +3 effective caster levels (but not for spells known/per day) for casting Enchantments, Illusions, and Transmutations, and also +3 to the DC of saves for those spell schools, and +3 on their own saves against such spells, and finally 3 extra spell slots of the highest spell level available to them (if they have any spellcasting ability) for preparing/casting spells of those three schools.  So with the Rhunarian bugbear having a total ECL of +4 (3 racial HD + 1 LA), they only truly miss out on 1 caster level, while being a bit limited with what spells they can cast well (and they'll be 1-2 spell levels behind at any given time, depending on class; but their spells per day will be almost on-par with a caster of their character level).  Thus I make them more viable as spellcasters without making them great at it (which wouldn't fit with their Rhunarian societal descriptions anyway).</blockquote>

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