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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Angrydad" data-source="post: 4475573" data-attributes="member: 70987">"Also, if the ability bumps are just being gained as levels in a heroic class are also being attained then the character quickly becomes more powerful than other PCs who are more standard races in similar classes. LA is there to prevent this.Well... I can't really say for sure that you're wrong, or I'm right, because I haven't tested this and the numbers alone don't really say. Since converting racial HD to class levels results in an increase in CR/ECL, I'm fairly sure that it's also accounting for the extra abilities (the LA). As you and Herzog said, LA's biggest impact is at low levels - as you get higher up, all those extra abilities have an increasingly smaller influence on overall power level, as everyone else gets powers of their own, magic items, etc. to make up for the deficit."What I'm getting at in the top paragraph is that if a monster PC gains a stat bump, use of a spell like ability, etc. every couple levels while still gaining the powers/abilities of whatever heroic class they've chosen then they're going to be more powerful than players of standard races who are the same class. I also dislike the idea of turning monster races into class levels that they must take to gain the powers, since it seems like this results in much weaker PCs. For example, in the Planar Handbook there is a racial level progression for Hound Archons that consists of 11 levels. By 11th level the archon has six HD, a BA of +6, some nice natural armor, aura of menace, a few resistances, and can greater teleport at will with 50lbs of gear. While the teleportation ability is pretty sweet and the character might have some nice stats thanks to the bumps that have occurred, they're going to be much less effective than a character who was a standard race and just took levels in a class and maybe prestige class to get to 11th level. An 11th level wizard could easily disintegrate the hound archon, or charm/dominate it.Also, it may be true that a monster PC has a LA that keeps it slightly weaker, but I don't think the rest of the party getting magic items and having slightly more powers from classes will make them more powerful than the monster PC. If the party is dividing loot up fairly, the monster PC should be getting items that buff him/her up as well, so they will continue to be more powerful. I dunno, that's just my experience so far.</blockquote>

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