Arkhandus
First Post
Well, the Pooka seems a bit too strong for LA+3....
Here's my breakdown.
Int+2/Con-2: Balances out.
Dex+2/Wis-2: A bit strong, makes up for the lack of a human's extra skill points.
Natural Armor +3: Makes up for 1 point of LA.
Darkvision/Low-Light Vision: Makes up for lack of a human's bonus feat and a human's favored class flexibility.
+2 on saves versus Illusion: Hardly equivalent to a feat, so it gets thrown in with the vision capabilities as making up for some of a human's overall versatility.
Weapons: If they are proficient in the weapons you list, then that's about equivalent to probably two feats I'd wager, counting towards their second point of LA. However, as with your other race's description, you don't actually specify if they're proficient with these or not, or if these are just their preferences for when they do bother to wield weapons?
Spell-Like Abilities: The first two abilities pretty much make up for the race's third point of Level Adjustment, since they're so frequently useable and such. The rest of the spell-like abilities make up for the second point of LA at least.
Shapechange: You made a few typos here. You said it was useable an additional time per three rounds, whereas you likely meant an additional time per three levels gained beyond 10th. Your example of a 10th versus 30th level Pooka was also a typo, as a 30th-level Pooka would then be able to Shapechange 7/day, not 10/day. Not a very powerful ability by 10th-level, so not worthy of any extra LA in and of itself.
Ferment+Ripen: Likewise not very potent, just neat, so not important for balance determination. Might I suggest though that they can culture milk to cheese with this, not just make it sour?
+4 on all Dexterity-based Skill Checks: This is way too powerful, as there are something like a dozen or more Dex-based skills alone, and several are useful in dire situations or combat (Balance, Tumble, Hide, Move Silently...). This ability alone is +2 or +3 LA. If you made the bonus just +1 it might be fine, but would still contribute to the fact that this Pooka race needs more LA than what you give it.
Wax: This ability is worth +1 LA because of how exponentially powerful it grows with level, even though it can't heal a ton of damage in one use. Does it require touch to activate? Can the Pooka heal himself or herself with this however?
Wane: This ability is not very powerful since the Pooka splits the damage 50/50 between himself/herself and the victim. As with Wax, is this a touch-range effect? Also, you made a typo, saying that a 10th-level Pooka could inflict 50 damage and suffer 50 damage 10/day with Wane, which should instead say that a 10th-level Pooka could deal 5 damage and suffer 5 damage 10/day.
Overall, if you keep the abilities as-is, the Pooka's total Level Adjustment should really be about +6 or +7 (still not certain exactly which LA the +4 on ALL Dex skills is worth....). If you tone down the bonus on Dex skills to +1 it should be a total LA of +5. You could then further reduce the LA back to +3 if you make the Con/Wis penalties -4 each and add a -2 or -4 Strength penalty, I think. And why are Pooka Humanoids instead of Fey? Humanoids aren't supposed to have hardly any magical or psionic abilities, that's why dark elves are probably the maximum of innate magic for a Humanoid race. Though changing their type to Fey might add a further +1 LA.
Here's my breakdown.
Int+2/Con-2: Balances out.
Dex+2/Wis-2: A bit strong, makes up for the lack of a human's extra skill points.
Natural Armor +3: Makes up for 1 point of LA.
Darkvision/Low-Light Vision: Makes up for lack of a human's bonus feat and a human's favored class flexibility.
+2 on saves versus Illusion: Hardly equivalent to a feat, so it gets thrown in with the vision capabilities as making up for some of a human's overall versatility.
Weapons: If they are proficient in the weapons you list, then that's about equivalent to probably two feats I'd wager, counting towards their second point of LA. However, as with your other race's description, you don't actually specify if they're proficient with these or not, or if these are just their preferences for when they do bother to wield weapons?
Spell-Like Abilities: The first two abilities pretty much make up for the race's third point of Level Adjustment, since they're so frequently useable and such. The rest of the spell-like abilities make up for the second point of LA at least.
Shapechange: You made a few typos here. You said it was useable an additional time per three rounds, whereas you likely meant an additional time per three levels gained beyond 10th. Your example of a 10th versus 30th level Pooka was also a typo, as a 30th-level Pooka would then be able to Shapechange 7/day, not 10/day. Not a very powerful ability by 10th-level, so not worthy of any extra LA in and of itself.
Ferment+Ripen: Likewise not very potent, just neat, so not important for balance determination. Might I suggest though that they can culture milk to cheese with this, not just make it sour?
+4 on all Dexterity-based Skill Checks: This is way too powerful, as there are something like a dozen or more Dex-based skills alone, and several are useful in dire situations or combat (Balance, Tumble, Hide, Move Silently...). This ability alone is +2 or +3 LA. If you made the bonus just +1 it might be fine, but would still contribute to the fact that this Pooka race needs more LA than what you give it.
Wax: This ability is worth +1 LA because of how exponentially powerful it grows with level, even though it can't heal a ton of damage in one use. Does it require touch to activate? Can the Pooka heal himself or herself with this however?
Wane: This ability is not very powerful since the Pooka splits the damage 50/50 between himself/herself and the victim. As with Wax, is this a touch-range effect? Also, you made a typo, saying that a 10th-level Pooka could inflict 50 damage and suffer 50 damage 10/day with Wane, which should instead say that a 10th-level Pooka could deal 5 damage and suffer 5 damage 10/day.
Overall, if you keep the abilities as-is, the Pooka's total Level Adjustment should really be about +6 or +7 (still not certain exactly which LA the +4 on ALL Dex skills is worth....). If you tone down the bonus on Dex skills to +1 it should be a total LA of +5. You could then further reduce the LA back to +3 if you make the Con/Wis penalties -4 each and add a -2 or -4 Strength penalty, I think. And why are Pooka Humanoids instead of Fey? Humanoids aren't supposed to have hardly any magical or psionic abilities, that's why dark elves are probably the maximum of innate magic for a Humanoid race. Though changing their type to Fey might add a further +1 LA.
It's a fun combination of Dragonlance Kender and Tinker Gnomes. The only thing I think is needed to balance it is reduce the Craft bonus to +1/level.
