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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matrixryu" data-source="post: 4875665" data-attributes="member: 84553">That sounds like an interesting idea.  It would be annoying to have to make guesswork as to what classes and levels each race matches up with, but it is definately possible.------Actually Arkhandus, you just gave me an idea for gradually eliminating a character's level adjustment.   You know the ability score boosts and bonus feats that characters gain as they level?  What if over time, a character could give up a number of feats and ability boosts that equals what he gained from his race.  This would allow the 'normal' races such as humans to catch up to the power of the races with LA.  Plus, this eliminates any worries about 'oh, a level 20 barbarian ogre is more powerful than a level 20 barbarian dwarf', because they *won't* be more powerful.And if the players complain that they're losing bonus feats, well, that's what they get for choosing non standard races, lol.  You can think of it as them having to spend those ability boosts and feats in order to count as a member of that race.Of course, this only works well with races that don't have Racial hit dice, because they get some of those ability boosts those hit dice in a way.  Hmmm.  Plus, races with absurd ability boosts like an ogre would have to spend like 30 levels worth of ability boosts.But anyway, let's try using the drow as an example.  They get +2 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Cha, -2 Con.  With the -2 from con, let's say that their total net ability boost is +5. We'll say that light blindness and darkvision negate eachother.  They also get Immunity to sleep, spell resistance, a +2 will save bonus against spell like abilities, and a +2 racial bonus to 3 skills. Now, let's compare this to, let's say, a standard high elf who gains +2 Dex, -2 con, Immunity to Sleep, low light vision, +2 save against enchantments, and a +2 racial bonus to 3 skills without getting any level adjustment.  Overall, when you subtract everything, roughly the drow gets a +4 to ability scores and spell resistance.  I'll count spell resistance as a single feat (though it is probably worth more).So, over the course of leveling up, an elf would have to give up 4 ability boosts and 1 feat to gain the same abilities of a drow, so I would say a drow who gave all those up would eliminate his level adjustment.Of course, the problem is that a elf might not pick those specific feats and ability boosts because they don't all directly help his character.  Perhaps you could look at what classes he has, and see which of those abilities are actually helping him.  If he's a fighter, Cha doesn't do anything, so cut the cost in half so he only has to give up 3 ability boostsAnother problem with this method is that, of course, it makes these races with level adjustments equal to the 'lesser races' at higher levels and will make powergamers cry.  On the other hand, it makes everything completely even at higher levels.Edit: After continuing to think on this, I guess this method really only works for creatures with LA of +2 or lower.  A +3 LA or racial hit dice generally means the creatures have huge bonuses that would be difficult to even out with 'normal' races even with 20 levels of ability score boosts and several bonus feats being paid.  I think this could be a way of evening things out with races with lower LA though such as tieflings and drow, or it could be a way of shaving off a little bit of the LA from the bigger races without fumbling with 'experience point payments' or anything like that.</blockquote>

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