Level Adjustment as a Point Buy Deduction

[Twiggly the Gnome]

The question is whether or not you think this will encourage a lot of aasimar paladins (and similar builds). If it means that all paladin players will start prefering aasimars, then it is probably not balanced. I prefer to limit such characters in my campaigns and try to find ways to encourage my players to play core races. Of course, if you run a froo froo world like FR, it might not be as much of a problem to see the sons and daughters of angels, demons, and elementals frollicking about gaily in the meadows.

What I'm basically looking for is some sort of fair trade off, that scales better at higher levels than the LA mechanic does. While a Hobgoblin is marginally better than the standard races, I don't think it's comparable to the members of a 2nd level party, and that "empty level" becomes an even greater burden as the party progresses in level. In an Eberron campaign I think a Hobgoblin should be a viable choice, but not a obvious choice.

 

[Nifft]

Actually, I just realized something obvious: with ZERO point buy, all the racial stats will be -2 from where they are in the book. So, my precious Nixie Sorcerer would have:

Str 5, Dex 14, Con 9, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 16

... which looks more reasonable. One hit from a ray of enfeeblement and he's toast.

- - - - -

Hobgoblins are regarded as pretty weak. I'd give them a racial bonus Feat (like Humans get) to make them LA +1, or I'd allow LA buy-off.

Cheers, -- N

 

[JRR_Talking]

plus as technically a 32 point buy human paladin is ECL 1, and the aasimar 25pt buy paladin is ECL 2, the human will earn xp a bit faster too, which is a nice balance.

hmm, gonna try this

John

although i guess the whole point is that everyone starts at 0xp, but may have a LA bonus race