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<blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 9620990" data-attributes="member: 23484">Level Adjustment was the subject of my first post to these boards! I have strong views! The LA system in 3.5 was robust, but it was implemented alongside racial hit dice (= effectively default levels in &quot;humanoid&quot;), and that gave two dials to adjust, not just one. In theory that was good, but in practice most of the (racial hit dice) + (level adjustment) numbers were back-of-the-napkin approximations, and there were some egregious errors that were not easily corrected (in part, because errata dissemination online was not yet practicable and in part because the design teams have always under-theorized monsters-as-PCs. And so, e.g., to play a gnoll not only was there a +1 LA but there were also two levels of humanoid, which meant a level 1 gnoll ranger was pegged at a level 4 human ranger, but with one fewer hit die, meaningfully fewer skills, etc. Had there been wider playtesting, or some checking for what it means when you start combining these two variables, the LA system might have found greater purchase.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kobold Stew, post: 9620990, member: 23484"] Level Adjustment was the subject of my first post to these boards! I have strong views! The LA system in 3.5 was robust, but it was implemented alongside racial hit dice (= effectively default levels in "humanoid"), and that gave two dials to adjust, not just one. In theory that was good, but in practice most of the (racial hit dice) + (level adjustment) numbers were back-of-the-napkin approximations, and there were some egregious errors that were not easily corrected (in part, because errata dissemination online was not yet practicable and in part because the design teams have always under-theorized monsters-as-PCs. And so, e.g., to play a gnoll not only was there a +1 LA but there were also two levels of humanoid, which meant a level 1 gnoll ranger was pegged at a level 4 human ranger, but with one fewer hit die, meaningfully fewer skills, etc. Had there been wider playtesting, or some checking for what it means when you start combining these two variables, the LA system might have found greater purchase. [/QUOTE]

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