Race Creation Help

[paradox42]

I don't know about consensus, but it's what the playtest doc suggests. Look at the "Challenging Advanced and Monstrous Races" sidebar table on page 3- Paizo actually made explicit what was sort-of-but-not-really handled in 3.X with LA. The fact of the matter is, level adjustments to balance out powerful races make sense in low-level games, but the powers that cost that level adjustment become really not-worth-it in higher level games.

Paizo is apparently handling this by explicitly breaking up the game by 5-level tiers, and adjusting the "level adjustment" downward as you cross tier. So although an Advanced race works out to LA +1 in a 1st-5th level game, once you hit level 6, the difference disappears.

Also, and more importantly, this sort of "level adjustment" is only on the GM's side when he or she goes to make encounters to challenge PCs- it doesn't affect the XP those PCs get at all as far as I can tell. The Level Adjustment mechanic in 3.X did- LA characters would get less XP than their fellows. That was the fundamental reason Paizo did away with it; in PF all PCs in a party gain the same XP and stay together on the level table.

 

[Mygrrd]

Thanks again for the input paradox42 and everyone else. : ) I guess I'll use the Advanced Race Guide Playtest rules for now and when the actual book comes out in April or whenever, correct anything that turns out to be inaccurate.

Edit: I'll probably try and get the jist of the racial template in 15 or fewer points though. Drow Noble from the Bestiary is CR 3 (and thus counts as already having 3 levels before any class levels) and has 22 points total in the ARG Playtest. Bugbear is CR 2 with 20points. Aasimar is CR 1/2 and is 11points.

 

[Mygrrd]

Also that chart that shows RP by Level in the ARG Playtest seems to be only for modifying challenges according to the advantage the RP total gives at certain levels. To me it doesn't read like the CR actually goes down but that may be up to interperation.

Is there another book that says a Template CR goes away?

 

[paradox42]

Don't try to build by CR. CR is for monsters, not PCs. Level Adjustment never did equate to it (that was one of the common criticisms of the LA mechanic in fact), and Paizo isn't trying to do it here either.

 

[Mygrrd]

So then, don't think of an "advanced" character as an LA or CR, but as a slightly more powerful character? *Effectively* treated as +1 level until it evens out at higher levels, where the advanced bonuses don't matter so much, but no *actual* level difference from a standard character?


Edit: This is so different from 3.5. The reason why I'm asking in the first place is because I wanna play/recreate an old 3.5 character of mine for a PF game. She was a lesser aasimar (LA0) druid with the Half Nymph template (LA2) from a dragon magazine. I'd like to play her again except I wanted to try and make a lesser version of the Half Nymph with an LA 1. Only I find out that PF doesn't have LA and CR's don't really apply, making this much more complicated than I thought it would be.

I see that the Aasimar is very slightly more powerful than the base phb races so that's not too much of an issue but I don't know how to make the Half Nymph fit. I feel like the carpet's been pulled out from under my feet. : ( Any thoughts?

 

[Mygrrd]

Alright, I took a stab at making an advanced half aasimar half nymph race myself since it's been quiet for a bit. This is using the ARG Playtest so when the book actually comes out I'll have to reassess this creation and see how it adds up then.

+2 cha, +2dex, -2 str 0 RP
Advanced cha +2 4 RP
Advanced wis +2 4 RP
Outsider Type 2 RP
Medium 0 RP
30 ft 0 RP
Darkvision 60 feet 0 RP (Comes with Outsider Type)
Standard Languages 1 RP
+2 Perception and Diplomacy 4 RP (2 RP per skill bonus)
Celestial Resistances 2 RP
Cure Light Wounds 1 RP (DM's Campaign Variant for Aasimar instead of Daylight)
Charming Beauty 2 RP (Same effect as a possible lvl 1 Witch Hex - Charm)

Total: 20 RP