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Reducing Level Adjustment through Feats
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<blockquote data-quote="Volsung" data-source="post: 3534903" data-attributes="member: 11865"><p>Actually, the potentially large quantity of added hit points is exactly the point of the feat. It still generally won't come close to catching a character up its LA+0 breatheren.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Show me why you think the feats are overpowered by giving an example of how someone could abuse them creating a character.</p><p></p><p>Monstrous Spellcaster looked pretty spot-on in the builds I've created using bugbears, lizardfolk, and gnolls, as compared to their full spellcasting counterparts, but I haven't tried it on anything unusual yet and have been looking at mostly divine spellcaster classes (e.g. druid, cleric, shaman, etc.). </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Here’s how I’m seeing it:</p><p></p><p>I wanna build a 4th level, two-handed weapon killing machine. High strength is key to damage output, so I’m going to compare three races, the AU Giant, the Goliath, and the Orc. The first has racial hit dice, but no level adjustment, the second has level adjustment that I’ll mitigate with the feats in the OP, and the third has neither level adjustment on racial hit dice.</p><p></p><p>I will give each the standard distribution of ability score, with the bonus point at 4th going to strength. I will arrange them thusly, Str:16, Dex:13, Con:14, Int:10, Wis:12, Cha:8.</p><p></p><p>The UA Giant: Fighter 1/Giant 3; Avg. HP 38.5; AC 17 (-1 size, +8 full plate); Attack: Greatsword +8 melee, 2d8+7 damage, 10’ natural reach; Abilities: S 20, D 11, C 16, I 12, W 14, Ch 8; Saves: Fort +8, Ref +1, Will +3; Feats: Weapon Focus (Greatsword), Power Attack, Cleave.</p><p></p><p>The Goliath: Fighter 4; Avg. HP 38.5; AC 18 (+8 full plate); Attack: Greatsword +10 melee, 2d8+9 damage; Abilities: S 20, D 11, C 16, I 10, W 12, Ch 8; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +1, Will +1. Weapon Focus (Greatsword), Power Attack, Glass Jaw of Steel, Reduce Level Adjustment, Weapon Specialization (Greatsword).</p><p></p><p>The Orc: Fighter 4; Avg. HP 38.5; AC 19 (+1 Dex, +8 full plate); Attack: Greatsword +10 melee, 2d6+9 damage; Abilities: S 20, D 13, C 14, I 8, W 10, Ch 6; Saves: Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +1. Weapon Focus (Greatsword), Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Toughness, Weapon Specialization (Greatsword).</p><p></p><p>UA Giant vs. Goliath – The giant will do an average damage of 9.68/round to the goliath. The goliath in turn dishes out an average of 12.87/round to the giant.</p><p></p><p>Goliath vs. Orc – The goliath will do an average of 11.88/round to the orc. The orc does an average of 11.44/round to the goliath. The winner of initiative will likely will the fight in four rounds. The orc will have the better initiative 57.25% of the time.</p><p></p><p>UA Giant vs. Orc – The giant will do an average damage of 8.8/round to the orc. The orc does an average of 12.32/round to the giant. The orc will likely take down the giant in three rounds (the giant would need four to take down the orc)</p><p></p><p>UA Giant vs. three hobgoblins (war1 from SRD) – On average the giant will take out all three of them in two rounds. In addition his 10’ natural reach makes it difficult for them to approach. If they charge him they likely all go down in a single round. If they approach carefully, he’ll likely kill two of them before the third even gets to swing his sword. In the event that a hobgoblin gets a swing in it will average 1.815 points of damage (2.42 on a charge or flank).</p><p></p><p>Goliath vs. three hobgoblins – On average the goliath will take three rounds to get all three hobgoblins, and suffer an average of three or six attacks, depending on initiative. The goliath will have the higher initiative 47.25% of the time. A hobgoblins attack does an average of 1.5125 point of damage (2.1175 on a charge or flank).</p><p></p><p>Orc vs. three hobgoblins – On average it will take the orc two rounds to take down the hobgoblins, and suffer an average of one or four attacks, depending on initiative. The orc will have the higher initiative 50% of the time. A hobgoblins attack does an average of 1.21 point of damage (1.815 on a charge or flank).</p><p></p><p>Now the goliath could have taken Cleave instead of Weapon Specialization, but then his damage would drop to that of the orc, and his lower armor class and initiative would still have caused him to take more damage in the fight against the group of hobgoblins.</p><p></p><p>So, it looks like the orc has the edge in a stand up fight, but the giant’s reach rules the group combat, and the goliath finishes just behind the orc in both.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Volsung, post: 3534903, member: 11865"] Actually, the potentially large quantity of added hit points is exactly the point of the feat. It still generally won't come close to catching a character up its LA+0 breatheren. Show me why you think the feats are overpowered by giving an example of how someone could abuse them creating a character. Monstrous Spellcaster looked pretty spot-on in the builds I've created using bugbears, lizardfolk, and gnolls, as compared to their full spellcasting counterparts, but I haven't tried it on anything unusual yet and have been looking at mostly divine spellcaster classes (e.g. druid, cleric, shaman, etc.). Here’s how I’m seeing it: I wanna build a 4th level, two-handed weapon killing machine. High strength is key to damage output, so I’m going to compare three races, the AU Giant, the Goliath, and the Orc. The first has racial hit dice, but no level adjustment, the second has level adjustment that I’ll mitigate with the feats in the OP, and the third has neither level adjustment on racial hit dice. I will give each the standard distribution of ability score, with the bonus point at 4th going to strength. I will arrange them thusly, Str:16, Dex:13, Con:14, Int:10, Wis:12, Cha:8. The UA Giant: Fighter 1/Giant 3; Avg. HP 38.5; AC 17 (-1 size, +8 full plate); Attack: Greatsword +8 melee, 2d8+7 damage, 10’ natural reach; Abilities: S 20, D 11, C 16, I 12, W 14, Ch 8; Saves: Fort +8, Ref +1, Will +3; Feats: Weapon Focus (Greatsword), Power Attack, Cleave. The Goliath: Fighter 4; Avg. HP 38.5; AC 18 (+8 full plate); Attack: Greatsword +10 melee, 2d8+9 damage; Abilities: S 20, D 11, C 16, I 10, W 12, Ch 8; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +1, Will +1. Weapon Focus (Greatsword), Power Attack, Glass Jaw of Steel, Reduce Level Adjustment, Weapon Specialization (Greatsword). The Orc: Fighter 4; Avg. HP 38.5; AC 19 (+1 Dex, +8 full plate); Attack: Greatsword +10 melee, 2d6+9 damage; Abilities: S 20, D 13, C 14, I 8, W 10, Ch 6; Saves: Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +1. Weapon Focus (Greatsword), Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Toughness, Weapon Specialization (Greatsword). UA Giant vs. Goliath – The giant will do an average damage of 9.68/round to the goliath. The goliath in turn dishes out an average of 12.87/round to the giant. Goliath vs. Orc – The goliath will do an average of 11.88/round to the orc. The orc does an average of 11.44/round to the goliath. The winner of initiative will likely will the fight in four rounds. The orc will have the better initiative 57.25% of the time. UA Giant vs. Orc – The giant will do an average damage of 8.8/round to the orc. The orc does an average of 12.32/round to the giant. The orc will likely take down the giant in three rounds (the giant would need four to take down the orc) UA Giant vs. three hobgoblins (war1 from SRD) – On average the giant will take out all three of them in two rounds. In addition his 10’ natural reach makes it difficult for them to approach. If they charge him they likely all go down in a single round. If they approach carefully, he’ll likely kill two of them before the third even gets to swing his sword. In the event that a hobgoblin gets a swing in it will average 1.815 points of damage (2.42 on a charge or flank). Goliath vs. three hobgoblins – On average the goliath will take three rounds to get all three hobgoblins, and suffer an average of three or six attacks, depending on initiative. The goliath will have the higher initiative 47.25% of the time. A hobgoblins attack does an average of 1.5125 point of damage (2.1175 on a charge or flank). Orc vs. three hobgoblins – On average it will take the orc two rounds to take down the hobgoblins, and suffer an average of one or four attacks, depending on initiative. The orc will have the higher initiative 50% of the time. A hobgoblins attack does an average of 1.21 point of damage (1.815 on a charge or flank). Now the goliath could have taken Cleave instead of Weapon Specialization, but then his damage would drop to that of the orc, and his lower armor class and initiative would still have caused him to take more damage in the fight against the group of hobgoblins. So, it looks like the orc has the edge in a stand up fight, but the giant’s reach rules the group combat, and the goliath finishes just behind the orc in both. [/QUOTE]
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