Solution for lvl 1 LA +1 character

[nightmareone]

If NPC classes only add +1/2 CR, could you apply one to a PC with a level adjustment of +1 until he levels up, and then apply their chosen class as usual?

Like, I you wanted to be an aasimar paladin, you would start as a level 1 warrior, then once you gained a level, you'd become a level 1 paladin instead of a warrior.

Fighter, Barbarian, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Classes From Complete Warrior: Warrior
Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard, Classes From Complete Arcane or Divine: Adept
Bard, Rogue, Classes from Complete Advernturer: Expert

What Think?

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Couple problems:
Why would the warrior to monks BAB suddenly drop by +1?
Why would the adept to wizard/sorcerer hit dice drop to a d4?
I'm sure there are a few other minor problems like this.

Adepts have a unique spell list and have a different casting stat that wizards and sorcerers. Adepts also at level 1 aren't much weaker than their PC counterparts.


I still the think the best solution for LA +1 races is to just let PCs play them at level 1 (with 0 XP) and not worry about the slight power difference.

 

[Pyrex]

I still the think the best solution for LA +1 races is to just let PCs play them at level 1 (with 0 XP) and not worry about the slight power difference.

Agreed. LA+1 races are strong, but not so strong they're going to throw your game out of whack, especially as they'll only be unbalanced for a couple sessions before everyone else hits L2 and they're still stuck at L1.

 

[IceFractal]

Or just give them a negative level for the first level.

 

[Spatzimaus]

The solution my group used was simpler: everyone starts at level 3. So, an LA+1 race starts with only two class levels.

This isn't a balance issue, though, because every adult character is level 3 or higher, even the commoners. (Yes, in my world a Commoner CAN beat a housecat!). Level 1 characters are small children, level 2 are teenagers. This still requires a bit of fudging if you want a child of an LA+1 race, but it's not really affecting the PCs, so the balance isn't problematic.

We later reworked all the races to use "Racial Levels" (racial HD)... an LA+1 race was generally converted to have 2 strong Racial Levels, while LA+0 would have one weak level. The rule was that while you could alternate racial with class levels, racial levels must be at least half of your levels until you've gained them all. So, a 2-level race could go race-class-race or race-race-class, but not race-class-class. (The dragonish race had 9 levels, so they might still be taking racial levels into their teens.) We kept the rule where everyone starts at level 3, so it made it very easy to handle races with positive LAs.

 

[nightmareone]

Hmmm..................

You speak the truth. Forget I ever suggested it.