Unearthed Arcana LA Buyoff s it too good

[Mercule]

The buy-off is a fine mechanic.

IMC, I've got a +1 LA Fighter, who bought off his level and is catching up to the Swashbuckler. He's still just a bit behind her and at 9th vs. 10th level, I know he still feels inferior.

 

[Pinotage]

I don't like the buyoff at all at lower levels - the LA+1 races can dominte the other PCs if they get their buyoff too early. I'm all for the system, though, as long as the buyoff is done at a level where it doesn't become significant anymore. So, for example, LA+1 characters could only buy off once they'd reached level 6, or LA +2 creatures could only buy off once they reached level 12. Or something like that. It meant that at lower levels the LA would hurt but not so much at higher levels. At lower levels those abilities can be really helpful.

Pinotage

 

[Psion]

I let a player use it in my last game. Even using the system, the LA+3 character never quite caught up with the rest of the group.

And usually the powers that they are compensating for are not as powerful as its XP worth in permanent XP spell effects.

I don't think it's too powerful, at least not for LA's > 1. LA +1 might be borderline, since it gets bought off so early.

 

[jmucchiello]

In my book, I do the buyoff as an xp penalty. There's no set formula for it. I just picked when the level adjustment was no longer meaningful and set the penalty so the race loses that amount of xp. Once the character reaches that level, the penalty goes away and eventually the character will achieve parity with the rest of the party using the 3.5 xp rules. The real difference between my method and the UA version though is mine is individualized by race. The UA version is a one-size-fits-all method and I don't think that is valid. Two races can reach LA+2 via different benefits and while those benefits may have the same value, that value can last longer for one or the other race.

 

[Shade]

We've used it for four characters in our two campaigns. Two +1 LAs and one +3 LA. We haven't had any problems with it. It seems to be an excellent mechanic.

 

[Prism]

I disagree that those typical stat boosts become less relevant at higher levels. A high level character may be considering paying for wishes and books to gain inherent bonus's to their stats at a very high cost certainly in line with the 4k they were paying for stat boosters at low levels. The rest of the system seems to assume that a +2 bonus to a stat is worth roughly the same for all levels of characters and i tend to agree

We have tried buyoff in our group and i feel that after buyoff those races have been certainly better than non ECL races after they have caught up

I have decided not to buy off my LA for my current aasimar I am playing to see how well I keep up with the rest of the party

 

[yipwyg]

I think those without HD levels may be a concern, but those with Racial HD are still going to be behind the party in actual "class" levels.

IE a Lizardman Mage buys off his LA, will still be say a 14th level Mage compared to the humans 16, due to the fact he has 2 racial levels. He will have 16 hd and so forth but still only casts at level 14.