Vanity templates, thoughts?

[Sunseeker]

And by that I mean, a player or two of mine would like to look like X creature or Y race without really having any of the stats of that creature.

So what I'm looking at is players with "vanity templates", to which I'm limiting to +1LA(no worse than a dozen playable races anyway), but I'm curious as to what you would think.

Basically, here's what it breaks down to.
+1 or +2 to one stat with a minus to another. This is all still in the fair realm of +0LA
One ability the base race does not have(DM reviewed so as to avoid something game-breaking.) ex: a drider having permanent spider-climb, a naga having a constrict ability or something with average flight(pixie, dragon, angel, doesn't matter, it's all average because you're simply not as designed for them as your ancestor), this is what basically gives them their +1
And then the visual appearance for RP sake of their chosen race.

So, a Vanity Naga may appear:
+2 cha, -2 con
Constrict
Large Size -1 AC.
+1LA
-Visually, you appear to be the base race of your choice with a large tail in palce of legs.

or a Vanity Drider may read:
+2 wis, -2 cha
Spider Climb
Large Size -1 AC
+1 LA
-Visually you are the base race with a spider body.

Or maybe a half dragon
+2 str -2 wis
Average flight
+1 LA
-this one should be obvious.

On top of whatever base creature they choose to be. I don't run 3.5 games often but I like to allow my players as full a range of customization that they want, especially since I place an emphasis on good RP and an interesting story over combats, item creation or such.

I've had a lot of people present very interesting visualizations of their character, either through their own artistic skills or through others in these regards that they'd like to play, but neither of us want to have to deal with the unwieldy LAs these templates usually demand, especially when they come tied to a bunch of abilities the player is unlikely to ever use. So what say you? Do these sound reasonable to allow a player to visualize their character without handicapping them too severely?

ALSO: on the same note, someone once showed me some kind of alternate leveling path for half dragons, in which you could, instead of leveling, pick up certain features of the half-dragon template. And mitigate the impact of the +3 LA over time. I seem to recall the book also provided a variety of other feats related to being a half dragon that were really cool. For the life of me I can't remember what book I saw this in, I've already searched the Draconomicon but didn't see anything(granted I only thought of this yesterday)

So does anyone know what book that might have been in?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Half Dragon Racial level progression.

 

[Visigani]

savage species has a lot of stuff like this

you might find it very interesting

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[Sunseeker]

Half Dragon Racial level progression.

Ah thanks, that wasn't it, but I did find it, it was in Races of the Dragon.(why didn't think of that I don't know). But it's got a variety of different feats as well, the one there is more or less along the lines of what's in Savage Species.

savage species has a lot of stuff like this

You might find it very interesting.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

I've got it actually and read it. Problem is it still wants to get you up to that full +6 or +8LA that the base race has and give you all the +'s and -'s that the race gets. Not to mention races that are large size don't get their large size until something like 2/3rds of the way through(in the case of Drider, it's like at +6 of the +8LA). Not to mention it's forced progression, once you start a monster class, you can't multi-class out of it until you complete it.