weakening kobolds

[woodelf]

Funny to see the 'buffing up the kobold' thread, since i've been meaning to ask something related for a while now.

I don't have a problem with kobolds being weaker than the other races, in fact i think that's part of their appeal. I want them to be the bottom of the totem pole, all 'round--they should be weak, stupid, uncooth, etc. i think it's their schtick to be the rats of the humanoid world. Which jibes well with another idea i'd had: negative level adjustments.

What would a kobold race with a level adjustment of -1 look like? How would you make a LA -1 race that was still playable as a PC (i.e., not just tacking on such huge ability penalties as to cripple them as a PC)?

 

[Fieari]

It wouldn't take much, really. Kobolds are already on the really weak end of LA +0. Slap on a few more ability penalties (wis and int, for instance) and I think that may be enough.

 

[Sravoff]

What would a -1 LA do for someone? Does it give them an addition level for free? complete with HD and everything?

Thanks
-Sravoff

 

[ValhallaGH]

What would a -1 LA do for someone? Does it give them an addition level for free? complete with HD and everything?

Basically, yes. They count as one level lower when determining how they compare to other members of the party.

LA -1 means: "This race is so weak that it can have one more level than everyone else and it will still be balanced."
A level 5 (ECL 4) kobold wizard in a level 4 party would be 'balanced' if the kobold had, and deserved, a LA of -1. Or a level 21 kobold in a 20th level party.

What would a kobold race with a level adjustment of -1 look like?

Extinct. They'd get wiped out by dire rats or children with pointy sticks or a village of level 1 commoners. I've seriously thought about how to do something like this before and everything I came up with was too weak to be playable.

 

[Sravoff]

Extinct. They'd get wiped out by dire rats or children with pointy sticks or a village of level 1 commoners. I've seriously thought about how to do something like this before and everything I came up with was too weak to be playable.

Not a the koboldian sorcerers. They'd be on par with the humans wizards, except they would have a +3 AC

A -x LA race is the perfect spell casters.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Not a the koboldian sorcerers. They'd be on par with the humans wizards, except they would have a +3 AC

A -x LA race is the perfect spell casters.

Yes, primary spellcasters would benefit greatly from negative LA. As a result, to be balanced, the -1 LA kobald would need fair penalties to all mental stats (-2 or -4).

One problem of negative LA (in fact, of all LA) is that it doesn't scale well with levels. A level 2 fighter is a lot stronger than a level 1 fighter, but the difference betwen a Ftr18 and Ftr19 (or Wiz18 and Wiz19) is smaller.

 

[Sravoff]

Wait, I thought that LA didn't change the character level, it just altered the amount of XP someone got. So a human fighter four, and a hobgoblin fighter four would get different amounts of XP.

Now I am confused about LA again... :\

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Your Level Adjustment is added to your racial to Hit Dice to determine your race's ECL (all PHB races have 0).

Your ECL plus your class levels is your character level for determing how powerful you are compared to normal PCs.

Bugbears for instance have 3 racial hit dice and +1 LA. Therefore a bugbear with 5 class levels should be equivalent in power to a level 9 standard race character. A bugbear with no class levels should be equivalent to a normal level 4 character.

No XP penalties involved.


Back on topic: Just to reiterate what some others have said a -1 LA race could be potentially to advantageous to caster types or potentially to other classes too much.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Wait, I thought that LA didn't change the character level, it just altered the amount of XP someone got. So a human fighter four, and a hobgoblin fighter four would get different amounts of XP.

Now I am confused about LA again... :\

It's true that a human Ftr4 and a hobgoblin Ftr4 would get different amounts of XP, in general. The hobgoblin Ftr4 would get the same amount of XP that a human Ftr5 would get, one place lower on the experience chart.

 

[cradledrapture]

Why not just invent your own race, slap the kobold label on them and call it a day. Thats what WOTC did with drow. They created an elf. Gave it the first tier drow spell-like abilities some drow-like traits, refused to add the second tier spell-like abilities and completely ignore their natural ambidexterity and their underground detection abilities. Not to mention they robbed them of the females increased speed and the 3% (it used to be 50% plus 5% in unearthed arcana...the book they originate from) of the drow magic resistance (it should have converted to roughly 10+2 1/2 per level) and they neglected the part about how drow lose their spell-like abilities and spell resistance if they spend to much time on the surface. Essentially killing the drow race and replacing it with a more generic hack and slash variation. If you want good kobolds..stick with the originals and bully them around more. Give them a morale score that functions like the old morale score from the old days. Make them fear magic the way they used to. WOTC ruined a lot of races by making them bland and generic. So on a hopefully posititive and helpful note. Invent the morale ability score. Use it for NPC's. Make them run and snivel before your mighty tyrants. HeHeHe