What LA is this?
- Thread starter Eltharon
- Start date
Spatzimaus
First Post
I'd go with the same LA+1 these guys are saying, but it's misleading. When balancing LAs, it seems that at some point you cross a threshold; some drawbacks become meaningless, because you've become optimized for a single class/role already. The Large size is the main culprit here; you become such a melee combat machine that any other role becomes secondary, and a penalty to things like CHA just doesn't cut it. And +6 STR is just huge.
IMC, we wanted to add a Half-Ogre race to fill the "big, bulky fighter" niche, shifting Half-Orcs to being more of a feral Ranger-oriented race (with Limited Scent and both Darkvision and Low-Light vision). But, we REALLY wanted the Half-Ogre to be ECL+0, without bringing in any racial HD.
The reason I mention this is, it looked a LOT like your race, but toned down. Stats were +4 STR, -2 DEX, +2 CON, -2 INT, -2 WIS, -4 CHA (which are technically balanced), it gave the Endurance Feat for free, and had +2 Natural Armor. It also had a few skill mods: +4 to Intimidate, -2 to Bluff/Gather Information/Diplomacy. And Darkvision, of course. All of these are pretty similar to yours.
But, it was a Medium-sized race (30' base movement, 5' reach) with a "Large Build" ability; it got half the Large bonus for grapples, etc., all equipment weighed 50% more (and carrying capacity was +50%). Most importantly, he could use all of the "heavy" exotic weapons (Bastard Sword, Dwarven Waraxe, Fullblade, etc... the ones that split sizes) as if he had the exotic weapon proficiency.
The biggest drawback we added was that the race had no Favored Class; you had to play a single class, split evenly, or take an XP penalty. This wasn't so bad once you brought PrCs into the mix, but it was still a headache. Anyway, like I said, we called this ECL+0, and it worked really well in our campaign. The PC who took it mixed Barbarian and Ranger until he could go Horizon Walker, but a recurring NPC was a Half-Ogre Cleric... sure, he had a WIS penalty, but he could be an effective Fighter/Cleric without spending as many levels on Fighter.
My point is, if you really want these Ogres to be PC-playable, I think you should drop the whole Large size concept and the two HD. Both of those just force you to make melee attack characters. So, you'd probably end up with something similar to what I had, although maybe still LA+1 if you stacked it right.
IMC, we wanted to add a Half-Ogre race to fill the "big, bulky fighter" niche, shifting Half-Orcs to being more of a feral Ranger-oriented race (with Limited Scent and both Darkvision and Low-Light vision). But, we REALLY wanted the Half-Ogre to be ECL+0, without bringing in any racial HD.
The reason I mention this is, it looked a LOT like your race, but toned down. Stats were +4 STR, -2 DEX, +2 CON, -2 INT, -2 WIS, -4 CHA (which are technically balanced), it gave the Endurance Feat for free, and had +2 Natural Armor. It also had a few skill mods: +4 to Intimidate, -2 to Bluff/Gather Information/Diplomacy. And Darkvision, of course. All of these are pretty similar to yours.
But, it was a Medium-sized race (30' base movement, 5' reach) with a "Large Build" ability; it got half the Large bonus for grapples, etc., all equipment weighed 50% more (and carrying capacity was +50%). Most importantly, he could use all of the "heavy" exotic weapons (Bastard Sword, Dwarven Waraxe, Fullblade, etc... the ones that split sizes) as if he had the exotic weapon proficiency.
The biggest drawback we added was that the race had no Favored Class; you had to play a single class, split evenly, or take an XP penalty. This wasn't so bad once you brought PrCs into the mix, but it was still a headache. Anyway, like I said, we called this ECL+0, and it worked really well in our campaign. The PC who took it mixed Barbarian and Ranger until he could go Horizon Walker, but a recurring NPC was a Half-Ogre Cleric... sure, he had a WIS penalty, but he could be an effective Fighter/Cleric without spending as many levels on Fighter.
My point is, if you really want these Ogres to be PC-playable, I think you should drop the whole Large size concept and the two HD. Both of those just force you to make melee attack characters. So, you'd probably end up with something similar to what I had, although maybe still LA+1 if you stacked it right.
Similar Threads
