What level adjustment would you assign this race?

[El Ravager]

Basicly what the title says. In the home brewed campaign I run, I have created a race to which one of the BBEGs belongs to and I am curious what level adjustment you would assign to it. Its racial abilities are:

Medium size
Speed 30, fly speed of 60ft with poor manuverability
+2 Con +2 Cha -2 Wis
Darkvision 60ft, lowlight vision
Smite Good 1/day
Suggestion 1/day as a 7th level caster
DR 5/Good

The flight comes from angelic wings that are retractable. It takes a standard action to sprout wings and to retract them.

So, what would you make the level adjustment?

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El Rav

 

[Scion]

Looks like a pretty standard +2 going by the various other templates and races given. Mainly from the wings, but that DR helps. I would suggest giving them some very minor SR to make them a real +2, like SR = level +2.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Early on, this is a solid +2 LA (fly 60 ft. is very powerful at low levels). At higher levels, it becomes a bit weaker, but is still ideal for a blackguard and pretty good for a sorcerer.

I'm personally not convinced that SR is necessary, but 2 + class levels is not a huge boost, unless the BBEG is several levels higher than the party when they confront him.

Remember, when flying the BBEG will have to take at least a move action each round, so no full-round actions are possible.

 

[Scion]

I made mention of the SR for the very reasons you mention, flying is strong early, but much weaker latter. Being able to fly without magic is always nice, but when it only takes the place of a fairly cheap magical item.. well.. it isnt worth a level at that point

The SR will rarely matter to players, unless the BBEG spends feats on making it better (or items, spells, whatever.. resources none-the-less).

Plus, everytime the pc's cast a spell on the bad guy saying, 'ok, roll your spell penetration' always makes people just a little more anxious..lol.. even if it will only do something around 5% of the time.

Just as an aside, where does it state that creatures have to spend a move equivalent each round to fly? or is that just for this particular manuverabilty class? (sorry, no books right now, and very tired). Sortof sucks for zombie creatures that fly

 

[Tatsukun]

It’s the latter. Poor maneuverability can’t hover, so they have to keep using a move action to keep moving. Else, they drop like rocks.

Yeah, that would suck for a zombie, unless it’s a zombie messenger who’s only purpose is the fly in a straight line or something.

-Tatsu

 

[Li Shenron]

IMHO not more than simply a +1, and mostly because of the DR (I suppose you meant 5/Evil if it's "angelic") and the net +2 on the abilities.

Obviously, if this was in a WotC book it would probably +2 or more, since they are soo scared of allowing an ECL race at too low price.

 

[Coredump]

IF this is for a bad guy, why do you want an ECL?? ECL is only for PC generation really. If it is going to be a BBEG NPC, then you need to determine the CR adjustment for this character, and that is (or should be) very different.

Plus, you will need to know more about it level, abilities, etcl to get decent CR advice.

.

 

[Scion]

IMHO not more than simply a +1, and mostly because of the DR (I suppose you meant 5/Evil if it's "angelic") and the net +2 on the abilities.

Obviously, if this was in a WotC book it would probably +2 or more, since they are soo scared of allowing an ECL race at too low price.

I figured he wanted a wotc type of LA. The winged template gives +2 LA, but in my estimation it is worth that LA for about 2 levels beyond that and then sucks for every other level.

But with flying, plus good stat mods, a couple of beanies, DR, plus some SR I could see it being worth the +2 more or less through most levels. It may not be a really strong +2, but it would be an incredible +1

(but then I hate how the alignment DR works, your pc's are probably primarily good, so have the best chance to bypass it.. this may need to be taken into account as well)

 

[Li Shenron]

I figured he wanted a wotc type of LA.

Don't get me wrong. I think you all made the right estimation with +2 by how ECL is usually calculated. I was just tossing in my blasphemous opinion that ECL is normally too high to be really worth playing, at least at low levels and of course much more costly for spellcasters.

 

[Scion]

I definately understand Most given LA's I wind up dropping by at least one point, in the case of a few races I just modified a couple of abilites and dropped them to +0.

The big problem is that most creatures take into account hd and LA, which means that they pay twice for abilities. That sucks.

This guy doesnt have that problem though, he has something of the reverse. Lots of powers, no where to go with them but into classes. This skews the LA in a different fashion ;/


Even with what I said above with them being +2 with some sr, I would still give them a few extra beanies at higher levels in my campaign. Around the point where the +2 is just too high of a price for what they are getting. I would give bonuses to certain skills, extra stat modifiers, increased manuverability with the flying, and more special powers per day. But I thought that was too much to say as just a suggestion

Happy gaming all!