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Zom B
2010-01-31, 07:47 AM
I have a friend who is playing a were-tiger in our games and he has become focused on somehow trading out the racial HD or the LA for class levels. Are there any methods for doing this?

Melamoto
2010-01-31, 07:53 AM
If he has no other levels, then the Restoration trick (Level Drain the HD and then use restoration to gain Class Levels equal to the HD lost) would work. Not that any DMs allow things like that, but still.

Grumman
2010-01-31, 07:58 AM
I have a friend who is playing a were-tiger in our games and he has become focused on somehow trading out the racial HD or the LA for class levels. Are there any methods for doing this?
Once he's about to hit ECL 18 (6 racial HD and 9 class HD), he can buy off a single level of Level Adjustment.

BobVosh
2010-01-31, 08:41 AM
Chaos shuffle can change the HD...I think. Someone else correct me if I'm wrong :(

Grumman
2010-01-31, 08:53 AM
Chaos shuffle can change the HD...I think. Someone else correct me if I'm wrong :(
You're wrong. Chaos shuffle is for feats only.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2010-01-31, 08:55 AM
Chaos Shuffle can only replace feats.

The level drain/restoration and similar tricks are the only way to swap out racial HD. They're not optional, and are viewed as a means of balancing a more powerful PC race. Suggest that he take Crusader, Swordsage, or Warblade, as half of his racial HD will go toward his initiator level and he'll at least get to start with some decent level maneuvers/stances.

There is a way to reduce your level adjustment (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm), but as Grumman pointed out he won't be able to do that until the very high levels. For a +3 LA he'd need to have at least nine class levels not counting any racial HD to buy off the first point, and then six more class levels later buy off a second point, and then three class levels after that buy off the final point. If he's an afflicted lycanthrope he'd start with a +2 LA, so he could buy off the first point at ECL 14 (6th class level) and then buy off the final point at ECL 16 (9th class level).

WotC included lycanthropes in their Savage Progressions articles (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/sp), you don't have to gain each level of a template class at the earliest opportunity like you would for the Savage Species progressions. He'd lose out on most of the benefits if he skips most of the levels, but it's another option he may want to consider.

ScionoftheVoid
2010-01-31, 09:33 AM
If he has no other levels, then the Restoration trick (Level Drain the HD and then use restoration to gain Class Levels equal to the HD lost) would work. Not that many DMs allow things like that, but still.

Fixed that for you.