LA for higher Tier Classes?

[DGB]

Hi everyone:

In my upcoming campaign i am thinking of restricting the higher tier classes like wizard etc. to LA +2.
This is inspired by the many"my lvl 1 wizard can kill a group of lvl 3 opponents easily threads"

I thought of balancing the classes via LA throughout the tier list, like:
Tier 1: LA +2
Tier 2: LA +1
Tier 3: LA +0
Tier 4: LA -1
and Tier 5 LA -2

Would this make my party more balanced? Do you have any thoughts, preferences or tips you would share?
thanks in advance:smallsmile:

[hushblade]

Eh, Sounds better for party balance than playing them straight, but it seems to hurt the T1 classes a lot early on(where the power gap is minimal), and less at high levels(when the power gap is huge)

[Novawurmson]

It would delay how quickly a Wizard can break the game by two levels and prevent Clerics and Druids from getting into melee...I think the point buy adjustment might be a little better. There's also hit dice issues...

Maybe tier 1s have to have two HD of Humanoid and tier 2s have to take 1 HD of humanoid? That way they get something, but it still heavily delays their spellcasting?

[Psyren]

Are your wizard players being a problem? If so, just talk to them about it. If not, there's nothing to fix.

Blanket nerfs like these won't do much to hinder a munchkin, while they actively punish both a team-oriented player and his entire party.

[Urpriest]

The problem with higher Tier classes is based on the number and quality of their options, and not primarily on their rate of acquisition.

[Bloodgruve]

I'd be reluctant to give LA's per tier, as was said earlier it just delays the breakage. Is there a way to restrict the spells available to the T1 n T2 or buff up the lower tiers. Maybe allow extra feats/abilities or even gestalting? I've thought of allowing lower tiers to gestalt a second lower tier class to allow for more options.

Maybe
T1 and T2 - no changes
T3 - faster feat progression
T4 and T5 - Gestalt another T4/T5 class

Just some ideas. Tiers are only as good as the players running them though too.

GL
Blood~

[ahenobarbi]

Are your wizard players being a problem? If so, just talk to them about it. If not, there's nothing to fix.

Blanket nerfs like these won't do much to hinder a munchkin, while they actively punish both a team-oriented player and his entire party.

This. Also telling players to play similar-tier classes (if there is a problem to fix) could help.

[Eldan]

Honestly? No.

All it does is make tier 1 classes unplayable until they have around 5 levels under their belt, at which point they start to dominate as normal.

In fact, wizards aren't so bad at early levels. Yes, they have more options, and they can win a few fights for the party. But they only getr really bad later on, at which point they get so bad the LA won't matter to them. Compare: level 10 fighter, level 8 wizard. Who, you guess, has more options available to him? Who can solve more environmental problems? And who can predict the future, build his own indistructible fortress, and summon creatures as strong as the fighter? Exactly.

On the other hand, compare the level 3 fighter to the level 1 wizard. The wizard has a few options. But he is fighting CR 3 creatures while being in danger of keeling over when someone throws a dart at him. The save DCs of his few encounter-ending spells (around five per day, at most, I'd guess) suck so that enemies can make their saves, and his blasting damage is too low to kill anything CR appropriate.

Short version: I'm not sure this works.

Addendum: How does multiclassing work? Does a wizard 1/Truenamer 1 have an LA of 0?