are redcaps worth the LA?

[lunar2]

obviously not when they first become available, but what about later on? the fey HD is bad, but the redcap's racial abilities perfectly counter the weaknesses of the RHD. so, is an advanced redcap worth LA+4, and if so, at what level do they reach that point?

[andromax]

It'd be a tough sell, optimization-wise at a LA+4.

The +9 natural armor is probably the nicest thing about it, but Alter Self (troglodyte) will get you there with 0 LA.

The DR isn't bad, but you can get 8/adamantine with a +1 LA. (Mineral Warrior)
I don't believe it's ever worth a +4 LA, no.


They're good for ambushes against PCs if you want to try and kill one of them, give them Instinctive Consumator feat.

[lunar2]

i was talking more about the advanced redcaps, with their massive physical ability scores.

[andromax]

The thing is, you can get better physical stats with Polymorph and Shapechange, and those don't affect your LA. As a matter of fact you could use those spells to change into a redcap and then you have the best of both worlds.

[lunar2]

yeah, "wizard does it better" really shouldn't have much bearing on what race you play.

[andromax]

Anyone with a few ranks in UMD can use polymorph, it's also important to note that you don't get those ability score increases unless you increase your racial hit die. Which you would do in lieu of increasing PC character level, so it's a total trap.

[Spuddles]

Anyone with a few ranks in UMD can use polymorph, it's also important to note that you don't get those ability score increases unless you increase your racial hit die. Which you would do in lieu of increasing PC character level, so it's a total trap.

Only if you expect to be playing level 1 to 20. Otherwise it's basically free levels and horribly broken as you no longer need xp to level.

If you get to abuse the free leveling racial of redcaps, they can be totally worth it, especially at lower ECLs and as long as you wouldn't be gaining thise levels anyway.

Do recaps have an RHD cap?

[lunar2]

@umd. it's still the wizard that scribed the scroll the rogue UMD'd. so it's still "the wizard does it better". the point is, saying that a broken spell is better isn't saying that this is bad.

@rhd being bad. rhd aren't so bad when they have effects tied to them.

is a redcap just another big (not so much) stupid fighter? yeah. are they damn good at it? yes.

@ninja.

redcaps have an hd cap of 20. and their levels aren't free, iirc. they don't have a barghest advancement thing where they have to dip their cap x amount of times, they just get special benefits for whenever they do advance.