[PF] Alternate Level Adjustment Buy-off? (Advanced Races Guide)

[kevin_video]

A few years ago a thread with this title was made where someone needed help for the 3.5 system. I'm making this for help with the Pathfinder system.

I know how it's supposed to work, officially, but I'm looking for an alternative for Pathfinder. There are no level adjustments in Pathfinder, but there are. It's confusing. They have examples where if you're using a regular party, and what you're supposed to do if you add in a CR creature of the same or higher level, and what you're technically supposed to do if you use races that have more Racial Points than the base core races of 10 pts or less (eg. driders are 35 RP, therefore +3 LA).

What I'm looking for is an alternate system. There are three XP groups that you can use: Slow, Medium, and Fast. Medium is what they use for Adventure Paths so that'll be what we can use as a base.

So, if I went to a slower progression, what would be the appropriate number of HD levels a PC would have to go up to buy off the adjustments? Right now the XP looks to up by half for each level (eg. to hit level 2, it's 2000 XP for Medium is 3000 XP with Slow, and level 3 is 5000 for Medium and 7500 for Slow).

Right now I've got an entire party of PCs that have powerful races that are about 2-3 LA higher than the module, and we're taking the slow progression. Just wondering how long I should keep them on that route. My thought was for every 3 levels of slow progression, it'd eat up 1 level adjustment.

Does that seem fair, or should I be doing something different that might be proper. I just don't want to be cheating my players out of XP. However, at the same time, I don't want the fights to be a cake walk either.

[kevin_video]

No one has any suggestions?

[Squirrel_Dude]

I've never tried to use races that are so much more powerful than the "standard" of 10. All I can say is that 2 levels of slow progression to buy of a 1 of level adjustment sounds okay to me.

[kevin_video]

In the Advanced Races Guide, we see a lot of creatures are that extra level. Thankfully Pathfinder Society have allowed tieflings and aasimars to go without theirs now, as opposed to the "start at negative XP equal to half of what it takes to reach 2nd." Others, however, such as the drow, driders, and practically all plant races that are coming out, all seem to be fairly expensive. Even the newly released books are starting to show how they cost what they do. It's really quite interesting.

However, I don't like the idea of "Oh, just send higher CR at them every five levels until all of their adjustments are bought off." That seems a bit much.

[Tanuki Tales]

Honestly, I'd look at what their race gives them and what level they're supposed to be starting at. Monsters and "Advanced" races have pretty heavy diminishing returns compared to class levels in almost all cases and they shouldn't be strictly punished for their "unorthodox" choices.

For example, a Minotaur might be an attractive and powerful compared to a straight Vanilla Human Fighter 4, but it looks different if you're comparing a Minotaur/Class X 8 to that Human Fighter 12.

[kevin_video]

For example, a Minotaur might be an attractive and powerful compared to a straight Vanilla Human Fighter 4, but it looks different if you're comparing a Minotaur/Class X 8 to that Human Fighter 12.
Oh most definitely. And that's my point. A vanilla Human Fighter 4 and a minotaur would level up the same for a little bit, but according to the rules, the minotaur would actually level up every so often up to half their CR, and then level up normally.

I'm not 100% sure how that works.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monstersAsPCs.html

[Tanuki Tales]

Oh most definitely. And that's my point. A vanilla Human Fighter 4 and a minotaur would level up the same for a little bit, but according to the rules, the minotaur would actually level up every so often up to half their CR, and then level up normally.

I'm not 100% sure how that works.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monstersAsPCs.html

Basically it works like this:

{table=head]Minotaur Effective level|Party level
4|4
5|5
6|6
8|7
9|8
10|9
12|10[/table]

At that point, the Minotaur starts accruing EXP as normal for a character of its effective level.

[kevin_video]

Did the minotaur jump two HD levels, twice? :smalleek:

[kevin_video]

The players aren't being "punished" for having powerful races. Hence why this thread exists. I want to make sure I'm not cheating them by taking the slow progression. Just a matter of how long they should stay there until such time that they can return to Medium.

Right now all of the PCs are 3-4 HD, and have races that are the equivalent to a +2 CR template. All in slow progression until otherwise noted.

[Ravenica]

What I've been doing is letting the lower powered races take a couple of extra abilities (usually from their list of alternatives) until they balance out and then let the games begin with everyone on parity. In the event that everyone is playing a race within a ten point range, or the skilled player playing a lower (but extremely effective, say Ifrit Sorc with elemental fire bloodline) combo then I just hand wave it all together

[Tanuki Tales]

Did the minotaur jump two HD levels, twice? :smalleek:

Yup, that's what the rules you connected to said. The Minotaur outpaces the party by 2 levels at certain points in order to balance out the power differential and the fact they'll need get capstones until Paizo makes some Post-level 20 gameplay.