Exactly how bad is this idea

[TheNoodleGod]

i have this idea to add like, negative effects for people that lower their LA, for instance, missing an arm would take away one or two adjustments, or being blind or deaf or being cursed or something
also, has this already been done

[animewatcha]

You would need additional things such as these conditions being uncurable or unable to be counteracted. Something like blind or deaf, IIRC, can be dealt with via a heal spell.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

i have this idea to add like, negative effects for people that lower their LA, for instance, missing an arm would take away one or two adjustments, or being blind or deaf or being cursed or something
also, has this already been done

With spells like Heal and Regenerate floating around to negate disadvantages... I would have to say 'This is very bad, Ray'.

I think the Twinkie comparison is apt here.

[TheNoodleGod]

oh yeah thats a thing.
but what if you regained the LA upon losing the disability
maybe it'd just be a thing for low-magic / low level things

[A_S]

In general, giving people the option to hand-pick weakness in return for strengths that they also get to hand-pick raises character power levels (see UA flaws). That's not necessarily a bad thing. But expect people to find ways to substantially mitigate whatever disadvantage they pick, and then use the free LA they get from it in the most beneficial way possible.

[Fates]

Of course, the DM could determine what weakness the character gets in return for its LA reduction, thus reducing MinMax likelihood and severity.

EDIT: Of course, most players won't like hearing "Oh yeah, and by the way, your badass half-minotaur water orc is missing an arm."

[Slipperychicken]

EDIT: Of course, most players won't like hearing "Oh yeah, and by the way, your badass half-minotaur water orc is missing an arm."

I'd be mad for a little while, before exploding in childish glee at the thought of getting a freaking robot arm, and how badass that would be. Might even be able to squeeze a Half-Golem template out of that.

[Flickerdart]

There was a semi-official rule somewhere where playing a race with LA above your current level could be mitigated by taking -1 per LA to a whole bunch of different things. But that doesn't help with the best thing you can get from special races, which are unique abilities and not numbers. And in those cases, nobody will care about the penalties imposed on them by missing an arm or whatever.

Really, your best bet for making balanced LA is figuring out what the player wants from the creature and then figure out what level that ability is appropriate for, then dock any things they're willing to part with and set an LA based on that. For instance, if a player wants to play a Drow because they think Drow SLAs are cool, take off a bunch of the other stuff like their SR and call it LA0.

[TuggyNE]

There was a semi-official rule somewhere where playing a race with LA above your current level could be mitigated by taking -1 per LA to a whole bunch of different things.

I recall something like that, basically "you're stuck with X special negative levels except these can't be removed except by (and instead of) leveling".

[Karnith]

I recall something like that, basically "you're stuck with X special negative levels except these can't be removed except by (and instead of) leveling".
I believe that the rule in question is the "Powerful Races at First Level" variant rule in the appendix of Player's Guide to Faerun. You reduce a LA by 1 in exchange for -1 on skill checks, ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, level checks (including caster level checks), DCs for all abilities (including but not limited to spells), and racial armor class bonuses. And the first time that you would level up, you remove the penalties and up your LA by 1 instead.