Drow progression levels - what about health?!

[gurgleflep]

I'm looking at the racial progression levels found here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a) and I'm wondering how exactly would this work? They don't have any RHD listed for any of the races here - I know the drow don't have any, but how would they stay alive?

[Keld Denar]

That progression is because drow have a Level Adjustment. LA does not give HD or any of the things granted by HD. That's one of the reasons why a high LA isn't good for most PCs. HP are life, and without HP, you die. Quickly.

[gurgleflep]

That progression is because drow have a Level Adjustment. LA does not give HD or any of the things granted by HD. That's one of the reasons why a high LA isn't good for most PCs. HP are life, and without HP, you die. Quickly.

I know this, but what's the point of having the progression without any health involved? Would they just have their con modifier as health or something? :smallconfused:

[Almaseti]

Not just hp, but saves and bab and stuff like that too. From what I get, you're an X level character with a bunch of bonus abilities, and you get treated, in terms of xp earned and CR and stuff, like you're level X + 1/2/3 etc. The abilities don't generally scale all that well, so they're not useful at high levels, and they cost you bab, saves and hp, so you're fragile at lower levels. And they make it take longer to get class features.

[Scow2]

I know this, but what's the point of having the progression without any health involved? Would they just have their con modifier as health or something? :smallconfused:Nope. Nothing at all but their special abilities. YOu don't actually gain levels.

[Darrin]

I know this, but what's the point of having the progression without any health involved? Would they just have their con modifier as health or something? :smallconfused:

The progression assumes you have class levels. If you have 1 level of barbarian, then it's probably a safe bet that you gave more HP than 1 level of sorcerer.

When creatures have LA, they have racial abilities that make them much more powerful than a PC with similar levels. For drow, they get LA +2, mostly for their spell resistance, unbalanced ability scores, and SLAs. If you want to play one as a PC, then the LA is supposed to balance you against a typical PC that doesn't have your spell resistance, better ability scores, SLAs, etc. However, in practice LA is almost cripplingly stupid. A 1st level drow is treated as a 3rd level character for calculating XP, which means he's stuck with a single level of HP until he earns 6000 XP. Meanwhile, the other PCs get more HP, skill points, and class abilities at 2nd and 3rd level. So until your drow catches up or buys off his LA, he's a bloodsmear waiting to happen, and even after that, he's 2 HD behind with the rest of the party.

The Savage Progression articles offer a much more playable alternative. Basically you remove overpowered racial abilities until you have the equivalent of a typical PC race with no LA. You can then later take a racial template level to earn your racial abilities back. You don't get HP, skill points, or saves with these racial levels, but unlike the monster class levels in Savage Species, you can take these levels whenever you like, or just decide not to take them at all. All things considered, taking class levels is generally a much better deal.

[Yogibear41]

Drow have a LA of +2, by using that progression you effectively have a LA of +0 until you begin taking levels in it. Basically it was created so that at level 1 you wouldn't have any sort of unfair advantages over other players. IMO just scrap the progression and start play as a normal LA+2 drow with 1 class level.


EDIT: also what Darrin said, if your playing in a game that allows LA buy-off I'm of the opinion that +1 or a +2 la is almost always worth it if the game goes long. In the long run you basically end up with just free abilities. Assuming you survive that long that is. (although drow probably only deserve a +1 and not a +2)

[ericp65]

Drow have a LA of +2, by using that progression you effectively have a LA of +0 until you begin taking levels in it. Basically it was created so that at level 1 you wouldn't have any sort of unfair advantages over other players. IMO just scrap the progression and start play as a normal LA+2 drow with 1 class level.


EDIT: also what Darrin said, if your playing in a game that allows LA buy-off I'm of the opinion that +1 or a +2 la is almost always worth it if the game goes long. In the long run you basically end up with just free abilities. Assuming you survive that long that is. (although drow probably only deserve a +1 and not a +2)

I concur. My favorite and most successful character is a Drow I played from the bottom up. He's currently 46th level, and has bought off LA. I never found the LA to be a hindrance during play.