Why is Pseudodragon LA +3?

[Tarlek Flamehai]

I was comparing the pseudodragon to wyrmlings and I don't see why the pseudodragon should be LA +3.

Compare a Wyrmling Mercury Dragon to a Pseudodragon:

Bolded selection indicates the superior choice IMO.

Size: same
Stats: Wyrmling +6 Pdragon +4
AC: Wyrmling 16 Pdragon 18
Move: Wyrmling 60 Pdragon 15
Flight: Wyrmling 200/Perfect Pdragon 60/Good
Overland Flight: Wyrmling 30 mi/hr Pdragon N/A
Bite: Wyrmling 1d4 Pdragon 1
Claw Wyrmling 1d3 Pdragon N/A
Special Attack: Wyrmling 1d8 Pdragon Pdragon (1d3-2) + DC14 Sleep[/B]
SR: Wyrmling N/A Pdragon 19
Immunities: Wyrmling Sleep, Paralysis, Fire, Blind, Dazzle Pdragon Sleep, Paralysis
Vulnerability: Wyrmling Cold Pdragon N/A
Blindsense: Same
Low Light Vision: Wyrmling Double range Pdragon Standard range
Dark Vision: Wyrmling 120 Pdragon 60
Communication: Wyrmling Spoken Common & Draconic Pdragon 60' Telepathic Common & Sylvan

Spoken is better than Telepathic because of Spellcasting, IMO.

So why is the wyrmling only +2 LA and the pseudodragon +3 LA?

[Karnith]

So why is the wyrmling only +2 LA and the pseudodragon +3 LA?
Because WotC was horrible at estimating appropriate level adjustments/ECLs, particularly early on in 3.5's run. That's pretty much all there is to it; Mercury Dragon is basically better in every way, despite the fact that the creatures have the same ECL.

Note that Telepathy opens up access to Mindsight, however. It's not as big a deal as that might be for some other creatures, since Pseudodragons already have Blindsense out to the same range, but it's there.

[Seerow]

Wyrmling has 3rhd, while Pseudodragon has 2rhd, so they're the same ECL. But yeah the Wyrmling is superior in nearly every way.

[Bakkan]

WotC also valued SR very highly, and the Pseudodragon's SR 19 is actually pretty impressive for low levels.

[CyberThread]

Because it is core.

[nedz]

Telepathy and Blindsense are the standout features though mainly for a stealth party.

Telepathy gives the party a silent radio net and Blindsense counters a lot of stealth encounters.

Whether these are useful to a given party depends upon their playstyle: for many playstyles these will not be too useful, for other parties they are a game changer.

As to the LA+3 question: these are always just someone's guess — at least I've never seen a rationalised system for determining them.

[Yawgmoth]

Because SKR made the rules for LA and he is well-known for his active contempt for anyone playing anything outside of human/elf/dwarf.

My house rules (as a starting point) cut all LA in half and charge players a feat/flaw for each point of remaining LA. For things with HD, I generally attribute one special attack/quality to each HD before assigning additional LA. So for pseudodragon you'd have your two dragon HD which gets you the darkvision, blindsense, immunity to sleep/paralysis, and low-light vision for free (as they come from the dragon type), then poison and telepathy as "class features" for those 2HD, and the SR would net you another +1 LA, which you would need to either take a flaw or burn your lv1 feat on.

It's not perfect, but it's better than the basic rules IMO.

[John Longarrow]

Tarlek Flamehai,

WotC basically viewed anything that had flight as a minimum LA of +2 initially. Toss in SR that makes most level appropriate casters mostly ineffective and you get the LA of +3.

Personally about the only monster that I think WotC hit right for LA early on was Pixie. +20 to stats, greater invisibility, flight, good SR and some decent innate magic plus DR.

Personally I'd say Pseudodragon is closer to a +2.

[Seerow]

Because SKR made the rules for LA and he is well-known for his active contempt for anyone playing anything outside of human/elf/dwarf.

My house rules (as a starting point) cut all LA in half and charge players a feat/flaw for each point of remaining LA. For things with HD, I generally attribute one special attack/quality to each HD before assigning additional LA. So for pseudodragon you'd have your two dragon HD which gets you the darkvision, blindsense, immunity to sleep/paralysis, and low-light vision for free (as they come from the dragon type), then poison and telepathy as "class features" for those 2HD, and the SR would net you another +1 LA, which you would need to either take a flaw or burn your lv1 feat on.

It's not perfect, but it's better than the basic rules IMO.

Sounds like pretty sensible to me. Though I would count "better creature type" as worth one quality. Being a Construct, Dragon, or Undead is way better than Humanoid. (basically anything that gives you a bunch of immunities or other perks should qualify).

[TroubleBrewing]

Sounds like pretty sensible to me. Though I would count "better creature type" as worth one quality. Being a Construct, Dragon, or Undead is way better than Humanoid. (basically anything that gives you a bunch of immunities or other perks should qualify).

Not to mention Alter Self shenanigans.

[Yawgmoth]

Sounds like pretty sensible to me. Though I would count "better creature type" as worth one quality. Being a Construct, Dragon, or Undead is way better than Humanoid. (basically anything that gives you a bunch of immunities or other perks should qualify). I could see that for Dragon and Outsider, maybe Undead because of the giant sack of immunities, but not for any other type since class levels are generally better than any HD. Gotta remember than you're comparing dragon HD to humanoid HD, you're comparing dragon HD to a level in a class.

[Seerow]

I could see that for Dragon and Outsider, maybe Undead because of the giant sack of immunities, but not for any other type since class levels are generally better than any HD. Gotta remember than you're comparing dragon HD to humanoid HD, you're comparing dragon HD to a level in a class.

My point was you said you don't count immunities from creature type. I'm saying those really should be factored in, even if it's a lump sum of 1 for the creature type.

Because you bet I'd give up one level worth of class features on a lot of builds to gain immunity to half the stuff in the book.