Level adjustment varient

[tim01300]

So in my game one of my players died at level 10and is asking to come back in as a goliath. They have a +1 level adjustment. We are sorta newbs and have stayed mostly with the core phb races til now. As I understand it he will drop to level 9 for dying and will only be level 8 class wise because of the race adjustment.

Today he asked me about this

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm

When a character with a level adjustment advances in experience, the level adjustment he started with becomes more and more of a burden. Eventually, the benefits of the creature type may come to be eclipsed by those of his class features, and the player may regret his choice of race. Under this variant system, the character can pay an XP cost at certain intervals to decrease the burden of his level adjustment.


Once the total of a character's class levels (not including any Hit Dice from his creature type or his level adjustment) reaches three times his level adjustment, his level adjustment is eligible to be decreased by 1.

For instance, a gnoll's level adjustment is +1. When a gnoll character gains his third class level (remember, the gnoll's 2 starting Hit Dice don't count), he can pay an XP cost to reduce his level adjustment to +0.


Is this something a lot of you guys do when Dming? Thoughts?

[Zytil]

Based on what i've seen, the vast majority of the forum plays with LA buyoff and it seems to work out for them.

But if he wants to start playing again as a goliath, why is he losing a level for dying? If he's being raised he should be the same character, so it sounds like he's just making a new character to me.

[KillianHawkeye]

I have used it before and it works pretty well.

[tim01300]

If you make a new character after dying you don't still go down a level? I honestly thought you still did. So dying doesn't become cool.

I feel my guys would just make the exact same character to avoid the level plenty and call him Bob II

[Kazudo]

I permit LA Buyoff usually when I permit Bloodlines as well, since it's (practically) the same idea.

I don't always permit either, but if it's a game where the players have plenty of freedom in character creation (or such a high level game that it doesn't matter), then yeah! Works beautifully whenever I use it.

[Urpriest]

If you make a new character after dying you don't still go down a level? I honestly thought you still did. So dying doesn't become cool.

I feel my guys would just make the exact same character to avoid the level plenty and call him Bob II

The rules don't specify either way. I tend to have players lose a level when they make a new character, but that's because I've had a lot of trouble in the past with players repeatedly getting bored with their characters and killing them off. It's not something you have to do with a more mature group.

Anyway, level adjustment buyoff might be a bit powerful for your group, but it's probably fine. The idea is that at higher levels the benefits of level adjustment matter a lot less, while the drawbacks are worse, so it makes sense to be able to buy it off.

In general, I'd set up the new PC with a fixed experience total, rather than a fixed level. Some of that XP can then be used to buy off LA.