Reducing LA in a game with no EXP

[LentilNinja]

In our games, we don't bother with EXP (we use UA's crafting rule, and XP costs for spells have a house rule) but we want to buy off LAs. We originally went with the idea of buying LA for free but the DM said that (since we're starting a level 10 campaign in a month) it was unfair since LA +2 or lower races would be as if they had LA 0.

Does anyone have a suggestion for an alternative rule? I toyed with the idea of getting the LA for free at later levels than the book, but I think that'd make LA worse.

[Kamin_Majere]

What about just giving up a whole level and calling it even. If the campaign starts at level 10 then you can take a LA+2 race and start at level 9. At that level very few of the LA races are really going to be dominating the show (opposed to giving a free LA+2 at levels 1-3)

Heck turn it into a role play thing that its some special ritual that you use to awaken your heritage and the ceremony burns out your top level

[Taelas]

Make the game point buy, and give lesser totals to races with LA.

For instance, give 32 PB to normal races, 28 PB to LA +1 races, and 25 PB to LA +2 races.

Then just remove the LA altogether.

If your DM insists on including the LA at first, you could instead give bonuses to the normal races at the moment you reduce the LA.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I made a spreadsheet a long while back, when UA first came out actually, trying to determine just how much extra XP a character who's behind one level would get. It ended up being a very regular pattern, in which the lower level character's XP deficit was reduced by about 25% of its current value per character level gained. I no longer have the original spreadsheet, but with considerable effort my work could be recreated.

For example, if a character is behind by 3,000 xp and the party all gains an entire level, that character should only be behind by 2,250 xp (75% of 3,000). After the party gains another entire class level, he should only be down by 1,687 xp (75% of 2250), then after another character level is gained by the party he should be behind by about 1,265 xp, and so on. Granted he will eventually catch up, and perhaps even pull ahead if they have a large encounter when he's just a few xp behind gaining his next level.

If not using XP at all, I'd make the character who's behind gain five levels in the time it takes the rest of the party to gain four levels. If it takes five sessions for the party to gain a level, it would take him four sessions to gain each level until he's completely caught back up.

[LentilNinja]

I made a spreadsheet a long while back, when UA first came out actually, trying to determine just how much extra XP a character who's behind one level would get. It ended up being a very regular pattern, in which the lower level character's XP deficit was reduced by about 25% of its current value per character level gained. I no longer have the original spreadsheet, but with considerable effort my work could be recreated.

For example, if a character is behind by 3,000 xp and the party all gains an entire level, that character should only be behind by 2,250 xp (75% of 3,000). After the party gains another entire class level, he should only be down by 1,687 xp (75% of 2250), then after another character level is gained by the party he should be behind by about 1,265 xp, and so on. Granted he will eventually catch up, and perhaps even pull ahead if they have a large encounter when he's just a few xp behind gaining his next level.

If not using XP at all, I'd make the character who's behind gain five levels in the time it takes the rest of the party to gain four levels. If it takes five sessions for the party to gain a level, it would take him four sessions to gain each level until he's completely caught back up.

This seems like a pretty solid idea. If you do ever recreate that spreadsheet, be sure to hook me up. I think something like that would be nice to have too.

[sideswipe]

there are rules for alternate castings for poverty casters to lose xp instead of costing material components.

reversing this use the same conversion rate from xp to gold.

when the player reaches a level they can buy off (with the normal level adjust rules) they can instead take that much gold to a church and pay for a ritual (or some other fluff reason for it) that afterwards they have "bought off" their level adjustment. they should still not be too much behind on wealth but enough so that they have a penalty that is noticeable.

[danzibr]

Make the game point buy, and give lesser totals to races with LA.

For instance, give 32 PB to normal races, 28 PB to LA +1 races, and 25 PB to LA +2 races.

Then just remove the LA altogether.

If your DM insists on including the LA at first, you could instead give bonuses to the normal races at the moment you reduce the LA.
I like this idea (but these numbers seem a but low).

[Doc_Maynot]

E6 has rules for that sort of thing. (http://esix.pbworks.com/f/E6v041.pdf)
+0 32
+1 25
+2 18
+3 10
+4 00

[Relinara]

E6 has rules for that sort of thing. (http://esix.pbworks.com/f/E6v041.pdf)
+0 32
+1 25
+2 18
+3 10
+4 00

I feel like the numbers here are a bit too steep. A drow for instance, would be pretty damn awful compared to a human with 18 over 32. Maybe even moreso than normal.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I feel like the numbers here are a bit too steep. A drow for instance, would be pretty damn awful compared to a human with 18 over 32. Maybe even moreso than normal.

An E6 Half-Goristro (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630x&page=1) Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater) would be large size and have Str 28, Dex 6, Con 22, Int 6, Wis 6, Cha 6, +7 natural armor, 2 slam attacks that deal damage as two-handed weapons, DR/Cold Iron, SR, resistances, immunities, and spell-like abilities.

A Half-Giant Primordial Giant would have 25 pointbuy with Str -2, Dex -2, Int +4, Cha +4, Invisibility as an at-will spell-like ability, +2 Spellcraft and UMD, +1 caster level to all spell-like abilities, powerful build and all the rest of the Half-Giant traits.

Certain races have always been weaker than others in regard to what you get for the level adjustment, and while Drow aren't the worst, they are fairly low on the list, especially in comparison to the races or race/template combinations that are extremely well suited to certain types of builds or roles.