Monster class levels

[Spacehamster]

Been thinking about those silly monster class levels and their purpose, cause to me they just seem to be mostly weak and empty levels, that keeps/scare off ppl from trying some interesting and cool races. +LA is bad enough but at least you can buy those off. Anyone thinking skipping the monster levels and start with class levels as a normal character is a good idea? Since a pc monster would most likely have had a different life growing up then the npc monsters you meet in your adventures.

[zingbobco000]

Not really, it might have had a slightly different background but RAI the RHD is supposed to say this monster lived for a sort of long amount of time then picked up the class. I mean, I hate most racial hit die as much as the next person. Though I think you should be able to buy-off RHD not ignore it entirely. You can actually do this via Maximized Enervations, Energy Drains, Enervations etc...

[Urpriest]

Do you mean starting a Monster Class but not taking any of the levels, just using the base race? Or do you mean playing the full monster, but ignoring RHD?

Because those are utterly different concepts, with dramatically different results and levels of balance.