Racial HD

[Spacehamster]

Most ppl agree they are horrid and always give way less then a normal class does, got an idea to still keep the hd but make them useful.
Want to play a Flind but are annoyed by the 2hd AND the 2LA?! Well my idea is make the racial hd a lesser version of a real class,
want to go ranger with your Flind go ahead, get all ranger features from your racial hd but with d6 hp per level instead, Barbarian d10 instead
and so on, still gives a slight penalty but at least you get a normal progress for those levels. And with a d4 class like wizard you get hp as if you had
1 less constitution bonus. Oh and if your racial HD gives stat increases and such
they still would give that too ofc. Would make those levels not as dead levels and make many races viable for play. :) Any thoughts on this idea? :)

SpaceHamster over and out

[Kazudo]

I actually don't mind RHD as long as I'm not trying to play a really low level game or am attempting to get casting progression in there. LA is annoying because literally all it does is cost EXP, but playing with LA buyoff is pretty commonplace at least at the tables I run. Certain kinds of RHD are actually pretty neat, Dragon and Monstrous Humanoid being among my two favorites.

[Vaz]

It depends on the type. Outsider and Dragon are pretty good, and even devoid of class features are fairly good, depending on what abilities they bring to the table.

The problem is with both of those, invariably it is better to pick up Assume Supernatural Ability/Metamorphic Transfer and change shape into them.

[Xerlith]

I... Think that's basically what Oslecamo did. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?board=34.0) Have you seen it?

[Urpriest]

In general, whenever someone proposes something like this, I suggest they think about how it would apply to a Black Ethergaunt.

[Spacehamster]

In general, whenever someone proposes something like this, I suggest they think about how it would apply to a Black Ethergaunt.

Well dont know what that race is but guess it is really over powered or something if it had more class like hd? Would ofc
be up to DM then but I thought mainly for low to medium powered races with 2-4 hd of whichever race die they have. :)

[Urpriest]

Well dont know what that race is but guess it is really over powered or something if it had more class like hd? Would ofc
be up to DM then but I thought mainly for low to medium powered races with 2-4 hd of whichever race die they have. :)

Black Ethergaunt has 16 RHD, LA +4, and 17th level Wizard casting, so under your houserule it's possible to take 16 levels of pseduo-Wizard and end up with 33rd level casting.

And sure, that's a silly example. But more generally, lowering hp is not going to be generally applicable. Some races might be worth one less hp per level, but others are worth a lot more...for a low-RHD example, check out the Marrulurk in Sandstorm, and think about it with levels of Rogue (and without Curmudgeon's ridiculous "sneak attack doesn't automatically stack" ruling).

Really, this ruling is no more likely to be balanced than any other arbitrary, across-the-board choice. The only way to remove RHD and have a consistently balanced result it to rebalance individual races...and if you do that, you might as well make homebrew monster classes like Olsecamo did.

[Jeff the Green]

Really, this ruling is no more likely to be balanced than any other arbitrary, across-the-board choice. The only way to remove RHD and have a consistently balanced result it to rebalance individual races...and if you do that, you might as well make homebrew monster classes like Olsecamo did.

For Flinds in particular, Oslecamo has the gnoll (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=8166791&postcount=274) base class and Gorgondantess made the Flind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9258321&postcount=184) PrC. I'd ignore the "shaman" path because it's pretty much flat out better than two levels in any casting class other than druid (especially since you get turn undead/a familiar at third level by just taking the first level of cleric/sorcerer/wizard), but I'd be fine allowing the hunter path for a bruiser. It's roughly equivalent to an un-ACFed barbarian; i.e. passable, but not great.

For anything else, there's Google, but also the now-defunct Community-Based Monster Class thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?192151-Community-Based-Monster-Classes-VII). In general they're good, but be wary of the full- or near full-casters like the psionic mindflayer as they sometimes over-value casting levels relative to the other goodies. The psionic mindflayer, for example, is a phenomenal gish despite its low BAB with Intelligence to attack (and a racial +9 to Intelligence over 12 levels) and eventually manifesting all powers as swift actions, and gives up a single psion manifesting level for it.

[Spacehamster]

Thought some more about racial hd and come up with something, for races with the really bad rhd like humanoid. one could use a training fee to transform up to a maximum of 2-3 levels of the rhd to a class hd that you already have one or more levels in. Basicly pay a master of that class to polish your skills. No idea what that would cost tho.