Making poison dusk lizardfolk LA+0

[Swaoeaeieu]

Hi playground!
I am starting a new campaign and i am the DM for the first time. One of my players wants to play a poison dusk lizardfolk (wich is a LA+1 race), but i want all my players to start at lvl 1.

the player already had the idea to make his racal bonusses smaller because of a 'birth defect'.
But what can we do to make this race la+0? Can the geniusses of the playground help me?

in the spoilers are the normal stats for a poison dusk lizard

Poison dusk characters pos- sess the following racial traits:
+2 Dexterity, +2 Consti- tution,–2 Charisma.
Small size. +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus on Hide checks,–4 penalty on grapple checks,
A poison dusk lizardfolk’s base speed is 30 feet.
Racial Skills: A poison dusk lizardfolk has a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Jump, and Swim checks.
A poison dusk lizardfolk can apply poison without endangering itself.
Its chameleon skin allows it a +5 racial bonus on Hide checks.
It can hold its breath for 4x con mod before it risks drowning.
+3 natural armor bonus.
Natural Weapons: 2 claws (1d3) and bite (1d3).
Special Qualities (see above): Chameleon skin, hold breath, low-light vision
Weapon Familiarity: Poison dusk lizardfolk treat bolas and nets as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons.
Automatic Languages: Draconic, Common. Bonus Languages: Halfl ing, Sylvan.
Level adjustment +1

thanks in advance!

[eggynack]

Keeping it like that should be fine. I'd still usually rather have the bonus feat from human or strongheart halfling, or the intelligence bonus+substitution levels from gray elf on a wizard, or the massive wisdom bonus from anthropomorphic bat on a druid, or the strength bonus from water orc on a barbarian, and so on and so forth. It wasn't much of an LA +1 race to start with, is what I'm saying, and it's probably suitable for most games in its current state. It definitely has the formatting of an LA +1 race, with the bonus to AC, and the positive ability score modifiers, but those aren't exactly much of a big deal. I'd just let it in as is.

[Swaoeaeieu]

I could keep it like that, but that gives him quite a large advantage to the rest of the party. I am most concerned for one player who has never played before, she has a halfling rogue. giving the other players the unique races they want with cool bonusses might make the new player feel underpowerd.

So the lizard player himself suggested these bonusses instead:
Weaker poison dusk lizardfolk:
Small size. +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus on Hide checks,–4 penalty on grapple checks,
+2 dex
-2 cha

+1 natural AC
Hold Breath (Ex): A poison dusk lizardfolk can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to 3 × its Constitution score before it risks drowning

Chameleon Skin (Ex): Poison dusks can adjust the colors of their scales to blend in with their surroundings. When it is not wearing armor, robes or other covering clothing, a poison dusk lizardfolk gains a +5 racial bonus on Hide checks.

Skills: Because of his tail, lizard has a +2 racial bonus on Jump, Swim, and Balance checks.

Natural Weapons: 2 claws (1d3) and bite (1d3)

The natural armor is a lot lower, and he has less statboosts. I think this might be pretty balanced. What do you think?

[Psyren]

It's fine as-is. You can leave the natural armor at +3 or bump it down to +2 (like the PF Lizardfolk.)

[eggynack]

The issue is that, realistically, most of this character's power is going to be rooted in class rather than race. If this is going to be a wizard, then lowering stats like that is perfectly fine, but if we're talking about something like a fighter here, then nerfs on that scale seems to be overdoing it. The best comparison here is to the whisper gnome (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040807a&page=3), which actually has stats and abilities that are a lot like that of this lizardfolk, except with a somewhat weaker chassis, stealth and scouting benefits that apply all the time, and a few reasonably useful SLA's. Really solid race, that.

If you're really concerned about this new player, consider suggesting the strongheart halfling as a replacement for the standard variety, which loses the save bonus, and gains a bonus feat. That race is, as I noted in the OP, likely stronger than this one in most situations. Actually, come to think of it, that player might also be somewhat interested in whisper gnome if they're going the stealth route. Just a thought. Still almost certainly not as important a factor as class, which is a bit on the underpowered side of things in this case.

[Swaoeaeieu]

Ok thanks for the help guys, i can work with this.

Although i might post a lot more questions before the start of this campaign...
But for now all is fine

[prufock]

+2 Constitution,–2 Charisma. Remove either +2 dexterity OR +2 constitution; in this example I removed dex.
Small size. +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus on Hide checks,–4 penalty on grapple checks,
A poison dusk lizardfolk’s base speed is 20 feet.
Racial Skills: A poison dusk lizardfolk has a +2 racial bonus on Balance, Jump, and Swim checks.
A poison dusk lizardfolk can apply poison without endangering itself.
Its chameleon skin allows it a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks.
It can hold its breath for 4x con mod before it risks drowning.
Natural Weapons: 2 claws (1d3). Remove either the bite or claws; in this example I removed the bite. If you keep the bite, make it a primary natural weapon and increase the damage to 1d4.
Natural Armor Bonus +1.
Low-light vision
Weapon Familiarity: Poison dusk lizardfolk treat bolas and nets as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons.
Automatic Languages: Draconic, Common. Bonus Languages: Halfling, Sylvan.
Level adjustment +0

EDIT: So yeah, basically what you had except I kept the 4x con mod hold breath and the poison use, but traded away one of the natural attacks. Three natural attacks is good, but mostly at lower levels.

[Yora]

Don't they have 1 racial HD?

I think starting with all the abilities and 1 racial HD as a 1st level character should be fine. At 2nd level the character adds his 1st class level on top of that.
Might be slightly stronger at 1st level, but by 2nd level the difference should be negible.

[Wacky89]

1 racial hd will be converted to a class level, when he takes a class level.