Tier Balance with free LA

[Drrakerr]

I'm sure that somebody has tried this in the past, simply because this is GITP and of course they did, but is there a way to balance out the tiers a bit with some free LA? I guess i could see how T1s would kinda get shafted at lower levels, seeing as they are a bit slow to start and often the lowish tier classes such as Barbarians are the dominate force in those levels anyway, but at the end of the day a T1 is still a T1. Could a system like this work?

[amalcon]

This kind of thing is a good way to balance tiers 4-6: a Monk with a really good ability-boosting template can become a lot more competitive with e.g. a Ranger. A Samurai who happens to be (say) a Goliath Mineral Warrior should actually do well.

The problem is that, above tier 4, the distiction is more based on versatility than power. Tier 4's generally already excel at what they are designed to do. The problems arise when that role does not help with the current situation. There aren't a lot of level-adjusted races or templates that make one more versatile. The only one I can think of off-hand is Phrenic, and effectively adding psionics to mundane classes doesn't seem like what you had in mind.

[DeAnno]

Gestalting based on Tier pairs is probably better.

Ie
T1: No Gestalt
T2: Gestalts with a T6
T3: T5 or T6
T4: T4 or T5 or T6

Alternately, Tristalt three T5 or T6 classes