Best Race

[Gambitspades]

So what race is worth its LA the most? curious what you guys think

[Mystral]

So what race is worth its LA the most? curious what you guys think

Are we talking about LA +1 or more only?

Because if so, the better question would be, which race sucks the least? Basically, no race I am aware of is worth it's LA.

[Gambitspades]

LA0 is cool too if you know a Great one

[Curmudgeon]

The answer depends on what you're trying to build. If you want a Favored Soul, a Lesser (Player's Guide to Faerûn, page 191) Aasimar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/planetouched.htm#aasimar) is pretty much ideal: bonuses to both casting stats and LA +0. I like Rogues, and for me the Silvanesti Elf (Dragonlance Campaign Setting, pages 19-20) is a good choice: bonuses to DEX and INT (w/ penalties to CON and CHA), plus Elvensight (low-light vision + 30' darkvision); other than that all the standard Elf traits, including their 4 bonus Martial Weapon Proficiency feats.

[Nifft]

In the context of LA Buy-Off, some +LA races seem like they might be worth it.

Absent that context, yeah, I'm not touching any of them.

Templates can be more worth it.

[ComaVision]

Since nobody has said it yet.. I nominate Strongheart Halfing and Human as the best races.

[Solaris]

With LA buy-off, aasimar and celadrin are pretty awesome. They're not just good for favored souls, but also for clerics, paladins, and bards.

Inversely, drow are utterly terrible at LA +2, but with buy-off they make a great LA +1.



Since nobody has said it yet.. I nominate Strongheart Halfing and Human as the best races.

Only because you beat me to it. They're definitely the best bang for the buck at LA +0, although earth dwarf and water orc are pretty strong contenders.

[Blackhawk748]

I like Drow if LA Buyoff is is in play. Then again i love having SR as it kicks in a lot for my group.

In general if your going for a Bruiser its hard to go wrong with Half Ogre.

[Solaris]

I like Drow if LA Buyoff is is in play. Then again i love having SR as it kicks in a lot for my group.

Do you work them at LA +2? If so, what levels are you generally playing at? I've never had much luck or fun with them in the 1-5 range.

[Blackhawk748]

Do you work them at LA +2? If so, what levels are you generally playing at? I've never had much luck or fun with them in the 1-5 range.

We start around 1 usually. Generally i just muddle through the low levels without to much trouble, then again ive only played Drow a handful of time.

[5ColouredWalker]

Someone actually did the maths, LA 2 is acceptable on wizards with LA Buyoff.

Also, no answer here, because best depends on a great many things.

[OldTrees1]

Goliaths

Not for shear power, that would have to go to a caster tool, but for its ability to boost subpar options and its ability to combine seamlessly with Dragonborn for even more goodies.

Dragonborn(Wings) Goliath Barbarian 1(Goliath Barbarian, Spirit Lion Totem) is such a good boon(flight, reach, knockback, pounce, +Str) to almost any Martial character that it is well worth its +1LA even without LA Buyoff.

[Ruethgar]

Best: Lesser Fey'Ri or Awakened Monkey
Great: Anthropomorphic Crow, Life Shaped
Good: Warforged

Lesser Fey'Ri and the Lesser web enhancement ones too(demon troll, demon orc).

Awakened Cat/Rat/Toad/Monkey/Lizard all have a delicious +0 ECL for 3ish RHD and some decent skills.

Anthropomorphic crow is on of the best for Wis based characters at 20ft fly -6 Str, +2 Dex, +6 Wis and Weapon Finesse. If you keep the blindsense for Anthropomorphic Bat it is better.

[eggynack]

Between differing ability score needs, differing desires for abilities, and options unique to specific race/class combos (typically racial substitution levels, but other things exist), there is no one best race. There are universally good races, like human, but there are options out there that give more than a feat's value for your character, and those options will often give below feat value for a different character. For example, the best race for a wizard is possibly gray elf, but even other intelligence dependent classes won't get the same scale of benefits, because elf wizard substitution levels are sweet, and something like a barbarian will be actively harmed by going gray elf.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I am partial to anthropomorphic animals. They are visually cool, are open to solid fluff, and have solid stats (sometimes).

[Red Fel]

Since nobody has said it yet.. I nominate Strongheart Halfing and Human as the best races.

Throw in Silverbrow Human while you're at it. Keep Human bonus feat, lose skill points, gain an SLA and the Dragonblood subtype. Unless you're playing a skillmonkey, it's a strict upgrade. Similarly, if you plan to use Incarnum, Azurin are a strict upgrade - keep the bonus feat, lose the skill points, gain an essentia pool and the Incarnum subtype. (And ignore their favored class.)

I'm also fairly surprised that nobody has mentioned Warforged or Necropolitans yet. Given the disgusting host of immunities they get, it's easy to see why they're popular LA +0 choices (although that's a bit misleading in the Necropolitan's case).

[Solaris]

I never much cared for necropolitan. The whole point to getting more power is not getting killed. It's just rather counterintuitive.

Warforged are pretty gnarly, but I play too many divine casters to rate them as highly as I once did.

[atemu1234]

Necropolitan Human with Human Heritage.

[Rebel7284]

Dragonwraught Kobold

[HolyDraconus]

Half minotaur. Strength beyond str and opens the door to things the goliath dreams of

[FocusWolf413]

Because I'm partial to rogues, I like whisper gnomes. There's some great feats that synergize well with their SLAs and their racial abilities. Plus, I can be a gnome and not make everyone want to kill me.

DSP Elans are super cool. Their fluff is amazing. Their entire civilization is a secret society based on spying, blackmail, and manipulation. I love it.

Red Fel mentioned Warforged, and he's right, they're incredible. If you do Wildshape Ranger or Druid, you get to be a transformer. If you're a dragonborn warforged, you're a draconic humanoid made of metal. Your teeth are rows of razor blades, your scales are beaten adamantine, and your wings are shimmering green foil. That. Is. Incredible.

[Honest Tiefling]

Tiefling, that is all.

Well, not really, but the lesser version can be great provided that the DM isn't going to pull some crazy shenanigans with their weakness of not being native before you can prepare against them.

[Kantolin]

While I doubt they're overall 'worth it', and I usually play at low op...

Thri-Kreen are /close/. Like, after the group experimented with a few level adjustment races and swore them off, Thri-Kreen is probably the only race with more than two lost levels we'll consider.

As while it's still not worth it from a power perspective, and limits you to martial classes almost exclusively... you get enough varied tricks that it's interesting, from useful things like four arms to amusing things like a +30 to jump.

(Although maybe some sort of fast-advancement class could work, or a war mind)

[Greenish]

Non-psionic thri-kreen has just +1 LA, which is pretty tolerable with buy-off, and 2 monstrous humanoid RHD (which come with full BAB and two good saves). Whether getting four clawed hands, a venomous bite attack, and a huge bonus to Jump is worth it depends mostly on which class levels you'd have taken instead. For a beatstick, that's actually not too bad, though that other four-armed bug race is probably better.

[Eldan]

Black Ethergaunt? I mean, you can't really play them pre-epic, but they are basically wizards of almost their level, with a ton of bonus stuff on top and gigantic intelligence.

[Rebel7284]

Black Ethergaunt? I mean, you can't really play them pre-epic, but they are basically wizards of almost their level, with a ton of bonus stuff on top and gigantic intelligence.

You totally can play them pre-epic. They start at ECL 20.

And yeah, you hit epic the first time you level up, but that's like 13.3 encounters away!

Also I maintain that my answer of Dragonwraught Kobold is the one true answer to this thread because Pun Pun. :)

[Jormengand]

Depends what you're trying to do, but if you have to play one race for the rest of your life, make it a human. Others I like include Illumians and Lesser Planetouched.

[Eldan]

You totally can play them pre-epic. They start at ECL 20.

And yeah, you hit epic the first time you level up, but that's like 13.3 encounters away!

Also I maintain that my answer of Dragonwraught Kobold is the one true answer to this thread because Pun Pun. :)

Really? I remembered it as ECL 21.

[Greenish]

Also I maintain that my answer of Dragonwraught Kobold is the one true answer to this thread because Pun Pun. :)Pun-Pun isn't a dragonwrought kobold, though. Or at least, he doesn't start as one, since that first feat goes for Skill Focus. Pun-Pun doesn't even have to be kobold.

Pun-Pun is also staggeringly irrelevant to, well, most everything.

[OPG]

If you're a fighter/barbarian who can't be arsed to deal with LA, Feral Cyclopes (from a Dragon Mag I can't recall right now) are likely the best. Their ability mods are +2 Str/+2 Con/-2 Dex/-2 Wis, and they even get +1 to initiative and Reflex saves, minimizing the Dex hit. There's also a -2 to Spot and ranged attacks due to not having two eyes, but you a fighter so put down that bow and tear someone a new one!

Along with Menta Cyclopes from the same magazine, they have some pretty excellent fluff imo. Shame their Menta cousins aren't particularly notable crunch-wise aside from a 3/day free Augury SLA.

[arccos]

I actually like the Skarn a lot. They're not the be-all end-all of races, but they are a pretty solid go-to for a strength bonus at LA +0, without having to deal with the ridiculousness that is the half-orc.

They do Dragonborn fairly well, too.

[Ruethgar]

Awakened Advanced Monkey- ECL 0 with 5d10 Magical Beast RHD. That means they get +5 BaB, +4/+4/+1 saves, +(2+Int)*8 Skill Points, Darkvision 60ft and Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat all before they are even level one. They are typically accepted as being able to use weapons an armor normally which is a bonus as far as awakened animals go. They have hands and a language for your spellcasting needs without burning their bonus feat from RHD on Surrogate Spellcasting. Maximize and Empower stats for -4 Str, +2 Dex, 27 Int, +2 Wis, -2 Cha.

I think that is a pretty powerful race for ECL 0.

There is also Tauric with a massively templated creature portion with their tiny LA by comparison.

[Kantolin]

Non-psionic thri-kreen has just +1 LA, which is pretty tolerable with buy-off, and 2 monstrous humanoid RHD (which come with full BAB and two good saves).

I had forgotten that non-psionic thri-kreen existed, haha. That's almost certainly if not absolutely the better option.

Still, the default thri-kreen can function if you're a beatstick and your group isn't the highest at optimization, simply due to the perks they get.

(I mean granted, even /then/ it's a noticable dink - my first thri-kreen was a psychic warrior, and not getting hustle until level 8 when I would have started with it otherwise was painful. But it functions! That's more than can be said against most races with 'more than two levels down', let alone four. :P )