Taking Monstrous Races Down a Peg (AKA, Scaling Down Level Adjustment

[LemursGalore]

I was paging through the Monster Manual I the other day, looking for low LA races, and very few of them had what I wanted. So I wondered: is there an algorithm or technique you could use to build or rebuild Monsters to a certain LA?

I came up empty, so I’m putting the question to the forums.

Edit, August 2nd:
I realize now that my original post was too vague, so I'm tacking on additional information, as well as a rough draft.
One of my players had wanted to play a Succubus (in 3.5e) but my game can only handle, as of right now, a +1 or +2 LA. I'm trying to put together a "lesser succubus" for him to work with; here's my first draft.



-2 Constitution, +4 Charisma. Lesser succubi are silver-tongued but not battle-hardy.
Medium size; space and reach of five ft. each.
Base land speed of thirty feet. Lesser succubi never have their wings grow in.
Darkvision out to 60 ft.
Two levels in Outsider, yielding 2d8 in RHD; 5 x (8+INT), min. 45, skill points; and one feat.
Weapon Proficiency: Lesser succubi are trained in the use of all simple weapons.
Natural Weapons: Claws (1d6).
Spell-Like Abilities: Once per day each - detect good, detect thoughts, suggestion.
Automatic Languages: Common, Abyssal. Bonus Languages: Infernal.
Favored class: Bard
Level adjustment +2.



Is this too powerful? Not powerful enough? What changes need to be made before this hits the table?

[Adamantrue]

There was a Succubus Monster Class in Savage Species, and a discussion HERE (https://www.enworld.org/threads/savage-species-succubus-and-3-5.80102/) on converting the 3.0 material over to 3.5. If you wanted, you could just halt the Succubus progression at your desired target.

Would that cover your needs?

[Saintheart]

Leaving aside the discussion in the other thread, I would call LA +2 as way too high. Not when you're also saddling him with 2 RHD. That means he's effectively hobbled by four levels against the rest of the party, RHD and LA both count for the purposes of determining XP.

Even for a bard or sorcerer character I wouldn't wear a four level XP handicap for (essentially) +4 to my primary stat and a natural weapon, especially when you're nerfing his CON and therefore his survivability by -2. Hell, Skarn only get a +2 to STR and a natural weapon and you can play them right out of the box, no LA, no RHD. Okay, he gets suggestion as a SLA somewhat earlier than a bard would get it, but he only gets to use it once per day. That's still not worth being an effective 3 or 4 levels behind the rest of the party.

Frankly in my view that combination is worth the 2 RHD you're putting on him. It doesn't need further LA adjustment.