Susurrus, unexpectedly, stays at -0 LA.

Quote Originally Posted by martixy View Post
Hey guys. So after a hiccup or two, I believe the LA -0 thread is taking off.

What I wonder now is if we can arrange it so we don't do the same work twice over. Best case scenario would be merging the discussions and presentation.

Basically I'm wondering if I can get you to discuss things past pegging it as -0. And write down the results of those discussions. That way, the -0 thread only has to catch up to HERE. Instead of coming here, and having to redo every future monster too!

For example for the Susurrus. @Inevitability, thanks for remembering, but I'm not sure I agree with the assessment.

Guy is large, and has some neat abilities, mostly centered around undead.
Blindsight, neat as it is, might pose problems for a playable character, and he also strikes me as somewhat dissonant - undead-centered, but no bonus to Wis, so won't work well with cleric for example (who'd want something good to replace the lost cleric levels).
Also, I'd like argue against the interpretation that it adds to turn/rebuke pools.
That said, I'd peg him squarely as 4 RHD. IMO 5 RHD, as you suggested goes just a little bit over the top, especially considering they're the bad HD - aberration. I just don't see anything that would justify 5 entire levels.

That said, I'm open to (and aiming for) discussion.
I'll try to give some kind of indication what amount of RHD would be balanced for -0 LA monsters, but this thread is primarily about assigning LA's.

The susurrus isn't balanced at 4 RHD because at that point, it's basically a better ogre. Improved Grab, Barbed Defense, and the anti-undead abilities may not be much, but getting them tacked on to an ogre chassis makes me very hesitant to consider a 4 RHD susurrus balanced.

Quote Originally Posted by ShurikVch View Post
While it may be not exactly fit to the thread's theme, but what's may be LA for Io-Rach Goblin and Ogre-blooded Human?
Io-Rach Goblin (Book of Vile Darkness): Medium size, +4 Str and Con, -4 to all mental abilities
Ogre-blooded Human (example - Quah-Nomag the Skull-King in the Book of Vile Darkness): not enough "Ogre" to count as even a Half-Ogre, but still got Large size
The goblin seems like an even more minmaxed water orc, which is an even more minmaxed orc. Then again, it also loses out on Headlong Rush and presumably darkvision, so let's go with +0 LA in the same sense that lesser aasimar is +0 LA.

If ogre-blooded human is basically a Large human, then +1 LA it is. If it's a completely bland race whose only trait is 'Large humanoid', then +0 LA should be fine.