The LA-assignment thread: Making monster PCs VI-able

[Thurbane]

Let's see...

• Large size: nice for any melee type.
• 9 Giant HD: let's face it, not great. At least you get MWP for free.
• 40 ft move: not bad, but nothing special for a large creature.
• +11 natural armor: pretty decent.
• 3 natural attacks: good in the right build.
• Dazing blow is pretty darn good, if you ask me: again, it depends on the right build, but it does suck that you're losing your iteratives or being relegated to a mouthpick weapon.
• Rend gives you bonus damage when you hit with both claws, so combos with dazing blow.
• Pounce is gold for any melee build.
• Improved grab works with bite only...meh.
• Rake would be pretty handy in a grappling build.
• Scent, 90 ft darkvision and low-light vision are decent senses.
• Fast healing 8 is nothing to be sneezed at, IMHO. It's no regeneration, but makes after combat healing a breeze. May also save your bacon in a fight, on occasion.
• Str +18, Dex +2, Con +16, Int -8, Wis +2, Cha -4: net +26. The Int hit really hurts, though.
• Very small racial skill list, but some handy skills there. Lets face it: with the hit to Int, you probably don't need to worry much about putting ranks in much beyond Listen and/or Spot.

I'm pretty comfortable giving these guys LA +0, in the context of this thread. You could make an absolute beast of a natural attack build with this, balanced by the fact you've only got 11 class levels to play with, and an IQ marginally better than a dog.