What you can get for +1 LA

[Nerd-o-rama]

Hrm, I see. But then why have LA at all if they arn't factoring in the HD.

Basically, Racial HD are an additional penalty to taking the race as a character; they're useless compared to class levels, but not as bad as another X LA (and actually, Outsider or Dragon hit dice are pretty good.) They also represent that some monsters are significantly tougher than humans and their ilk just through natural ability.

As for my favorite LA +1? Screw it, if you want to sacrifice a level, take a level in Sorcerer. Even if you only have 11 Cha, there's plenty of level 1 spells that are nifty to have.