LA 0 Races

[Rift_Wolf]

What's the best supplementary book to pick LA 0 races out of? I fancied something different from gnome and dwarf.

[Mr.Bookworm]

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=10002276

There's no real book that collects all of the races. They're kinda scattered out. That list is really helpful, though.

[Quirinus_Obsidian]

If there is a 'Racial Compendium' for DnD 3.5, I will blame you!!

[Rift_Wolf]

Thanks for the list.
Out of interest, do any small races have better than -2STR (Except for Tauric hybrids)?

[Mr.Bookworm]

Dwarves.

Most Small races do have a Str penalty, though, Dwarves being the notable exception.

[Raistlin1040]

Dwarves are Medium sized, not Small.

[AmberVael]

Most dwarves are, but the Gully Dwarf is actually small size.
They also have no strength penalty.

As for other small, non strength penalized races...
Korobokuru (Oriental Adventures)
Wild Dwarf (Races of Faerun)

...so yeah. Three types of dwarves are actually small, and have no strength penalty.
I'm sure you could find some at higher LA that have no penalty.

[Mr.Bookworm]

...Good point.

Hypothetically, though, in an alternate universe where aliens play D&D, dwarves are Small. Thus making me correct. >>

Though that doesn't make much sense. One of the defining characteristics of dwarves, at least in my opinion, has been the fact that they're short.

Weird.

Anyway, let's see...

None, at least as far as I can find. At least with an LA of 0.

EDIT: Ignore the last part. Apparently, I didn't read closely enough.

[nerulean]

Campaign setting books are good places to find 0LA races, and they're usually available elsewhere, too, like the changeling (awesomest race ever) and other races from Eberron are in MM3.

[tyckspoon]

...Good point.
Though that doesn't make much sense. One of the defining characteristics of dwarves, at least in my opinion, has been the fact that they're short.

They are short, just not short enough to fall into the Small size category. On the random height/weight tables, the base height for Dwarves is about a foot shorter than that of humans, and the variance is *much * smaller; dwarves get up to 2d4 inches taller, while humans get 2d10. Gnomes and Halflings are yet another foot or so shorter; a tall dwarf is about as high as a short adult human, while an adult of a Small race tends to be only about as big as a Medium child. Check the art with the male/female race examples.. or just look at the scale differences between Roy, Durkon, and Belkar. Belkar's Small, Durkon's just short.

[Irreverent Fool]

http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/index.php

Among other useful things here is a collection of races from official sources (including Dragon magazines) and their modifiers/abilities/LA and source. I don't think it includes the most recent books, but I still find it to be an invaluable resource, especially regarding tracking down those races from Dragon when I don't have a lot of time to page through back-issues.

[Rift_Wolf]

I like the look of the anthropomorphs. I'm trying to put together a campaign setting for next years 24 hour charity event which would use things like ratfolk, catfolk, etc. Is Savage Species a book worth paying for? I wouldn't want it to be a crushing disappointment like, say, MM2.

[AmberVael]

Mmmm.
It's interesting, but keep in mind that it isn't 3.5 material. There are some leftovers from 3.0.
As for content...
It first attempts to give you an overview of how to determine a creature's ECL. It doesn't really work so hot. Better than nothing, maybe, but it is still tons of guesswork.

It then tosses in a large number of feats which you really won't be using unless you're a DM. The feats that you might use will likely have been converted to 3.5 and placed somewhere else (like MM I). The ones that didn't make the cut (still a fair few) are likely broken or not worth even glancing at.

Next, SS introduces equipment. To be frank, I find most of things they put in quite silly and nothing that I'd ever really use. There are a few magic items as well, but I've never been interested in specific magic items.

Fourth, spells are added. Honestly, the spell compendium has already converted the ones that are worthwhile- and most of the others. If you want the spells, get the spell compendium. It adds all the good ones and more.
There are some prestige classes... I've never actually had a chance to use any of them, actually. The ones you CAN get into are normally not worth your time. The only ones of interest to me are the Survivor- which can be taken at second level, if you take one level of commoner- and the Sybil, which frankly isn't made for PCs. Nifty class though- Oracles are always fun, especially when they use riddles.

The templates are in the next section, and they're the things I use most out of this book. However, you can now find most of them in other books, so I'm not sure how much of a reason they are to buy this now. The Feral template is quite fun, Insectile is... interesting, and Winged is the best thing since pastries. All of the undead templates can be found elsewhere (Libris Mortis, I believe) and I've never been able to put them to use anyways.

There are then a number of rituals that involve turning a normal person into a monster, or vice-versa... nothing big.
They've got an appendix full of monster classes. Basically, if you want to be a big monster, but everyone is level one, you start off as a level 1 [Insert Monster Here] with lower abilities than a normal guy of your race, but hey, it's cool, right? Interesting idea. Not sure how balanced it is.

The second appendix has a list of monsters, LA, and ECL, a base reading of their stats, and organizes them by name and ECL. Sort of handy. Not really.

Appendix three introduces Anthropomorphic animals, half ogres, furry bat people things, huge elephant men, and thri-kreen.

My advice? Don't buy it.