Quote Originally Posted by Crake View Post
You know there are people on both sides of this argument, right? There are probably also a few people like me who see that either a) they don't add to ECL and are overly strong, or b) they do add to ECL are are incredibly bad, and thus just decide not to use them at all, because in either case they're bad for the game.
ECL-related mechanics end up in that situation a bit often for my tastes, like cohorts can't catch up after buying off LA since their new, lower level means they get less XP. You could, however, get a cohort with his LA already bought off and XP caught up. So it ends up in this situation where the cost is either overly punishing or completely free, which I don't think is a good idea.

Personally, I hate bloodlines because they basically add nothing. Their abilities are pretty much total rubbish, even if you get 20 levels "worth" of abilities for 3 actual levels. Sorry, WotC, but "+2 to diplomacy with Silver Dragons" is never a worthwhile ability. I think it could be salvageable if they had actually worthwhile abilities and maybe added some kind of hit die when you took a level in it too.