3.5 Balancing with LA

[megaman093]

Has anyone tried balancing the classes or tiers by allowing LA characters for certain ones? For instance wizards/clerics/druids must be LA +0 but Fighters and Monks can take up to LA +3. I've seen a ton of balancing talk on the forums and I thought this would be interesting to try.

[Frog Dragon]

How successful this is will depend on your starting level. In addition, it has the side effect that no monks/fighters/so on are normal humans/elves/dwarves/so on.

Essentially, at level 1, your Half-Dragon Fighter will probably shred everything with its three natural attacks and supercharged ability scores. The wizard might actually feel underpowered here, since there are few situations where first level spells can shine but 3 natural attacks with good bonuses can't.

Eventually, the templates just become bigger numbers, unless they're specific templates that give the character significant utility. For example, I can see the "Winged" template retaining utility all the way to the high levels, enabling the character high levels of mobility.

[JackMage666]

In the long run, the benefit you get (+4 Str or Fly Speed or Hide in Plain Sight or whatever) is a fairly static bonus, and in no way compares to the versatility and power of a casting class. While it does boost the power of the characters slightly, the Wizard or Cleric could buff themselves for the same benefit. Or polymorph for the exact same benefit.

Also, Wizards, Clerics, and Druids are strong because it's hard to really screw them up. Their spell list is so potent that you almost have to be actively working against picking awesome spells, or you DM has to cater encounters to your weaknesses. Picking a different race may help in some ways (I'm an Outsider, you can't use Charm Person on me!) but it's not nearly as fullproof.

[TuggyNE]

Has anyone tried balancing the classes or tiers by allowing LA characters for certain ones? For instance wizards/clerics/druids must be LA +0 but Fighters and Monks can take up to LA +3. I've seen a ton of balancing talk on the forums and I thought this would be interesting to try.

This was actually suggested by JaronK himself in the canonical tiers thread (scroll down to about the second post). He gives some suggested adjustments, as well.

However, for the reasons mentioned, this is not a perfect solution.