Do you enforce LA the player didn't ask for?

[ericgrau]

You should enforce a fair amount of LA. With low optimization that is the full LA, but if your group optimizes a bit then you should reduce the LA by an amount that matches the optimization. Probably not reduced by more than half in the vast majority of groups, and often reduced by only 1 or maybe 2. The player may still want to attempt to remove the template for roleplay reasons, i.e. see Durkula. But the LA shouldn't suck more just because you're playing in a high power group. Also note that, like OotS, in a slow leveling group the temporary bump in power is pretty nice. I mean they'll probably reach the next gate or resolve whatever Durkula is plotting before Durkula falls behind in level at all.

[Chronos]

I wouldn't want players to go around saying "Man, I hope I contract lycanthropy, because that would be awesome!". There's a reason it's considered a curse. If a PC unwillingly contracts lycanthropy, then they have both the benefits and the drawbacks, until they're able to cure it.

[Crake]

I personally use the optional gestalt/LA system in my signature. It's something I came up with for this exact purpose, since I like to throw templates at my players. It scales rather well with LA, making it a diminishing burden on players by the nature of it being a flat xp cost, rather than one that scales with your level (by the fact that it each level costs 1 higher than it would normally). It does work best with savage progression though.

I've playtested it across a few games now, and whenever i run games with the rule in play, i tend to get a mix of people who are willing to try it, and they seem to end up generally on pary with the rest of the party.

The only real downside is it can get rather complicated if you use the optiona gestalt rules, but if you use it purely as an LA system, it's fairly straightforward.

[Taelas]

Are you sure?

Very.

http://www.d20srd.org/faq.htm

Check the last question.

[ericgrau]

I wouldn't want players to go around saying "Man, I hope I contract lycanthropy, because that would be awesome!". There's a reason it's considered a curse. If a PC unwillingly contracts lycanthropy, then they have both the benefits and the drawbacks, until they're able to cure it.

Well mainly because you need to make checks to control yourself. Once you put in enough skill ranks you can manage it pretty well though.

[Lapsed Pacifist]

I wouldn't want players to go around saying "Man, I hope I contract lycanthropy, because that would be awesome!". There's a reason it's considered a curse. If a PC unwillingly contracts lycanthropy, then they have both the benefits and the drawbacks, until they're able to cure it.

But we're discussing drawbacks that don't exist within the fiction of the game. I can understand a dilemma where a character who becomes a werewolf or vampire is horrified at becoming the kind of monster they've been fighting all along, but put their quest for the cure on hold because their monstrous powers can be used for the greater good, but a situation where a condition in the fiction should make a character much stronger actually in mechanical terms cripples them would be really frustrating.

[atemu1234]

But we're discussing drawbacks that don't exist within the fiction of the game. I can understand a dilemma where a character who becomes a werewolf or vampire is horrified at becoming the kind of monster they've been fighting all along, but put their quest for the cure on hold because their monstrous powers can be used for the greater good, but a situation where a condition in the fiction should make a character much stronger actually in mechanical terms cripples them would be really frustrating.

Ah, the 'Good Roleplaying' and 'Good Mechanics' dilemma.

My way of handling this is often to encourage roleplaying, and use description to point out the morality drift the character is suffering. In the end, it always comes down to the player.

[Tvtyrant]

Basically no. If the player wanted the race or template I would talk to them about spreading out feature access so as to not overwhelm allies. If they don't want the template or race I would simply strip out most of the abilities and make it LA0.