My wife was looking at a Chaos Gnome from the Races of Stone book for her next character. Unfortunately they are a +1 LA and I would like to avoid that if possible. I was thinking of taking off the +2 Con bonus and instead adding -2 Wis and maybe removing the bonus to Chaos spells. Do people think that's enough to make it a +0 LA?
My wife was looking at a Chaos Gnome from the Races of Stone book for her next character. Unfortunately they are a +1 LA and I would like to avoid that if possible. I was thinking of taking off the +2 Con bonus and instead adding -2 Wis and maybe removing the bonus to Chaos spells. Do people think that's enough to make it a +0 LA?
sounds OK to me
if, however, you feel you need a further disadvantage to balance the mechanics, a -2 to will saves would reflect the chaotic nature of the race...
My wife was looking at a Chaos Gnome from the Races of Stone book for her next character. Unfortunately they are a +1 LA and I would like to avoid that if possible. I was thinking of taking off the +2 Con bonus and instead adding -2 Wis and maybe removing the bonus to Chaos spells. Do people think that's enough to make it a +0 LA?sounds OK to me
if, however, you feel you need a further disadvantage to balance the mechanics, a -2 to will saves would reflect the chaotic nature of the race...
...but don't forget to add +2 to save vs. chaos spells
Now, I haven't looked at chaos gnomes, but it seems like it would make more sense, to me, to just ban them from this game, rather than try to rebalance them. If she was interested in some mechanical aspect of the race, then look for another, similar race. If none exist, come up with a feat/magic item/special ability that replicates whatever it is she's looking for. If she's just interested in playing a type of gnome, have her play a normal gnome with the same flavor and style as the chaos gnomes. Seems like that would save a lot of work and headache.
What I'm about to say doesn't take into account the style of campaign you're running, what kind of group you have, what class your wife wants to play with the Chaos Gnome, or anything that is a part of your game. It's something I do in my game, and overall it seems to work fairly well.
An option you can try is to adopt a houserule where you 'forgive' up to a +1 LA. In other words, ignore it. In general, a +1 LA/ECL race isn't going to throw your game out of whack, or outshine the other players and characters by very much. There'll be moments, sure. But overall? Nah.
The reason I suggest you adopt this as a houserule, is A) because it's going to be obvious that you're doing it for your wife, so you might as well let her give it a trial run to see how it works in your game. And B) if it turns out to work well, then your players can take advantage of it in future campaigns, or when their characters die off (or if you're really nice, they can 'trade up' if there's something they've been itching to play).
And if it doesn't work out, well... Just point out that you love and trust the woman enough to marry her, so it's only natural that you trusted her to do a trial run of the houserule to see if it was workable. :)
On a more personal note, I've noticed in my own experience that even a +1 LA makes those races really unattractive. At low levels, nobody wants to take a hit like that. At mid levels, they're lagging a level behind for benefits that don't have that much effect (even at low levels, their impact is debatable). And at high levels? The benefit gained just isn't worth eating a worthless level at all.
I was always thinking that forgetting about a +1 l.a. was a good idea, and then maybe give the other guys a free magic sword or something so they're happy.
Does it work out pretty good?
Oddly enough now that you guys mention it a player in my other game is playing an Aquatic Elf which turned out being a +1 LA race as well but we didn't notice it until about 6 levels in since it was noted in a tabel not in the race description where it normally is. Maybe I will just ignor it.
One level of difference indeed rarely unbalances the group, so if the other players are not too competitive and agree on it, just let her play a +1 LA race (so effectively, but not quite, second-level character) among group of 1st level characters. It will balance out eventually.