Right off hand, I'd personally give it a +5. (And I really dislike high LA since the lack of hit dice really hurts.)
Magical beast is a very good hit die to have (d10 hp, BAB as fighter, 2 good saves). So I'd take the 8 of those are full levels (some monster HD kinda suck, so I "credit" the LA with some of those).
Then we flight and large size. Given the hit dice and some LA, the flight isn't massively unbalancing since there's a good chance of having access to it through spellcasters or magic items anyway. Large size is also very nice especially for the fighting types. So I'd probably just give +1 for the size mostly and not so much the flight.
AC gets a boost from +5 natural and a +6 to Dexterity, so that's certainly nice. Another +1 here.
The special abilities are only ok at this level. Fun stuff, but not massively powerful compared to what 8 levels of a character class could get. So I wouldn't adjust anything here. Or at least between flight and the special abilities consider rounding up if in doubt.
Then we have the ability scores, which are very nice. The +10 to Str is huge! With a BAB of a fighter, and that much of a Str bonus, it's probably equivalent to another 2-3 points of BAB compared to standard PCs. Con bonus is helpful since the biggest thing I dislike about LA's is the lack of hit points. Plus bonuses to all three saving throw stats helps mitigate the loss of progression there. So I'd say a very strong +2 off of ability scores (especially from that Strength), and with my iffy stuff on flight and special abilities, I'd round it up to +3.
So overall +5. If the other PCs aren't really suboptimally built, then you could probably do +4 without being overpowered (especially if the PC isn't loaded up with Str boosting magic or big plus weapons or armor).
However, if the character is going to be a spellcaster or other non-fighting type, I'd be willing in my games to drop that down significantly to +2 or something since the biggest bonuses aren't directly beneficial to a spellcaster's main shtick. Of course, I've also allowed the swapping out of monster HD for class levels so that you aren't 10th or 11th level and just starting off with spells. (Or possibly use the Bo9S rules of 1/2 all over levels - and I'd include LA - so you would start as a caster several levels up).
At least that's my long-winded take, mostly because I wondered the exact same thing when I read it. :)
Ken, that is a better-reasoned answer than I would have given. Thanks!
(And I'm glad people like the Dehrii! They were a bit of a last-minute addition to the adventure to solve a story problem... and they kind of took over.)
Thanks, I was mostly just transcribing my train of thought because I have a strong tendency towards playing monstrous characters and the dehrii look really interesting.
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Sorry to interrupt...but I just wanted to say that Crucible of Chaos was the surprise hit of this month's Paizo purchase! This module is fantastic.
No offense to Wolfgang (since I hope he knows by now that I'm a huge fan) but I was not expecting much based on the hints in the Paizo Blog. But then the word "shoggoth" caught my eye one page two and my pulse quickened.
It kept getting better and better! This is a truly great adventure (and it's higher level - woo-hoo!). I can't wait to get into the details...
Thanks Wolfgang and Paizo!
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Sorry to interrupt...but I just wanted to say that Crucible of Chaos was the surprise hit of this month's Paizo purchase! This module is fantastic.
No offense to Wolfgang (since I hope he knows by now that I'm a huge fan) but I was not expecting much based on the hints in the Paizo Blog. But then the word "shoggoth" caught my eye one page two and my pulse quickened.
It kept getting better and better! This is a truly great adventure (and it's higher level - woo-hoo!). I can't wait to get into the details...
Thanks Wolfgang and Paizo!
I would have to agree with this statement. I love Wolfgangs stuff as well, but the major lovecraftian elements of the module surprised and sucked me into this module.
Im hoping that I might be able to use it (at least in part) in my upcomming Savage Tides campaign as a sidequest or somthing.