ARG Race Points and Hit Dice

[blue_the_wolf]

I have not been able to find this in the ARG but is there a rule or mechanic for determining starting level or hit dice for races with a high RP score?

for example, all of the base races have 9-11 RP. some races like asimar have 15 but are still considered to have no racial hit dice and start at level 1.

but some races like Drow nobles have upwards of 40 RP and are usually not allowed in game or would be given racial hit dice to balance.

but I could not find any rules or sugestions for such.

If i make a race that is 20RP should it start at level 1 and advance like any other lesser race.. or is there a list or sugestion that can help me assign starting Hit dice for higher RP races?

[Cheapy]

The only race in the game that's meant to have some LA is the drow noble. So if you have trouble figuring out the power level of the race, use whatever it is with the second highest total, plus a few.

[Umbral Reaver]

If you want powerful races and don't want the awkwardness of level adjustment, try filling in the gap with commoner levels.

For example, in a level 5 party:

10 RP character has 5 PC class levels.

20 RP character has 4 PC class levels and 1 commoner level.

30 RP character has 3 PC class levels and 2 commoner levels.

And so on.

[Eben TheQuiet]

Why not simply allow the other players to deck out their more core races with additional racial options, and treat them more like pseudo-class options? Then you at least have parity in the group, and then the only hurtle is to have the DM adjust encounter level to suit the new super-hero group.

[Vendle]

To the OP, there isn't a rule in the ARG for creating races with racial hit dice because that is already covered in the Bestiary. The ARG does give suggestions on how to keep balance, but not in a table/formula format. Umbral and Eben have some nice suggestions, I might add.

[Pomkin]

I'd assume you look at the CR of the race you made, and give it that many HD of it's creature type, and the rules for that are in the bestiary.

[blue_the_wolf]

Im actually thinking about non-prebuilt racez. If i make a grumpkin and use 23 points to make it should i throw in a racial hit die to balance it with the core races?

Also need it to explain balance to players. DM fiat only goes so far when players want to use a 15 or 20 rp prebuilt class. I generally limit my players to core races. Even assamar and tieflings are not allowed but i trying to come up with a valid RP level to say yes/no/maybe to.

[Vendle]

The best thing to do then imo is to use the prebuilt races as guidelines. If a tiefling is 15 RPs and a dwarf is 11 but neither of them have a level adjustment, you're probably safe when staying within 4-5 points of other races with the same HD as what you want to create.

By extension, you can make a new race with 23 RP and no racial HD if you want, but it will be more balanced with the core races if it has 1 racial HD.

My suggestion would be to allow some of those 15 RP base races and see for yourself if balance is disrupted at your table; different parties and different DMs can tolerate/accomodate different grades of imbalance in their games. I myself am letting a player play a rakshasa in a current game; I let the player know up front that this was not typical and I reserved the right to have the player change back to a core race if their PC's abilities and presence overshadowed the party. So far it has worked out fine. Perhaps a similar deal with your players on a smaller scale will let you all test the waters and find out what works.

[Belle Mythix]

The point of the ARG is to create 0HD races (otherwise, the Dragon type is seriously underpriced), but nothing stop you from using the ARG + The 3 bestiaries to create something with racial HD.