FAQ 5.1: I want to make a drow/aasimar/some other weird race with a Level Adjustment!

I want to make a drow/aasimar/some other weird race with a Level Adjustment!

Because we expect all new characters to start at level 1, we obviously exert tight control over access to races with a Level Adjustment. The SCORES character registry generally takes care of this for us, by only listing those races players are actually allowed to use. We do allow a few people to play characters with a Level Adjustment, but these are tightly controlled and subject to the rules below.

1. You must play regularly on the site for at least 6 months to be eligible for an LA+1 character slot. This does not mean just showing up in the Out-of-Character room and doing daily logins for 6 months; you must be at least a semi-regular IC player.
2. There are a limited number of Level-Adjustment slots available, based on a rough percentage of the total number of characters. (At the moment, these slots number six. They may increase if we receive a large number of new characters, but there are currently no plans to do so.) Whenever a slot becomes available, the DMs will arrange for interested players to roll for it; highest roll of a d100 gets the slot.
3. If a player does win the chance to make a Level-Adjustment character, that character's approval will be subject to strict DM scrutiny. Anyone trying to twink/powergame/min-max will lose the privilege to play such a character.
4. Only races with a Level Adjustment of +1 and no racial Hit Dice are allowed. (We do not and have no plans to allow higher Level Adjustments in the future; aspiring Drow players, look elsewhere.) We also allow people to use this opportunity to play extremely rare LA+0 races that are otherwise disallowed due to their rarity (in such cases, the actual Level Adjustment is not changed). The races allowed include the following:
   • Aasimar (See FRCS, Monster Manual, or SRD.)
   • Bullywug/Siv (See Monsters of Faerun and Player's Guide to Faerun Enhancement; see addendum on Goblin listing below.)
   • Draconic Creature (See Races of the Dragons)
   • Forest Gnome (See Races of Faerun.)
   • Genasi - Air, Earth, Fire, or Water (See FRCS.)
   • Goblin, Hobgoblin (See Monster Manual or SRD; note that because of the hostility they evoke in this setting, you should expect to show DMs a plan of how you expect to make the character work before approval.)
   • Half-Drow (See Races of Faerun.)
   • Krinth (See Champions of Ruin.)
   • Orc (Mountain or Grey) (See Monster Manual or SRD for the former, Races of Faerun for the latter; see the addendum on the Goblin listing above.)
   • Star Elf (See Unapproachable East.)
   • Tiefling (See FRCS, Monster Manual, or SRD.)
   • Azerblood, Celadrin, D'hin'ni (See Dragon #350 or here.)
   • Some acquired LA+1 templates (e.g., Shadow-Walker or Blooded One from Unapproachable East, Dark Creature from Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave, Chamelon or Faerzess-Infused from Underdark, Magic-Infused from this page, or certain variants of Mulhorandi Divine Minion from this page) which can also be added to characters already in play in some cases. Ask a DM for details.
5. Due to high demand, we must insist that Level-Adjustment characters be played on a regular basis. If such a character isn't played at least once in a 60-day period (and that's "played," not "logged in for XP"), that character will be removed, and the slot rolled for anew.
6. If your Level-Adjustment character is lost (due to death-without-raising or abandonment), the slot goes back up for grabs--you do not automatically get to make a new Level-Adjusted character (though you may attempt to get the slot again like everyone else).
7. There is one other way to obtain an LA+1 character: by sheer chance through the reincarnate spell. We use a custom-built reincarnate table for this site, which does provide a small chance (about 1 in 25) to wind up as either an LA+1 race or as a race we treat as LA+1 by rarity. Characters who wind up as one of these races via death are not quite beholden to the same rules as other LA+1 players, and do not take a regular LA+1 slot. (This is, for the record, not as awesome a deal as it might seem at first glance.)
8. Mechanics Note: When making a character with a Level Adjustment of +1, one level of Level Adjustment is added as a favored class to your character sheet, and you receive enough Experience Points to reach the minimum of your new Effective Character Level (ECL).