I was messing around with the Incarnate Construct Template from SS lately, stacking Templates on a Warforged and removing the LA as you do. But then I noticed an interesting thing in the Incarnate Construct description: It says that any non-abilities (like Int and Con) are rolled with 4d6 ignoring the lowest roll, as you acquire the template.
Well in Sandstorm there is a acquired +2LA Template called Dustform Creature that gives the construct Type, +4Str -2Dex and no Int and Con. Also it grants a natural armor bonus of 5 and several other qualities that are lost after Incarnate Construct.
Thus, we can dump Int and Con at character creation, then die in the waste and return as a dustform creature, and afterwards acquire the Incarnate Construct Template and get new Int and Con scores. It's somewhat difficult to calculate what the average result of 4d6 ignoring the lowest dice is, but I rolled it 20 times and got 12 average. So if we use a point buy and leave Int and Con at 8, this procedure would be equivalent to +4Str -2Dex +4Int +4Con for LA+0.
Let me illustrate this with a cleric build, using a lesser Aasimar as the base creature, a 28 point buy for Str 10, Dex 14, Int 8, Con 8, Wis 16, Cha 16, and the assumption that we roll a 14 and a 10 (12 average).
Aasimar adds +2Wis +2Cha. After Dustform +4Str -2Dex, Int is rolled as 10 and Con as 14. Then we can still become Dragonborn, for -2Dex +2Con. Additionally the +5NA from Dustform are "reduced" to +3NA , and our first Hit Dice is always a d8 (Dusform makes it a d10, and Inc. Construct changes every d10 to a d8).
We end up with a 1st Level Cloistered Cleric with 11 HP (8+3), and Str 14, Dex 10, Con 16, Wis 18, Cha 18, and a natural armor of +3
The abilities are equivalent to a 52 point buy (so we nearly doubled it). We get a d8 instead of a d6 at first level, +3NA and everything for +0LA.
Any objections, or do you agree that this is quite good?
