D&D Advice Regarding Savage Species

[Akhlut]

Okay, now with the boring ass but eminantly descriptive title out of the way, I have a question for all the D&D geeks out there: how good is Savage Species as far as level adjustments for monsters go?

I ask because one of my friends is running a campaign when college restarts (September) and as part of the evil side of his campaign, he's allowing players to be devils. I, wanting to break out of my intelligent tank role that I've normally played, have decided to go with an imp lawyer character that would go into sorceror. Anyway, the SS suggested levels for imp is 7, which I'm very, very skeptical of. Invisibility at will, fast healing 2, damage reduction, and alternate forms are admittedly quite nice, but the tiny size seems like one hell of counter to these, as it requires getting attacks of opportunity against him all the time in melee combat (basically required for all levels prior to getting sorceror blasting), having weapons that are drastically less effective, and a horrifically tiny carrying capacity (especially since my friend DMing the campaign uses point buy and strength is the last ability I'm going to put any points into). So, the invisibility at will takes care of the melee problems to an extent, and the damage reduction/fast healing combo makes up for taking longer to down an opponent (and, thus, making sure my character doesn't die before killing the opponent), and having a good flight speed and perfect flight maneuverability makes up for the being able to only carry 15 pounds and remain totally unencumbered.

So, with that in mind, what would be a better level for imps instead of 7? I'm personally inclined toward 5th, since a single 5th level character has an effective party level of about 2, which is the CR of an imp. I'd prefer 4th level, but I'm pretty sure I can't really argue that down without using some real legalese and conniving bullshit (which I might try anyway, the better to get into character ).

Also, any other advice regarding the book would be appreciated, as I need backup character ideas should the imp die and I want it to be something fantastic, yet, without too much level adjustment.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

A good response to almost anything in Savage Species would be to throw your hands into the air, scream the names of forgotten deities and slam your head into a hardcover sprinkled with D4s over and over.

However, it allowed and Anthropomorphic Squid character with 8 attacks per round.

Seriously though, as far as ECLs go, the most sensible option which usually ends up as the most balanced is to replace Monster Hit Dice on a 1/1 basis with Character levels. Your character isn't nerfed like they are using normal rules, and more importantly, it's semi-legal - after all, the monster HD are made out to be equivalent to character levels, right? Except for a few minor exceptions (Minotaurs, with large size, +8 Strength and +4 Con, 2 leve; adjustments, or Drow, with +2 level adjustments for extremely wimply bonuses that don't change all that much) this works admirably.

[Akhlut]

Just to make sure I get what you're saying, I would, for instance, start out as an imp and get +6 dex, +2 wis, +4 cha, flight 50ft (perfect), spell-like abilities, fast healing, tiny size, damage reduction, and so on at first level and instead of taking any monster hit dice, I'd just start out as a sorceror and continue as one for as long as the campaign goes?

[lance]

Just to make sure I get what you're saying, I would, for instance, start out as an imp and get +6 dex, +2 wis, +4 cha, flight 50ft (perfect), spell-like abilities, fast healing, tiny size, damage reduction, and so on at first level and instead of taking any monster hit dice, I'd just start out as a sorcerer and continue as one for as long as the campaign goes?

It doesn't work that way, you don't get the imp abilities until you actually take imp HD. As for your question I would say 3, that would put you about on par with a 6th level warlock.