"Epic" progression after 6th level

Ry · Jun 24, 2007

Do you know about the ones that The Other Game Company made? Those could be the "Ability Scores", "Races" and "Equipment" chapters.

Wow, I'm really excited for this project again.

Nifft · Jun 24, 2007

Hmm. Interested in a SW Saga (style) adaptation? Six levels is easier to balance than 20, so it would be an interesting exercise IMHO.

-- N

Khuxan · Jun 24, 2007

rycanada said:
Wow, Khuxan... just wow. Please keep me updated as you work on this, this is fantastic. What program are you using before converting to .pdf?

PagePlus, which you can get free here. It's very intuitive and easy to pick up. I can upload the .ppp files if you're interested.

rycanda said:
Do you know about the ones that The Other Game Company made? Those could be the "Ability Scores", "Races" and "Equipment" chapters.

Wow, I'm really excited for this project again.

The SRD Handouts? They look nice, although not that much different to just printing out the relevant section from the SRD. For races I was thinking about collecting all the monstrous races from LA 1 to ECL 6, although that'd be in the mid-to-distant future.

The Great and Mighty Nifft said:
Hmm. Interested in a SW Saga (style) adaptation? Six levels is easier to balance than 20, so it would be an interesting exercise IMHO.

Not sure I understand what you mean? Just cutting off the Star Wars classes at level 6?

Ry · Jun 24, 2007

Well, that would make for a much bigger project... although I'm intrigued.

There's a downside, though - the more you stray from D&D, the less outside material remains compatible.

To get your skill consolidation, and maintain compatibility, you could add on Iron Heroes-style skill groups, where you pay 1 skill point to get 1 point in a set of skills (like Tumble, Jump, and Balance).

Personally, I hate Ability Scores and would rather ditch them in favor of Ability modifiers. But that changes a few SRD spells (although not many, since we only have 0th-3rd). What else were you thinking of, Nifft?

Ry · Jun 24, 2007

One thing I forgot to mention is that if you don't like first-level fatalities, it's no problem to start E6L games at 2nd. I've started new characters at 6th and still had a blast. Feel free to let your players play badasses right from the start if that's your style.

Ry · Jun 24, 2007

Here's a file that was the result of painstaking statistical analysis on D&D. This gives you even better "best guesses" for ad-hoc monster and NPC stats.

I like to think of it as the DM's Able Secretary

Gold Roger · Jun 24, 2007

Nifft said:
Hmm. Interested in a SW Saga (style) adaptation? Six levels is easier to balance than 20, so it would be an interesting exercise IMHO.

-- N

You gave me quite an idea here - I'm homebrewing a (gritty) anime spacepulp system based on SW saga and escalating hp was a concern of mine.

If I use epic after 6th or 8th rules, allowing to buy feats, talents and access to additional talent trees with xp after the level cap...

...hmmm...

Ry · Jun 24, 2007

I remember there was this long discussion about how there are 4 quartiles in D&D:

1-5 : Gritty
6-10: Heroic
11-15: Wuxia
16-20: Superheroes

Personally, I like the first two quartiles the best. Sounds like you do too.

Nifft · Jun 24, 2007

Khuxan said:
Not sure I understand what you mean? Just cutting off the Star Wars classes at level 6?

The SW Saga classes all look like this:

Level 1: Starting Feats, Defense Bonus, Talent
Level 2: Bonus Feat
Level 3: Talent
Level 4: Bonus Feat
Level 5: Talent
Level 6: Bonus Feat
... etc.

The only differences are skills, hit die, and defense bonus. All the rest is bonus feats and talent trees.

If you multi-class, you get one of your new class's Starting Feats (not all of them) -- this allows front-loading without encouraging multi-classing too much.

So the interesting thing here would be to break down class abilities into Talents and Feats, and then to establish "Epic" XP prices for these Talents & Feats.

Cheers, -- N

Nifft · Jun 24, 2007

rycanada said:
There's a downside, though - the more you stray from D&D, the less outside material remains compatible.

True, but SW Saga is hot right now. Many intelligent people consider that it might be a preview for 4e. So the effort may be less wasted.

rycanada said:
To get your skill consolidation, and maintain compatibility, you could add on Iron Heroes-style skill groups, where you pay 1 skill point to get 1 point in a set of skills (like Tumble, Jump, and Balance).

SW Saga has a neat solution for this: the way you get trained in a new skill is to raise your Int bonus (skill training is retro-active) or take a Feat. We can price those; skills fold into the system nicely, without any independent mechanic.

For the 5 classes in SW Saga, there's a nice trade-off between starting HP and starting skills -- two classes start with 30 HP and 2-3 skills, two classes start off with 24 HP and 4-5 skills, and one class starts off with 18 HP and 6 skills. They have mostly the same number of starting feats; each one has at least one starting feat that the others do not.

Spellcasters would be different, of course -- that's a part of the system that's significantly different. The SW Saga Force powers are much more like ToB maneuvers than spells.

Anyway. Just thinking out loud, for the moment.

Cheers, -- N