A *Really* High Powered D&D Game. Would you play in it? How can I up the power ante?

[|)ar|{]

few if any of my regular party would play for the following reasons:
- gestalt has a tendency to make everyone seem less special
- characters who build highly optimised/min/maxed characters will dominate the roleplayer builds
- you will either have to face higher level monsters, super charged monsters or every fight will be too easy. If you fight high level monsters than you're going to run into fights that you can't win with lower level abilities regardless of powers. If the monsters are supercharged too then why not just play a high level game. And lastly no one has fun if the fights are too easy.
- A few more feats seems like a fun addition, dozens of feats, double levels and stats and what not, well... I just imagine the excitement will wane quickly

Not to mention this game would be really hard to DM. A single visit to the Wizards optimisation boards can break a game with a non supercharge system. I don't want to even imagine what they could do with your rules.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

1. Would you play in this? Why or why not? Does it sound like fun to you?

No, I would not, but that isn't because it is a bad idea. I personally don't like playing characters with that much power. I like to have limited characters who still occasionally have to do things the old fashioned way. For me, more power hardly ever means the same thing as a better game. For me, it usually means the opposite.

However, that doesn't mean that this is a bad idea. Just an idea that does not interest me.

 

[GQuail]

Now, a few questions:

!. Would you play in this? Why or why not? Does it sound like fun to you?

2. How can I make this more powerful, and still be a ball of fun? What other rules could I bring into this?

3. What else would you do, in this game?

cheers,
--N

I would be willing to give this game a go. It's pretty high-powered and I'd be curious in the reason for that: I wouyld fear it might attract some OMG LEET POWERS! players and I'd be curious why a by the book system wasn't ebnough. But I'd certainly be up for it.

As for other stuff... I'd probably consider building some uber classes that use both Gestalt slots: specially crafter prestige classes, maybe, or more potent versions of base classes. (Super-Warlocks with increased damage output and some SLAs, Druids with may more spell slots and increased skills...) That woudl take some effort to balance, but would allow players to mess about with stuff that would be just too over the top for any other games.

 

[Slife]

You should ask SHARK for tips.

 

[Nikroecyst]

I would go with no, for the simple fact that the most fun I've ever had was overcoming a powerful baddy with only a stick and some string. I just feall that the less likely it is for me to over come a problem, the bigger the pay off when I do over come the problem. This however, is coming from some one who belives nothing, is impossible.

 

[Nyaricus]

Most of the stuff is over-the-top but cool. Except this bit:



Just FYI: LA-on-one-side Gestalt is the stark opposite of regular Gestalt.

Regular Gestalt allows you to compensate for a weakness. LA-on-one-side Gestalt allows you to super-specialize. Since specialization wins D&D ...

If you can't see how, I'll show you some examples. The implications aren't obvious. This is the one thing I'd change.

Cheers, -- N

I'd love to hear more of what you ar trying to say here, sure.

Thansk to everyone else for their responses, they've all been hugely insightful

cheers,
--N

 

[molonel]

My gaming group in Portland ran it once. We called it the No Holds Barred campaign. And yes, we used Gestalt.

It flew apart after a half-dozen sessions, mostly because we allowed any book. All I have to say is, wow. There is some really badly written crap out there. We all had to use spreadsheets for our characters.

I'm not saying all such campaigns will end this way, but it was downright silly at the end.

I'm glad I did it. But never again.

 

[Aus_Snow]

1. Would you play in this? Why or why not? Does it sound like fun to you?

2. How can I make this more powerful, and still be a ball of fun? What other rules could I bring into this?

3. What else would you do, in this game?

1. Yes, I would. Because I'll give virtually anything a go, once. Sure, it sounds about as much fun as most things. . . with only these tidbits of information to go on, mind you.

2. More powerful. . . well, how about also having all PCs with races and/or templates with LA+2, say, or +3, +4. . . something like that? That might throw the usual power curve even further out of whack. . . which shouldn't matter.

3. I would do things a little bit differently than this:

Open books: all races, classes, feats, spells et al will be availiable

. . . because, IME, that way lies chaos and much wailing and gnashing of teeths. YMMV, of course.

I'd also have to think about that 'LA -> gestalt' thing. Nifft will probably provide a good explanation here; I too await this.

'Weapons as Special Effects' looks like it would become problematic in all kinds of ways if used with a mass of WotC (and possibly 3rd party) classes, feats, spells, PrCs, items and so forth. Then again, I've only just given it a look over now, so perhaps not.

I would probably give more Ability score improvements over the course of 20+ levels. At least one point per 2 character levels, I think.

It also depends greatly on what you'd be doing wealth/magic item-wise .

 

[Justin Cray]

What would the setting be? Are we trying to start a rebellion in the Abyss or assault the Far Realm? If you want epic PCs you need an epic setting.

Btw just plunking the party into Eberron (if played true to the setting without any rubberbanding CRs!) could be funny to watch.

 

[diaglo]

1. no
2. n/a
3. commit sepaku