Balancing E6

[joela]

Dead Levels

I'm thinking of using Dead Levels from Wizard in my campaign. Do you think that, combined with feats, this will unbalance the game?

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

I don't see how using the Dead Levels from the WotC site would hurt. Most of those abilities are fairly weak abilities that merely add class flavor to an otherwise "dead" level. I'd recommend using them and I don't think they'd create balance issues.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I agree with Hrothgar -- small, flavorful abilities like that shouldn't unbalance things at all. Do make sure your players care, though, because some players get annoyed with lots of small abilities that never come up, or at least some of mine have in the past.

 

[Ry]

I'm sure dead levels won't mess anything up.

Keep in mind everybody that lots of us played 2e for ages and ages. Some have even played 1e Unearthed Arcana. Lots of campaigns have survived a few balance issues, and there's no need to worry - or postpone your campaign start - over the small stuff. There are also reasons to think that E6 is less prone to catastrophic unbalancing than d20 (i.e. problems don't get multiplied over 20 levels, there's less power leverage, and less story-shaking magic).

 

[Kunimatyu]

There are also reasons to think that E6 is less prone to catastrophic unbalancing than d20 (i.e. problems don't get multiplied over 20 levels, there's less power leverage, and less story-shaking magic).

This is a really key point that can easily get lost in the noise over balancing this, that, and the other -- E6 in general doesn't have D&D3.5's larger balance issues, since casters never get the chance to get completely out of whack with respect to everything else. All of the little optional feats(with the exception of the extra-slots one) are icing on the cake, not required elements for balance.

 

[joela]

care

Do make sure your players care, though, because some players get annoyed with lots of small abilities that never come up, or at least some of mine have in the past.

Will do. I'll also try to create encounters where the use of such small abilities crop up.

 

[joela]

PrC as base

E6 in general doesn't have D&D3.5's larger balance issues, since casters never get the chance to get completely out of whack with respect to everything else. All of the little optional feats(with the exception of the extra-slots one) are icing on the cake, not required elements for balance.

I'm beginning to suspect as much. I was looking over some new (used) monster compendiums/templates over the weekend and realized that CR 10 -12 monsters that would an inconvenience to a standard DnD party would be "monsters" in the classic sense of the word to an E6 party no matter what class abilities/feats/skills/spells the individual PCs possessed. Only by knowledge and working together could they defeat such monstrocities(sp?). Thus, not only am I thinking of allowing dead level abilities, but am seriously giving consideration to allowing certain prestige classes be base classes. One player, for example, is thinking of creating an E6 cleric/paladin/exorcist of the silver flame for my upcoming E6 Eberron campaign. I've suggested that, if he likes the exorcist enough, I'll allow him to take it as a base class, hand-waving away the requirements. Background/history reasons could include he was a protege, chosen by the gods, etc.

 

[Shazman]

I agree with using prestige classes as base classes in E6. One level of a prestige class really won't cut it if a player is set on using one. Plus, there are so many PrC's that are out of reach of E6 characters. You'd definitely want to keep a close eye on what PrC's to use with this method, though. You really wouldn't want a 6th level Frenzied Bereserker in an E6 party.

 

[joela]

Fr

You really wouldn't want a 6th level Frenzied Bereserker in an E6 party.

How about against the party?

 

[Zelc]

Many people have brought up the idea of creating [Prestige] feats that give you some of the benefits of a PrC (with limits; I was thinking of making mine all [Superlative]* feats plus a restriction of a max of one PrC). IMO that might be a better idea since you can control prerequisites and whatnot, but I guess for certain types of PrCs it wouldn't hurt to make them base classes.

Granted, I'm hesitant to make too many base classes because that means I have to make up capstone feats for all of them, but that's not a balance issue .


*For those of you who haven't seen my idea of [Superlative] feats, they're basically feats with a base prerequisite of 15 feats. After taking a [Superlative] feat, the prerequisite for all [Superlative] feats increases by 10, although you can't lose the benefits of a [Superlative] feat due to this increased prerequisite. Basically, they're a way to (a) make feat-based races/classes more attractive, and (b) allow me to create more powerful feats with a way to limit how many can be taken.

There are also reasons to think that E6 is less prone to catastrophic unbalancing than d20 (i.e. problems don't get multiplied over 20 levels, there's less power leverage, and less story-shaking magic).

Definitely agreed. However, from my point of view, E6 offers a unique opportunity to balance the game since the cap is much lower and there are fewer wrinkles. And I like game balance, so I'll seize the opportunity . And I've had enough with Monks sucking .