E6: The Game Inside D&D (with PDFs!)

[GrolloStoutfoam]

Metamagic seems difficult to use in E6, and I don't have any good ideas for fixing it. Maybe E6 is just a world where Still Spell and Energy Substitution (and other +0/+1 metamagics) are the cool ones that everyone uses.

Actually there is a feat from Dragon Magazine #325 p62, Easy Metamagic. "Choose a Metamagic feat you know with at least a +2 Level Adjustment. When preparing or casting spells with this feat, treat the Level Adjustment as being one lower than it actually is (min +1). For example, Easy Metamagic could reduce Maximize Spell from +3 to +2. You may take this feat multiple times. Each time it applies to a new Metamagic Feat."

Also the Sudden Metamagic feats allow once per day casting of a metamagicked spell without a level increase. Taking Maximize Spell, Easy Metamagic (Maximize) and Sudden Maximize spell allows a caster to cast Maximized 0th and 1st level spells and once per day a 2nd or 3rd. Combine the feats with Arcane Thesis and one 2nd level spell can be maximized for a +1 level adjustment. Pretty cool way to distinguish one's wizard from the rest.

 

[udalrich]

Is the general consensus that these feats are balanced? Casting an empowered fireball with a third level slot seems strong. It does cost three feats, but a wizard could still have it at 5th level. (Probably not a wizard that was played from first level though.)

 

[PoeticJustice]

While it's better than not being able to use it at all, it's still fairly weak. (I'm assuming Eberron action points. If there's a different style that I missed, my comments may be completely wrong.) At 6th level, I think you get something like 7 action points. (Don't have my books nearby at the moment.) Since it nominally takes 13 encounters to level, that's 1/2 action point per encounter. You could empower 3 spells during the entire level, or maximize 2. That's not a whole lot of use for a feat.

Metamagic seems difficult to use in E6, and I don't have any good ideas for fixing it. Maybe E6 is just a world where Still Spell and Energy Substitution (and other +0/+1 metamagics) are the cool ones that everyone uses.

These are valid concerns, ones that I can't actually fix without tacking on more rules. In order to make metamagic more accessible, I'm thinking about this:

Action Points are tied to CHA (4+1/2 Char. Level+ Cha modifier).
Action points refresh every level and at every 5000 XP after level 6.
There will be a feat available to increase a character's Action Point pool.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Like I posted in a post waaaay back (I'll go looking for it...) it's possible to cast 15d6 fireballs in E6 multiple times. All by using only WotC 3.5 feats (and not feats from Dragon, which isn't balanced all the time).

Edit: Here's the post

Throw in sudden empower, and we're talking 20d6 fireball at 6th level. That should finish most E6 fights.

 

[Ry]

These are valid concerns, ones that I can't actually fix without tacking on more rules. In order to make metamagic more accessible, I'm thinking about this:

Action Points are tied to CHA (4+1/2 Char. Level+ Cha modifier).
Action points refresh every level and at every 5000 XP after level 6.
There will be a feat available to increase a character's Action Point pool.

Hey guys, can I suggest looking at the Raising the Stakes.pdf linked off the first post? You might find that the Conviction / Death Flag mechanics in there work for the action point dilemma. I've used Conviction to spice things up for about a year and a half now and it works great.

 

[joela]

Making E6 appealing to players

Oh, the big thing I want to discuss in the next thread is how to talk to your players about E6. A player in my group runs his own game, and found that players were rejecting the idea out of hand without even looking at it. Of course, that's a group of D&D-only old school grognards, so it might be worst case scenario (they do play 3.5e though). But I think that's the biggest thing that the main E6 document is lacking (god knows it took long enough to make it sound good to a select few DMs).

I'm prepping to run a one-shot pseudo-OA adventure this coming Saturday. If the players like it, I'm hoping to introduce the idea of E6 for future games. The PC, for example, will start at 6th level though I'm debating maybe even E6+1 feat.

For those DMs running E6 campaigns, what techniques (outside of threats/bribery) did you use to convince your players to give E6 a shot?

 

[Kunimatyu]

For those wondering how to get metamagic in E6, please take a look at the Swift Metamagic feat on page 1 of this thread -- it's sort of a "template" that allows you to turn any Metamagic feat into the equivalent of a Sudden feat, though the prerequisites become steeper if you angle for the higher-level metamagics.

 

[Ry]

OK, thread's over. Thanks everybody, now it's time to move on to the bigtime. The newly revised thread is in General, as per discussion with PirateCat a month or so ago. Please go there - especially if you want to talk about your home game, because I want to hear about it!

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=206323