D&D General 6E But A + Thread

[Minigiant]

What would you say are the archetypes these options are offering?

Nothing

Halfling is Short lucky human.
Gnome is Short elf/dwarf with gadget.

Cut the fluff
Power up the unique

Halfling is short lucky human.
Gnome is short elf/dwarf with gadget
.

 

[Remathilis]

And I gotta say, that's one nice mini. Prepainted, or did you do it?

3d Color printed. Which is why she was $40. I don't have a pic of the actual printed out one. Suffice to say they are expensive for one character which is why I don't make one for just anyone.

 

[Remathilis]

You don't mention the expected or realized lethality level of Esmerae's campaign, but that she was (it seems) your only character says either the campaign wasn't very lethal or you/she got lucky.

It was a 5e adventure path. It wasn't overly fatal and the whole thing ended at 9th level. People dropped in combat but healing made sure no one died. The bulk of the casualties came from starting with a potential pool of eight players and only having five by the end due to real life issues stopping them from playing.

Could people have died? I'm sure if the DM was gunning for us he could have scored some kills. I've seen characters die in his game (he tpkd his Eberron party prior with a green dragon). I often joked if she died she was being replaced by her identical twin sister because in paid good money for that mini!

 

[Parmandur]

I never read the books. Honestly barely watched the show, I know it mostly from pop culture osmosis. I always figured that Ice referred to the frost zombies and the fire was the Dragons. So sort of Daenerys but not her precisely.

One of those multifaceted things.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I do think they can both be fairly presented as options in the same game, yes.

That is, in fact, one of the biggest reasons why I advocate for "novice levels" and incremental advancement rules that are robust and well-presented. Because they do, in fact, allow the same game to support the "zero to very slightly more than zero to maybe a tiny bit above zero to I guess you aren't technically zero anymore to well you finally survived long enough to maybe be a hero to somebody somewhere" gameplay that one group wants, and the rapid rise to heroism that the other wants. Tailoring the rate at which characters expand and grow is a huge boon.

I understand the concept, I'm just skeptical any one game can fairly present both options to the satisfaction of both groups.

 

[mixmastashizz]

Nothing

Halfling is Short lucky human.
Gnome is Short elf/dwarf with gadget.

Cut the fluff
Power up the unique

Halfling is short lucky human.
Gnome is short elf/dwarf with gadget
.

I've always considered dwarves the gadget/engineering race while gnomes were the elusive illusionist tricksters.

 

[SkidAce]

If they made gnomes elementals, they could put then back in the Monster Manual!

"Rawr! I'm a monster..."

 

[dave2008]

I understand the concept, I'm just skeptical any one game can fairly present both options to the satisfaction of both groups.

Yep, It is not that it can't be done, but the bold part is going to be really hard.

Heck, when I suggest novice levels should be actual levels, @EzekielRaiden says no, no they shouldn't be actual levels, they should be incremental advancement. As if that is a better solution than starting at higher levels (if they want that style of play). They can't satisfy the two groups right out of the starting block! Heck their own poll shows 75% of DMs here have or do start above level 1 and they are still insisting on optional incremental novice levels/not levels.

 

[Faolyn]

Or you could have less artwork. That's always going to get my vote.

Well, that depends. In Spelljammer, it was clear to me that the artwork was super-large to make up for the pathetically small amount of text--but that was also clear by putting it in three books (hardcovers to make it look more substantial) and using a slightly larger font size than normal. But you can compare it to, say, the 2e Planescape books which had lots of art but the text was often over the art (to the detriment of legibility at times), so the art wasn't there to take up space.

I'm fine with lots of artwork. Art helps to set the tone of the game in very useful ways. Just not as a way to pad the page count.

 

[ECMO3]

You might be able to tailor your character to fill a hole in the lineup, if you're rolling up in knowledge of what each other is doing, but that's it.

I find this is pretty common in many groups, but it also often does not work out well for the last person to join decide.

I think groups can be happy, fun and successful when they don't have all their bases covered. I think it is difficult to be successful when players are playing a PC they don't really want to play.

We have a current group I am in with 2 Barbarians, a hard melee Bladelock a Rogue and a healer-oriented Cleric. We are quite light on offensive/AOE magic and all the intelligence skills, but we are having a lot of fun. If we had one of the three melee characters play a Bard, Sorcerer or Wizard instead we would be a lot more versatile and "balanced" as a group, but I don't think that player who swapped would be as happy.