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

[Nyaricus]

I got this crazy idea for a super-high-powered D&D game kicking around in my head. Laid before you is a rough outline of it, and what I plan to do. Note that this is going to toss a nasty knee in the CR/ECL system

Nyaricus' Crazy High-powered Campaign Guidelines

Ability Scores will all start at zero, with a 90 point buy, one-for-one.

Open books: all races, classes, feats, spells et al will be availiable (no Generic classes, however)

Characters will be leveled using the Gestalt system, as detailed in that link. Characters with races that have LA and/or racial hit-dice can pick up gestalt levels as normal. EX: a hobgoblin (LA +1) at level one could have his gestalt be Hobgoblin 1/Fighter 1, with his second level being Rogue 1/Fighter 1, etc. Characters such as this must match the parties level, as usual (no minotaurs at level 1, for example)

A Feat every level.

Weapons will be crafted using the following ruleset: Weapons As Special Effects. No Magical Properties

...that's all for now.

--------------

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

 

[VirgilCaine]

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

1. It depends on what we're doing.
If you're going to railroad the party and have so many house rules you eventually change the entire game system itself, and continue playing for as long as you have players, past 30th level, like one game at my university game club...no. If you're a decent DM and give the party some choice in what they do and let the rest of the world do things like this, maybe.

2. 2 ability increases every level, for the most useful stat to each class--caster's get their casting stat up, meleers get their Str up, skill monkeys get Dex up, maybe. Monks get Wisdom up. That kinda thing.

Enforce roleplaying low stats and put a minimum of 6 in anything. If you have less than that, you wouldn't be adventuring.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Of course I would play, and so would probably most of my party.

We're comfortable around high power and fast advancement. You can always give the same treatment to monsters, there will always be a challenge, so it won't be boring. And everyone loves high numbers.



If you want to give them even more power, give them "free level adjustments" - Say, at level 6, they get a LA +1 Template, At 10th, a +2 instead (or the other one will improve)

If they want to play straight humans/elves/whatever, give them the "Paragon", "Legend", "Exemplar", "Whatever" templates that just increase the racial strengths.

I did something like that in my campaign recently - everyone became an aasimar at level 6 (the guy who was aasimar got rid of his level adjustment and got human traits to boot). Aasimar was used as a template there, not a different race. Some levels after, they got new abilities.



You could also give them bloodlines (as seen in Unearthed Arcana) for free, or grant them a Heroic Path like in Midnight.

 

[Li Shenron]

!. 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?

I don't like the concept of Gestalt rules, but beside that I see no reason why I wouldn't play in such a game.

It doesn't even look outrageously powerful to me.

About the fun... it all depends on throwing challenging encounters before the characters: if you power up the PCs a lot and still use the same monsters, what you get is a wimp's game where the characters have very little challenge (could be fun for very young gamers, but not for experienced ones, at least not for long).

Personally I see only one true reason for playing a high-powered campaign: wanting to play against cool higher-CR monsters without having higher-level characters, thus sparing the DM from having to address certain potentially adventure-breaking abilities (teleport, divinations) and perhaps also sparing the players from having to manage characters with too many different abilities.

 

[DragonLancer]

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

Not my cup of tea. A bit too over-powered for my taste. However, if you did run this I'd be interested to see if it worked.

 

[Turanil]

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

No, this kind of game doesn't appeal to me.

Now, I tend to be a powergamer, revelling when having powerful characters. However, the normal rules are already sufficient for that. To feel powerful, it's not about more front loaded, but about the world in relation to the characters. An example: I once did play a cavalier (1e UA game), so in itself it was a high powered game, but within the rules. At low level (2nd-3rd) our PC group had to cross a dangerous forest, and we came out of it barely alive. But then, later, my PC had to go again through that forest, alone this time. However, at 10th level, 18 in Strength and Constitution, and shining (magical) plate-mail and sword, none dared to attack him. The DM told me how wandering monsters were afraid of him. There I felt powerful.

On the other hand, I don't find any fun in a ultra-powered over the top houseruled game, where, for balance purposes, common brigands are all 10th level fighters, and incredible nasties (demons, dragons, etc.) are found at every corner of any wood or village, because a simple troll would be no match for the party.

 

[shilsen]

I wouldn't be interested, not because of the power issue (power is always relative to the rest of the world and the other PCs) but because I think it would be a pain in the ass to keep track of all of the various combinations and abilities and such that this kind of game would throw up. In all of the games I'm in, I find most players have a hard time making quick decisions about their options with a far lower level of complexity. A game like this one would slow things down abominably, in all likelihood.

On the power front, while I can powergame with the best of them, I always set my power levels based on the other people in the group, so that my PC has some options for shining without always taking the limelight and/or overshadowing the other PCs. With the wide variations and options in this kind of campaign, I'd probably have to put in a lot more work to either end, making sure that my PC is still effective in the group and that it doesn't overshadow the others. And that's not really something I want to spend time on.

 

[Nifft]

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

Characters will be leveled using the Gestalt system, as detailed in that link. Characters with races that have LA and/or racial hit-dice can pick up gestalt levels as normal. EX: a hobgoblin (LA +1) at level one could have his gestalt be Hobgoblin 1/Fighter 1, with his second level being Rogue 1/Fighter 1, etc. Characters such as this must match the parties level, as usual (no minotaurs at level 1, for example)

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

 

[delericho]

I would at least give that game a chance, as a player. I might not stay long, though - it would depend entirely on how the DM handled things.

There is no way I would consider running a game like that, though - it is my considered opinion that D&D generally works best at (or close to) the default power level, and so I take the view that if you want more powerful characters, you're generally better off playing at a higher level.

IMO, of course.

 

[Dragonblade]

I would play and I think it would be fun as long as the DM was serious about it.

I played a 40th level character once and it was brutal. The DM gave detailed descriptions, had great NPCs and described everything in awesome detail. Even though the game was high level it still had a gritty feel, he had played Warhammer FRP for years and I felt like I would die at any moment.

Our game centered around the PCs trying to lead the invasion against a fortress held by the forces of an ancient vampire lord. We faced entire units of monsters with various class levels. For example, we fought a unit of about 20 16th level fighter fire giants. And they were armed to the teeth with magical gear appropriate for their level as if they were PCs. And concerns about us getting those items? Not really an issue. Why would I pick up a giant sized +5 sword when I already carry epic weapons and am a gp millionaire? So there was not much looting, and much more role-playing. Which was great!

We also fought a unit of about 10 Winter Wights. They were not leveled at all (that would be just too sick) and they almost wiped out the party. This was back in 3.0 days so luckily Haste still gave you an extra partial action. My character was a Monk/Sorcerer and I had to have Haste going and use my bonus action to cast Wish and then use Wish to act as a Heal spell. I had to do this every single round just to stay alive!! We had maximized fireballs going off constantly, and meteor swarms and all sorts of high level craziness.

It was a blast to play! To this day I consider it the single most fun game session I have ever played. And I have played D&D for 20 years.