Beginning the game with +1 HD of Expert

[Roger]

It sorta seems like too small of a change to really be worth bothering with.

But the newly-literate barbarians will be happy.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Felix]

sooo ... all characters, at 1st lvl, get:

+2 will saves

Yep.

6 skill points (expert is 6/lvl?)

Ah, yes. Quite right.

6 hit points

Or 1d6 HP. Haven't decided.

and this represents their youth and training?

The skill points, yes. The HP and Will saves represents a boon by me the DM.

 

[Felix]

By requiring all characters to take their level that gets 4 times skill points as a class with fewer skill points and a shorter skill list and requiring them to waste those skills on things that don't give them the ability to fulfill their role in the party.

Sigh.

The Expert level doesn't count as their first level. They have it as, I don't know, their .5th level. Does that still kill all rogues?

 

[Wolf72]

It sorta seems like too small of a change to really be worth bothering with.

But the newly-literate barbarians will be happy.


Cheers,
Roger

I'd go as far as to say that this virtuo-level won't counter any drawbacks from standard classes.

 

[Roger]

Now that I've had some time to mull this over, I think the basic idea behind this is quite similar to the way that Occupations are implemented in d20 Modern.

It might be worthwhile to review that system, and see if you can't bend it to your purposes here.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[ThatGuyThere]

A change my group evoked for a similar reason was to give +2 Skill Points to every class (and a general widening of the class skills lists). We play an extensively social game, with lots of Bluff, Sense Motive and Diplomacy and such, and Rogues were beginning to get *overplayed* (we were Gestalt; everyone was (something) / Rogue).

But the +2 Skill Points gave every class enough to take a few "flavour" type skills - Profession, Knowledge, Craft, and so on. Rather than a "fake level", you might just consider some bonus skill points, particularly if you limit where they can go.

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

I'd second ThatGuyThere: calling this a 'level' will lead to confusion. Call it a bonus Background Feat or somesuch, or even create a set of Occupation Feats... possibly with differing amounts/types of bonuses to hp, profession skills, starting gold, etc., depending on what their occupation used to be.

 

[Tonguez]

I do the same having PCs choose an NPC class at level 0 (NPC levels are ECL -1 so it works out) to represent background.

PCs get a minor boost so they survive level 1 but this soon evens out

 

[irdeggman]

I had been working up something that I was thinking of submitting to Dragon, but seeing as how that is going away. . . .

It was a way to capture backgrounds in a manner similar to d20 Modern does starting occupations.

Here is what I have so far.

 

[roguerouge]

You're really over-thinking the mechanics. You want them to have a background prior to their adventuring, yes? But you're worried about over-balancing things with the will saves and the hit points, yes?

Then just give them 4 skill points that they can only spend in profession or craft! Don't give them a level in expert or commoner (some PC may want to be a day laborer, after all). What you want is flavor without the headaches later on. So just give them the skill points and be done with it.