Beginning the game with +1 HD of Expert

[Felix]

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.

Ah, helpfulness! Thanks.

 

[irdeggman]

Ah, helpfulness! Thanks.

It only helps with backgrounds not with the "survival" issue.

What I have done is to just start PCs at 2nd level.

For my AoW game I gave every PC 1200 xp and 950 gp worth of gear.

Both above "norms" but since the adventure path is so deadly I figured a little leg up wouldn't hurt.

I also allowed anyone with an item creation feat (the sole wizard in the group) to use this xp and gp to create items to start with.

The xp allowed for +1 LA races and if anyone wanted to use a higher ECL race I was going to use the Savage Species system of "class levels" to handle it. {I have 3 +1 LA races in the game, 2 goliaths and 1 aasimar}

 

[Gimby]

How about gestalting the first level (and only the first) with the expert class?

 

[The Lost Muse]

How about gestalting the first level (and only the first) with the expert class?

That thought immediately occurred to me also. You get slightly better saves, possibly better hit dice/BAB, but not a big boost.

 

[Wolf72]

That thought immediately occurred to me also. You get slightly better saves, possibly better hit dice/BAB, but not a big boost.

I don't have UA nor read up on gestalting (I know what it is) ... what would gestalting with expert look like?

 

[Mark Chance]

It only helps with backgrounds not with the "survival" issue.

As a player, I've found the thing that most helps the "'survival' issue" is not dying.

 

[Felnar]

Their skill points at "first" level would increase by 4, and they would have the Expert's class skills as class skills for that first level; those skill points would have to be spent towards Craft or Profession, or similarly real-world applicable skills.

for the record, i read this as NilesB did (first level uses the expert class-skill list), which is bad for the skill based classes
i would recommend cleaning up the description to remove this ambiguity

IMO
a few "background" skill ranks and a few hp wont hurt your game
but +2 will is significant, as is a flat 6 hp + con to a wizard

 

[Felix]

for the record, i read this as NilesB did (first level uses the expert class-skill list), which is bad for the skill based classes
i would recommend cleaning up the description to remove this ambiguity

Ok, polish the language. Check.

IMO
a few "background" skill ranks and a few hp wont hurt your game
but +2 will is significant, as is a flat 6 hp + con to a wizard

Sure, so fighters won't fall to the first Charm Person nor wizards to a goblin's spear crit. It's significant: how much so, in your opinion?

 

[Gimby]

I don't have UA nor read up on gestalting (I know what it is) ... what would gestalting with expert look like?

Very dependant on the character class in question, but fortunately all the relevant details are in the SRD http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/gestaltCharacters.htm

 

[roguerouge]

Ok, polish the language. Check.


Sure, so fighters won't fall to the first Charm Person nor wizards to a goblin's spear crit. It's significant: how much so, in your opinion?

Let's see, for an expert/wizard with no con bonus vs. a straight wizard with same:
1st level: 6 vs. 4 (+50%)
5th level: 16 vs. 14 (+14%)
10th: 28.5 vs. 26.5 (+8%)
15th: 41 vs. 39 (+5%)
20th: 53.5 vs. 51.5 (+4%)

In essence, it's huge and then it drains away.