Class balance for E6 game

[Empirate]

Hi guys. I'm starting up a new campaign shortly, and I'd like a bit of advice where game balance is concerned, since this is the first E6 game I'm going to DM. We had a one-shot adventure in the setting I homebrewed about a year ago, but other than that, it's all brand new. I ask you to provide insight and analysis of what the game balance will be like in my setting: most importantly, class balance, but also spells I'll need to look out for, feats that can ruin balance etc. Books available are most everything except for psionics, Incarnum, and (as of yet) ToB.

Without going into the details, this is supposed to be a rather low-magic game (i.e. almost no magic items, spell access for casters restricted to mostly PHB). It's also very low-tech, on the brink of stone age technology. Craftsmen are quite skilled, and a few alchemical items will be available due to a rare macguffin substance: Moonscatter, which rains down from space, and is needed as a focus for all kinds of magic (no other material components are ever needed, though).

Metalworking is considered an art on par with magic, metal items are automatically considered masterwork etc. Writing is similarly all but unknown except for runecraft (a skill to spend points on), which is only good for religious and magical uses.

The environment is exceptionally harsh, with very long days (extreme heat and dazzling sunlight) and nights (extreme cold). I'm planning a heavy emphasis on underground adventure, though (think Underdark).

For thematic reasons (which the players enthusiastically agreed with, btw), I restricted playable races to Humans only and forbade evil alignments. I also heavily restricted playable base classes. Here's the list:

Barbarian
Bard
Druid (Shapeshifter variant only!)
Favored Soul
Fighter
Monk
Paladin (Charging Smite variant only)
Ranger
Rogue
Scout
Sorcerer
Spirit Shaman
Warlock

I'm thinking of adding Beguiler, Binder, Cleric (Cloistered Cleric variant only), Dread Necromancer, Factotum, and Swordsage. What do you think of those additions, balance-wise?

Later on, the PCs will run into NPC Wizards, Duskblades, and Artificers (taken by a higher-tech alien species). I'm still debating whether I'll let those become playable classes after the PCs encounter them.

All standard E6 rules are in effect, including capstone feats. I'll make up new capstone feats for Warlocks, Scouts etc. Note that in an E6 game, characters can gain dozens of feats eventually! Furthermore, I made up a few campaign-specific feats myself, which I'd like your thoughts on:

Night Eyes (General)
Prerequisites: Human, Wis 13+
Benefit: You gain low-light vision

Nightwalker (General)
Prerequisites: Human, Endurance
Benefit: You gain the benefits of the Endure Elements spell with regard to cold environments, meaning you do not have to make Fortitude saves to avoid fatigue or nonlethal damage as long as the temperature is above –45° Celsius. This is an (Ex) ability that is constantly active.

Cold Resistance (General)
Prerequisites: Human, Con 13+, Endurance, Nightwalker
Benefit: You gain Cold resistance 5.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. The resistance to Cold damage stacks.

Day Eyes (General)
Prerequisites: Human, Wis 13+
Benefit: You gain immunity to the dazzled condition. You also gain a +2 bonus to saves vs. spells and effects with the (light) descriptor or spells that aim to blind you.

Daywalker (General)
Prerequisites: Human, Endurance
Benefit: As Nightwalker, but with regard to hot environments of up to 60° Celsius.

Heat Resistance (General)
Prerequisites: Human, Con 13+, Endurance, Daywalker
Benefit: You gain Fire resistance 5.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. The resistance to Fire damage stacks.

Anticipate Moonfall (General)
Prerequisites: Human, Wis 17+, Knowledge (Astrology) 3 rks.
Benefit: You gain the supernatural ability to predict exactly when and where the next Moonfall will take place. This requires a meditative trance of 1 hour. If you happen to be caught outside in a Moonfall, you do not take any damage from the falling Moonscatter. Once per Moonfall, you can catch a piece of Moonscatter before it touches the ground by succeeding on a Reflex save (DC 20). This piece of Moonscatter acts as a Stone of Good Luck for you only, ending when the next Moonfall occurs within a range of 20 miles of you.
Sun’s Beloved (General)
Prerequisite: Human
Benefit: You gain the ability to reroll one saving throw or skill check once per shift if you are outside at the time.

Earth’s Beloved (General)
Prerequisite: Human
Benefit: You gain the ability to reroll one saving throw or skill check once per shift if you are underground at the time.


Moon’s Beloved (General)
Prerequisite: Human
Benefit: You gain a +2 sacred bonus to all saves and to AC while the moon of your choice is visible and the other is not. This will probably be the case around one quarter of the time.


[there are two moons, one of which orbits once each 30-shift period, the other orbiting once each 300-shift period]

[a 'shift' is an 8-12 hour period adopted by this world's population as a vague measurement of time, since days and nights last much longer: up to 150 hours each]


Thanks in advance for your comments!

 

[Empirate]

Addendum: Suggestions for E6 capstone feats for the following classes are highly welcome:

Shapeshifter Druid
Favored Soul
Scout
Spirit Shaman
Warlock

Also, the might-be-added classes (Beguiler, Binder, Dread Necromancer, Factotum, Swordsage) need capstone feats as well, if I'm going to allow them.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I'd gladly play this game, sounds fun.

I know you restricted your players to Human only, but are their other races in your world? If so, can the feats that allow for an individual to not be dazzled by the sun and to survive the cold nights apply to NPC's of other races? If not, your heroes are going to be the only ones walking around during the daytime and safe during the night, while every other creature has to cower to survive.

I get how E6 is huge on feats, but what will happen to your PC's if they do not choose to take the Nightwalker, Day eyes and Daywalker feats? What will they need to do just to survive and walk around whenever they are on the surface?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Humans are the most powerful and popular race in the game, not allowing others seems really trivial, and I personally find playing humans to be boring and avoid it whenever possible.

Any class should be fine in E6, just ban the super broken stuff like Wings of Cover, Dragonwrought Kobold, Abrupt Jaunt, etc... and don't allow cheesy early entry (into prestige classes) stuff. Then you should be pretty set.

If you want, even though I've yet to run one, I have my own modified/expanded list of capstone feats from the ones listed in the E6 thread. I found a bunch of them poorly thought out, like the skill ones, and not enough options for the various classes.

[sblock]Ability Training [General]
You spend time honing one of your Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.
Benefit: Choose one Ability; treat that Ability as having a +2 bonus to that Ability Score whenever you are making an Ability Check. This bonus does not count when making a skill check or for any other use of that ability.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times, its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat it applies to another ability.

Ability Advancement [General]
Your training pays off, and one of your Abilities increases.
Prerequisite: Ability Training in the same ability.
Benefit: Choose one Ability. You gain a permanent +2 bonus to that ability. This bonus does not stack with the benefit from Ability Training.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times, its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat it applies to another ability.

Advanced Training [General]
Prerequisite: Level 6, any +2/+2 skill feat (such as Alertness)
Benefit: Choose a pair of skills you have maximum ranks in (9 for a class skill, 4.5 for cross class) and for which you have taken the appropriate +2/+2 feat (such as Alertness for Spot/Listen). You gain +2 ranks in each skill.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time, select a different pair of skills.

Barbaric Resilience [General]
Prerequisite: Barbarian 6
Benefit: You gain DR 1/--

Bardic Inspiration [General]
Prerequisite: Bard level 6
Benefit: The bonus granted by your inspire courage ability increases to +2.

Bardic Greatness [General]
Prerequisite: Bard level 6, Perform 12 ranks
Benefit: You gain the ability to Inpsire Greatness in a single ally with your bardic music.
Special: Inspire Greatness requires 12 perform ranks to use, so you must first obtain Skill Beyond Your Years in a perform skill.

Caster Training (General)
You become a more accomplished spellcaster.
Requirements: Character level 6, at least 2 spellcasting classes
Benefit: Your caster level increases by 3 in two of your spellcasting classes, to a maximum of 6. Note this only affects Caster Level (i.e., more dice on your damage, no new spells or slots).

Disciplined Essence [General]
Prerequisite: Monk 6
Benefit: You gain Ki Strike (lawful) and Wholeness of Body. You can use Wholeness of Body as an immediate action.

Excelling Flurry [General]
Prereq: Monk 6
Benefit: You use Flurry of Blows with no penalty to your attack bonus. In addition, you qualify for feats that a Monk may take as 6th level bonus feats.

Expanded Knowledge [General]
Prerequisite: Character Level 6th
Benefit: Choose a spellcasting class in which you have levels. You gain an additional spell known at any level you can cast from that class's spell list.

Expanded Casting [General]
Prerequisite: Character Level 6th
Benefit: Choose a spellcasting class in which you have levels. You gain an additional spell slot at any level you can already cast.

Expanded Wild Shape [General]
Prerequisite: Druid level 6
Choose 1 Large animal and 1 Tiny animal. You can wildshape into these animals.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times, choosing a new pair of animals to add to your wild shape selections each time.

Extra Aura [General]
Prerequisite: Marshal or Dragon Shaman level 6
Benefit: When you select this feat, choose a Draconic aura or Marshal aura. Add this aura to your list of auras known. In addition, choose one Major or Draconic aura you know (you may choose the aura learned with this feat.) The bonus granted by that aura increases by +1.

Extra Domain Access [General]
Prerequisities: Wis 18 +, Cleric level 6, Knowledge (religion) 9 ranks, Extra Domain Power, Skill Focus: Knowledge (religion)
Benefit: You gain access to the domain spell list of one additional domain assciated with your deity. This domain must be the same one as that chosen for the Extra Domain Power feat. You may only take this feat once.

Extra Domain Power [General]
Prerequisites: Wis 18 +, Cleric level 6, Knowledge (religion) 9 ranks, Skill Focus: Knowledge (religon)
Benefit: You gain the domain power of one additional domain associated with your deity. You may only take this feat once.

Holy Strikes [General]
Prerequisite: Paladin 6
Benefit: Your melee attacks are considered good for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. You gain an additional Smite Evil attempt per day.

Improved Bond [General]
Prerequisite: Familiar
Benefit: Your effective level increases by 2 for the purposes of your familiar's benefits. You no longer lose xp if your familar dies, though you must still summon a new one.

Improved Companion [General]
Prerequisite: Animal Companion
Benefit: Your effective Druid level increases by 2 for the purposes of your animal companion's benefits. You cannot use this feat to gain a higher level companion than you could already get.

Improved Uncanny Dodge [General]
Prerequisite: Uncanny Dodge, Character level 6
Benefit: You gain Improved Uncanny Dodge, and are considered a level 6 Rogue for the purposes of being flanked and flanking others.

Martial Veteran [General]
Prerequisites: Fighter level 6th.
Benefit: You may select feats with a requirement of up to fighter level 8, and with a Base Attack Bonus requirement of up to +8.
Special: A fighter may select Martial Veteran as one of his bonus feats.

Restoration [General]
Prerequisites: 6th level, ability to cast 3rd-level divine spells, Wisdom 18, Healing 9 Ranks
Benefit: You can use Restoration, as the spell (paying the material component) once/day, with a casting time of 1 hour.

Roguish Ability [General]
Prerequisite: Rogue 6
Benefit: You learn one rogue special ability.
Special: This feat may be taken only once.

Skill Beyond Your Years [General]
Prerequisite: Level 6, Skill Focus
Benefit: Choose a skill you have maximum ranks in (9 for a class skill, 4.5 for cross class) and for which you have taken Skill Focus. You gain +3 ranks in the chosen skill.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time, select a different skill.

Sovereign Strikes [General]
Prerequisite: Paladin 6
Benefit: Your melee attacks are considered lawful for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. You also gain an extra use per week of Remove Disease.

Step of the Wild lands [General]
Prereq: Ranger 6
Benefit: You gain the Woodland Stride and Swift Tracking class abilities.

Stone to Flesh (General)
Prerequisites: 6th level, ability to cast 3rd-level arcane spells, Intelligence 18, Craft (Alchemy) 9 Ranks
Benefit: You can use stone to flesh, as the spell, with an expensive and secret magical ingredient with a market value of 1000 gp and a casting time of 1 day.

Swift Metamagic [Metamagic]
Prerequisite: Metamagic feats (see below), Caster Level 6
Benefit: When you take this feat, select a metamagic feat. As a swift action once per day, you may apply this metamagic feat to a spell you cast with no adjustment to the level of the spell cast.
Special: You must have a number of Swift metamagic feats equal to the level increase of your chosen metamagic, minus one, to take this feat. For example, Empower Spell, which boosts the level of a spell by 2, has a prerequisite of 1 Swift feat. Silent Spell, which has an increase of 1, would have no prerequisites. This feat may be taken multiple times.

Tireless Rage [General]
Prerequisites: Barbarian 6
Benefit: You are no longer fatigued at the end of your rage. You may still only rage once in any encounter.

Wondrous Rings [General]
Prerequisites: 6th level, Craft Wondrous Item
Benefit: You treat rings as wondrous items for the purpose of meeting item creation prerequisites. You must still meet caster level requirements for any ring you create.[/sblock]

I didn't get to actual feats for the non-core classes yet, but had some rough ideas laid out:
[sblock]Beguiler
A feat to get advanced learning, so they can add one more spell to their list.

Duskblade
A feat to use heavy shields without spell failure, and another to gain Quick Cast 1/day.

Dragon Shaman
Already have Extra Aura. Perhaps a feat for +1d6 breath weapon damage.

Favored Soul
Feat for Weapon Specialization w/ deity's favored weapon?

Hexblade
Feat for Greater Curse and +1 use/day. Possibly a feat for Aura of Unluck 1/day. Not like Hexblade 6 is overpowered.

Knight
Feat for Fighting Challenge +2. Could do feats for Call to Battle and Armor Master (heavy).

Marshal
In keeping with Bard and Knight, maybe i should get rid of Extra Aura and just make a feat for Major Aura +2. Could also do a feat for Grant Move Action an extra time per day.

Ninja (C.Adv. crappy version, not mine)
A single feat to both give Ghost Strike and Ghost Step (ethereal). Note, in E6, I'm not sure if the ninja could easily get a ghost touch weapon... Ninja need another capstone feat, but Speed Climb is way too poor to make its own feat.

Samurai: ...Why would anyone play this. Not worth my time.

Scout
Feat for Camouflage. I don't think a feat for blindsense 30 ft is too out of line, either.

Spellthief
Tough call. Absorb Spell might be worth its own feat. If not...also increase Spell Grace to +2? Arcane sight (as the class feature) could also make a decent feat.

Spirit Shaman: I'll worry about it if someone makes one.

Swashbuckler
Umm...some combination of Acrobatic Skill Mastery, Acrobatic Charge, and Improved Flanking condensed into 2 balanced feats.

Warlock
A feat to gain a second lesser invocation (otherwise impossible). A feat for Fiendish Resilience 1 that also raises the DR to 2/cold iron. Possibly a feat for +1d6 EB, though not sure that's necessary.

Warmage
A feat for Armored Mage (medium) is actually still useful, since you can only take the generic feat to increase the armor rating you can cast in once, so with this you could blast in full plate eventually. Warmages need something else. Something cool and unique...Maybe +1/day on all Sudden Metamagic feats they possess. And toss in Sudden Enlarge in that fat package for good measure. [/sblock]

EDIT: Oops. "Extra Aura" is with the fleshed out feats even though it's for non-core classes because my friend asking about a capstone feat like that was what got me started on the whole endeavor. So first sblock is 99% core.

 

[Empirate]

There's two other races of sentient beings out there (maybe more later), of which one is Outsider-typed (technology-augmented Humans, actually, but their nanite symbionts provide an artificial outsider type), while the other is a lower-level knockoff of the regular Monster Manual Medusa.

The Outsider race (called Metanthropoi) has enough technology to come to grips with the environment, although they are aliens in this world. They're supposed to have to invest a bit just to function normally. For example, natural radiation levels are high in this world, which the natives have no problems with, but Metanthropoi will see their nanite symbionts fail over time. I'll see whether Metanthropoi will become a playable race at some point. I want the PCs to experience them from the outside perspective first.

The Medusa race (called Sibyls) has Darkvision and is a native of the setting's main world. It dwells mostly underground and is much more resistant to radiation than straight native Humans.

But yeah, the Human-only homebrew feats may give the PCs a slight edge at first.

Walking around on the surface is obviously dangerous, although there are special suits for enduring the night's cold (nightsuits) and for preserving moisture during the day (drysuits). There's also goggles to protect the eyes from sun glare. But I still expect a lot of Survival checks, and quite a few instances of "I cast Endure Elements", on a regular basis. Finding ways to reach places at times inopportune for travel, staying alive even when stripped of equipment, avoiding the wild creatures that unburrow during those long periods of twilight, finding water in dry places... those will all be important parts of the quests this group of PCs will have to accomplish. I'll also hand out XP for overcoming these sorts of challenge.

I got inspired by Dune: Fremen are just regular humans in all regards, but they were forced to apply a lot of tricks in order to just stay alive. I'm aiming for a similar feel here. The PCs are this world's Fremen, and some of them might even master certain aspects of the survival game. The Metanthropoi Harkonnen are out there...


EDIT: Was posting while you were, SotS. Thanks for some really great suggestions, man! I like your capstone feats. The stuff I'm disallowing is mostly for thematic reasons (to allow the bad guys some tricks that're not replicable by PCs), and since my group seems fine with the restrictions I'm putting on them, those'll stay.

 

[Arrowhawk]

Hi guys. I'm starting up a new campaign shortly, and I'd like a bit of advice where game balance is concerned,

****

Thanks in advance for your comments!

How will you know when something is balanced? Are you just looking for qualitative arguemnts suchs as:

"Well, I think blah blah blah is overpowered or not a problem."

Or a you looking for something empiracally derived?

What about the players? Will they feel the game is "balanced" when you feel it is? Which is more important to you as a DM, your own sense of "balance" or the players perception of "balance?"

I'm very curious about how you will know or determine the level of "balance" in your game.

 

[Empirate]

Qualitative statements are just fine with me as far as this thread is concerned. This is not intended as a gamist mechanical discussion, more of a 'what do you think about xyz, in general, from a DM's perspective' thing. However, some argument as to why you hold [opinion] would be welcome.

My players aren't usually that concerned about game balance. As long as the group as a whole manages to do what they set out to do, they don't care much who contributes what. I guess only one of them has any real idea of character optimization, and he's a great guy who won't steal the others' thunder.

However, this is also partly due to how I see my job. I as a DM like to subtly influence events from behind the screen and orchestrate things so that nobody feels useless, and everybody has their moment in the sun. In order to do that job, I find it useful to know a lot more about the system than the players take the trouble to learn. Hence this thread. I can't really estimate what kind of a difference things like 'no 4th+ level spells in this game, for nobody' or 'no such-and-such magic items' will make.


BTW, it seems that I'm dealing with a group consisting of a Shapeshift Druid, a Warlock, and a Ranger (archery focused), although the specifics aren't set in stone yet. Still, since character death might easily happen in such a harsh world (with no resurrection options), and since I'll need tons of NPCs, my original questions are still open.

 

[Jacob Marley]

Without going into the details, this is supposed to be a rather low-magic game (i.e. almost no magic items, spell access for casters restricted to mostly PHB). It's also very low-tech, on the brink of stone age technology. Craftsmen are quite skilled, and a few alchemical items will be available due to a rare macguffin substance: Moonscatter, which rains down from space, and is needed as a focus for all kinds of magic (no other material components are ever needed, though).

A few questions on the bolded portions...

1) What is the frequency of magic-users in the campaign? 1/100 individuals? 1/1,000? How frequent will encounters with monsters that require the PCs having access to magic weapons be?

2) When you say stone age technology are you implying that armor (like full plate; late middle ages) or weapons (like longsword; circa 13th century) are not available?

3) How often will the party be able to find Moonscatter? Is it possible for a caster to run out of Moonscatter? Is it possible for casters to adventure for days (weeks?) without having Moonscatter, and thus being unable to cast spells?

 

[Empirate]

Good questions, still looking for some answers myself...

NPC casters will probably be limited to the very most important NPCs of all. One Sorcerer 4 I'm already having in mind, and one Metanthropos Wizard 1/Fighter 2 they'll encounter in their first adventure. Neither is intended as a combat encounter.
Monsters 'requiring' magic weapons will be very rare, as in next to no incorporeal stuff. DR of up to 10 points is fine with me, though. Just highlights the importance of grappling, tripping, and running away as valid combat tactics. The players are notified that stuff is out to hurt them that they don't stand a chance of seeing off (yet).

Armor is pretty varied: Padded, Leather, Studded, Hide, Scale (of actual scales), Splint, Half-Plate (of tortoise shells and similar); new are Chitin (medium, +4, +4, -3, 30%, 20 lbs.) and Dendritic Crystal (heavy, +9, +0, -8, 40%, 60 lbs.). Heavy armors will be very rare, though, probably quest items.
Weapons include everything that can feasibly be made of wood, horn, bone, and stone. Swords, chain weapons etc. are out, but axes, spears, all kinds of blunt weapons, most ranged weapons are in.
Metanthropoi use Kevlar and stuff, and will be carrying steel swords occasionally. They rely more on high-tech beam weapons (read: wands of scorching ray), though. Most have a single level of Wizard to use technology (read: spell completion and spell trigger magic items). So some pretty high-tech armor and weapons may sooner or later be obtained from fallen foes. Metanthropoi will only be revealed as bad guys at a later date, though, and there'll be few to fight directly. The way I envision it, the game will turn to intrigue a lot at that point.

Moonscatter is probably no great problem to obtain. It's used in all kinds of magic as a focus, so it isn't used up, it just needs to be available. Cantrips and Orisons need a piece as big as a fingernail (which is easily obtained), 1st level spells a finger-sized or coin-sized bit (still easy to get), 2nd level spells need a piece of moonscatter as big as a hand (hard), and 3rd level spells require a rare huge piece of moonscatter at least a foot long. One focus of sufficient size is all that's needed to cast all of a spellcaster's daily allotment of spells, though.
I don't think a spellcaster who has obtained the relevant focus for his spells will ever let go of it. However, a 2nd level focus (and even more a 3rd level one!) will draw attention and (maybe more than just) envious glances.

 

[Jacob Marley]

Am I correct in assuming that fey and lycanthropes will also be sufficiently rare?

My main concern with your set-up is that with metal being rare any creature that has sufficient damage reduction can lead to martial characters feeling weak. Perhaps, switching the DR/cold iron or DR/silver to something like DR/shale? Or, DR/moonscatter if it is a hard enough material?

Otherwise, I think you are probably fine with the balance of power between the classes.

I don't think a spellcaster who has obtained the relevant focus for his spells will ever let go of it. However, a 2nd level focus (and even more a 3rd level one!) will draw attention and (maybe more than just) envious glances.

The evil dm in me foresees many thieves' guilds in this world. You've created an interesting commodity in Moonscatter; one that I can foresee lots of individuals wishing to exploit. Interesting.