Do players need something cool every level?

[Ridley's Cohort]

One thing that filling in the 'dead levels' would help with is the abilities granted by prestige classes. Sorcerers, for example have no real abilities to give up when they gain a spellcasting prestige class. So he goes from gaining spellcasting... which is all the sorcerer gets aside from its familiar liability... to getting spellcasting AND some cool abilities. That hardly seems like a fair trade.

If players are thinking "I want to get a PrC for my PC of he will be boring and I see no good reason to stick to the straight class besides" then we have an extremely strong argument for something cool every level or everything other level at least.

The Core base classes should be non-specialized and flexible. That does not mean they should be boring, vanilla, or frontloaded.

 

[Li Shenron]

Here it talks about dead levels and filling them in so players get something cool each level. Now ignoring the fact that new spells every level is ignored here (spells aren't cool enough anymore? I don't understand why they don't consider getting spells a non dead level): Do you feel that players need something cool every level?

I don't need it.

 

[Driddle]

Do you feel that players need something cool every level?

On those odd levels when a player doesn't get to add a feat or ability upon his character's experience bump to the next level, I like to give a small gift or prize to compensate -- an extra slice of pizza, for example, or a small stuffed animal.

 

[Archade]

Y'know, the concept of PrCs being undeniably good when the base classes have "dead levels" has something subtle missing. Just for fun, I looked at building a PC who was an illusionist 3/master specialist 7/shadow adept 1. The problem with him was at 11th level, he had a BAB of +2. Couldn't hit a damn thing.

But generally speaking, in my opnion I think it's nice for players to have something every level, but increased saves, new levels of spells, feats, stat increases and the like all count, so in that case 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 18th, and 20th levels are never really dead, are they?

And yes, story matters more than levelling.

 

[TerraDave]

Diminishing Returns

It creates clutter, and hence, hurts the game. I don't want "flavor," I want to write only things on my character sheet that are useful and/or interesting.

Exactly. There are already too many little things to keep track of. More are not needed.

 

[Delta]

Good god, no. The game's already too complicated. Having a unique mechanical special ability at every level for every class, NPC, etc. is just totally overwhelming. I already can't parse all the feats that all the monsters have in combat.

 

[Gold Roger]

It creates clutter, and hence, hurts the game. I don't want "flavor," I want to write only things on my character sheet that are useful and/or interesting.

I definitely agree. Except I'd say something cool could very well be a significant improvement or replacement of an old ability. If organised correctly "something cool" every level could be a welcome improvement.

 

[KB9JMQ]

I voted yes. Something cool every level is fine as long as it doesnt break the game.
We are playing a campaign now where we get a feat every level. Seems to be fine and no one is complaining about a dead level.

 

[DonTadow]

Players don't need something every level but they must see a constant development in their character, that's why I support the buy the numbers system over hte current leveling system.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It's a badly worded poll. The question shouldn't be 'Do players need something cool every level?' It should be 'Would it be better if players got something cool every level?'