Do players need something cool every level?

[Slife]

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?'

I was just about to answer with that!



Yes, players need to have something cool each level. But they don't need to get a new something cool each level.

 

[Gez]

The article does note one of the biggest design flaws WotC propagated: The PrCs that gain +1 llevel of spellcasting every level while combining that with powerful abilities that the core classes don't get.

Of course, their solution is to pump up the power of the core classes.

That's exactly what I did, too. And much more than them! A meager 15% increase in the number of pages in your spellbook isn't really powerful; and the number of times it's going to be relevent that character X is actually a dragon in disguise won't be soo high...

 

[JVisgaitis]

I pretty much agree with everyone else. I don't think its necessary, but its definitely something I wouldn't complain about getting.

 

[NilesB]

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.

4 actually; as compared to an illusionist 11's base attack 5. Not a serious concern seeing as a mid to high level illusionist needs to make attack rolls about as often as an equivalently powerfull rogue needs to make caster level checks.

 

[Sonofapreacherman]

My feelings towards that article have gone back and forth quite a lot already. Do people like it? Do people dislike it? I've gotten both "yay" and "nay" responses to those questions. In fact, I've had at least one person both love and hate each set of dead level abilities.

My mistake was trying to imply that minor dead level abilities could somehow prevent "optimizing" players from multiclassing, which they cannot. Power gamers want power. The dead level abilities I proposed are entirely flavorful. They are meant to be little more than "cookies" (something instead of nothing at each level).

To keep everyone up to date, I have since revised the article introduction, removed any claim that dead level abilities can prevent multiclassing, and replaced the hidden pages wizard ability with a new ability called animated script.

Kolja

 

[Umbran]

My immediate answer to the question, without reading the rest of the thread is that it depends upon how fast the charactersare advancing, in terms of real-world time.

If your group is levelling very quickly, I don't think you need something special every time, because the levels with the real goodies will come along soon enough anyway . If you're going through the levelling bit less frequently, it should be a bit more momentous.

I'm now running a campaign that looks to be meeting once a month, and levelling will be excrutiatingly slow because of that. So, the players ought to get something for having to wait so long. Delayed gratification should have perqs.

 

[jokamachi]

Abosu****inglutely. Everyone should get cool things all the time.

It's not life. It's a game.