Thaedrus said:
The problem with gaining feats throughout the advancement to 6th level is that you change the fundamental assumption of this idea.
The original idea was that a sweet spot exists at 6th to 9th level. this is where most players have the most fun. So getting to 6th level early is a good idea. Then the issue arrises that after power level higher than 9th, it becomes more work and book keeping for all involved, and the fun diminishes. So the level cap solves this.
Your idea would solve the higher power level problem, but not the issue that it is still more fun to play between levels 6 and 9.
The strength of E6 is that it allows early advancement to 6th, but prolongs the sweet spot for gaming. I like the original much better.
I understand and agree with you. As you said, the sweet point is between levels 6 and 9 but that's also very subjective and depends on the group.
I have a question BTW, if the point is to make characters have an ECL 10, why not just cap the level at 10? If 6 is the sweet spot, then giving lots of more feats won't eventually make character more powerful anyway, only in a different way?
While I'm asking these question I try to answer them, because I want to understand the concept behind E6. Prolly the answer is that by capping the game at level 6 and then only giving feats to characters, you would effectively raise the power lvl to ECL 10, but in a different way that keeps the low-fantasy flavor of the game.
But if the sweet spot is at lvl 6 plus feats, then why not just starting the game at lvl 6 anyway? Why force the player to pass through all the 5 levels of boredom before it?
As I said, it's all a matter of taste. I'll prolly use my idea because I want to keep the level advancement as part of the fun of the game. My group enjoy leveling up, at any level, 1st to 2nd is as fun as 15th to 16th. The espectative to reach a new level is an important part of the overall fun of my group, so I want to keep it lasting as long as possible.