E6: The Game Inside D&D (with PDFs!)

[Ry]

I don't have Iron Heroes handy (somewhere buried at home), but I'd be curious to see any wealth variants that you + OGL come up with, Sorcica.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

I'd need more detail. If you have a world like Middle Earth or various other fantasy novels where magic was not a commodity, I would say that magic items aren't bought and sold - they're considered too precious for that. That means they're kept, used, or given as gifts. In such a campaign I wouldn't have PCs be able to spend their cash on magic items except in situations justified by the game as played.

What I'm trying to say is that the best market-purchasable magic I'd allow in an E6 game is the ones that humans can create, which means CL 6 or CL 8 with an artificer. The minimum is "no magic market whatsoever." But the ideal requires a description of what else you're aiming for with your game.

Ahhhh
But how about a limit on the power of magic items the PCs can find during adventures? I think there's an important difference here. If a 6+5 PC has 100.000 gp of equipment, IMO it will make a difference if this is in the form of +1 items and potions, or if it's few powerful (and thus expensive) items.
I think the limit should be that no item can cost more than the wealth the PC has at a certain CR. Even that may be too powerful.

 

[zag01]

Right, I am definitely not planning or toning down the Dragonmarks in any way. I like the fact that a lower powered campaign makes the marks more powerful (and also more desirable for PCs).

My question is whether or not an Artificer can/should be able to emulate these spell-like abilities for item creation.

I thought of a better example than I had before: True Seeing. This spell would normally not exist in the world except as a spell-like ability possessed by House Medani and any creatures that get it. But the spell is required to create a Ring of X-Ray Vision (requires CL 6). Can/should an Artificer be able to use UMD to emulate True Seeing and create this item?

I'd allow it as Eberron already has the flavor for it: Eldritch Machines.

When you get to this level of power your no longer a lone wizard/artificer working in a tower. You've got to have, essentially, a magic factory with lots of workers (or homunculi) and some serious cash flow to get it running. (and protect it from corporate espionage)

Make it a big deal in your campaign and that will limit its abusiveness.

 

[Kunimatyu]

What kind of magic items do you suggest to allow? Everything from the books with a caster level of 6 and lower? If so, aren't they relatively few and un-powerful for 6th+ level characters?

As long as you use the Magic Item Compendium, nope! The MIC has lots of useful, flavorful items that PCs will be excited about obtaining, and a staggering percentage are CL6th or even lower.

I know it's not really the case, but the newer WotC books, with the exception of PrCs, really seem to cater to E6 -- probably because WotC knows that the majority of D&D campaigns are in the early levels, so they produce more content for those.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Here's my POV for variant classes (and this goes for E6 and D&D as well).

Cool ideas, ryan! I very much like the gunslinger idea -- I'll be stealing that for my True20 game. The Advocate idea is neat, too.

In the campaign I'm setting up now, I'm altering sorcerors so that they can exchange their familiar for a Heritage or Bloodline feat, and they can cast spells from the cleric, druid, and wizard spell lists as arcane spells. Not only does this allow me to have sorcerors who can bestow curses and animate dead (as otherwise arcane casters can't do these things in E6), but it sets them up for a primary place in the setting.

I'd love to see that Warlock/Binder idea fleshed out - it sounds like an amazingly fun class.

 

[Ry]

I know it's not really the case, but the newer WotC books, with the exception of PrCs, really seem to cater to E6 -- probably because WotC knows that the majority of D&D campaigns are in the early levels, so they produce more content for those.

I don't think it's an illusion - these are the levels that are easier to run, easier to playtest, and easier to design for. Even for designers they're the most famliiar levels. So it's no surprise that we've got lots of options that play nicely in that range.

 

[tvar]

Say, how do you calculate average party level? Is it just 6 (once everyone reaches 6), or do you take feats into account the same you you do for CR...?

 

[BRP2]

I wouldn't mind reading opinions on people who have played this style.

 

[Ry]

Say, how do you calculate average party level? Is it just 6 (once everyone reaches 6), or do you take feats into account the same you you do for CR...?

The CR formula will be good, but you may find that hordes of CR 1 and 2 are still quite viable opponents, so I'd fill in that corner of the experience table

       CR 1    CR 2
8th    200     300
9th    150     225
10th   100     150

 

[Jekolmy]

Just a question as I have been reading this thread for a while and have been working on converting it to d20 modern..... has anyone tried to convert this to modern at all
(I do not mean to derail this thread as more people play D&D than modern, but it makes sense in the real world that people aren't as high level)

Thanks