E6: The Game Inside D&D

[Ry]

Re: Thug Variant
I would expect that would run very smoothly.

Re: Crystal Keep
Checking it out now, thanks!

Re: Negative levels
Good idea - heck, I even like that for regular D&D. But I'm going to stick to the feat/ritual for now to keep the "E6" + "Recommended Feats" structure.

Re: Feats I wrote earlier
There was a note earlier that was in favor of the 1 feat: 1 3rd level slot for prepared casters and 1 feat: 1 3rd and 1 other slot for spontaneous casters. I'm not convinced they're too good, even if they are better than Extra Slot.

 

[Ry]

Included in the E6 pdf writeup would it be possible to list feats that are recommended, including source, maybe even show the Talent trees devised. Would this be against the OGL to list the names w/ source.

Edit: just noticed the OGC thread...

I'm going to be including a few feats to fill what I see as the crucial gaps (gaining spells, gaining spells known, gaining skill points, removing negative levels, removing other permanent status effects).

 

[Ry]

..Been lurking and finally decided to register and make a post. Anyway just as a note the Artificer from Eberron effective caster level for making items is +2 if the item does not duplicate a spell effect. Not sure how this would swing things for what was available but I thought it an interesting note.

I think that's fine; if you include artificers in your game, I'd say that items up to CL 8 can be found.

Also, welcome to the boards!

 

[Ry]

While that crystalkeep .pdf is handy... it's also not OGL kosher. That could be a useful resource for your E6 game but I couldn't refer to it in any kind of official E6 designed for others' use.

 

[Miar]

But does even having the class exist and the ability under the lv 6 cap make this up for grabs for a feat that does the same thing. Would you let a character take a feat that did this? The level 6 cap is interesting but I think higher level abilities can be interesting. Is a level 1 character that can teleport once a day going to throw the world off. I guess what I'm asking is why you draw the line where you do. Looking at skills and what real people can do it makes some sense. Looking at someone not having so many hitpoints or be able to do so much damage that they can take on small armies makes sense. But for other things ....?

ps.. why do your last 4 posts all say that you have made 2,141 posts?

I think that's fine; if you include artificers in your game, I'd say that items up to CL 8 can be found.

Also, welcome to the boards!

 

[Aust Diamondew]

ps.. why do your last 4 posts all say that you have made 2,141 posts?

It list your post total on all posts not the number of total posts you had at the time of the post.

 

[Ry]

Good time to clarify. There's two approaches to feats that I think are both valid. One is more conservative than the other.

Here's the old 'minimum feats allowed' principle; the Gestalt Approach:
"If you could build a 6th-level character with some ability, then I think it should be fair game for that ability to be at the end of a feat chain."

But there's also the Cautious Approach:
"Before trying to make a new feat to cover a particular kind of character improvement, see if you already have an official feat that helps enhance that same character concept."

While I use the Gestalt Approach, a minimalist approach to E6 (even if you allowed all WotC splats) would be the Cautious Approach. I am going to write up the main E6 .pdf in terms of the Cautious Approach and put the Gestalt Approach in an appendix.

So, if you:
1) Allow the Artificer
2) Use the Gestalt Approach to your feats
then
3) You should allow a feat to get the +2 CL for item creation purposes only. Of course, this doesn't change spells available, etc.

PS: The forum post count is always up-to-date; they're relative to me at the present, not me at the time that I posted. If you look at a post I made a year ago it will still say rycanada has made 2141 posts.

 

[rom90125]

Here is a response I received from my best player (and best friend) regarding E6:

I think this would suck! Realistically, there are very few magic items that can be produced at only 6th level. And a 6th level PC, no matter home many feats he has, is never going to be able to challenge a dragon. So, unless the other (monster) side of the equation is balanced appropriately, this is not going to work.


However, if the monsters were balanced, it has potential. It would reflect much more accurately the majority of fantasy literature out there. What I mean is, how many times in a novel is the hero in mortal peril from something we in the D&D world would consider a pretty low level threat. A lot! In other words, any PC should be at threat from a sniper on a roof that makes an exceptional (i.e., critical hit) shot.

<sigh>...and I was really looking forward to running E6 with this group. I guess I will have to find some other players in my area that are willing to try something different.

 

[Ry]

Yeah, he seems to have the same issue: He thinks that dragons need to have 20 HD and be CR 17 to be dragons.

 

[Ry]

You might want to say "The monster side of the equation WOULD be balanced against these PCs"

E6 characters aren't intended to go up against high-level D&D threats.