E6: The Game Inside D&D

[Ry]

I definitely see the appeal of running levels 3 through 8: Instead of working up to and sitting in the sweet spot of a-bit-better-than-6th, it would play with the fun of advancing (slowly) through that range.

Cheiromancer makes some good points, and at the moment I must admit I'm torn. Is 3-8 (with feats leaning the power level towards 10) more fun than 1-6 (with feats leaning power more towards 8)? Or should my new game of E6 start at 3 and go to 6 plus feats?

 

[joela]

E6 versus E8

Cheiromancer makes some good points, and at the moment I must admit I'm torn. Is 3-8 (with feats leaning the power level towards 10) more fun than 1-6 (with feats leaning power more towards 8)? Or should my new game of E6 start at 3 and go to 6 plus feats?

Simple enough to find out.

I've learned that theory doesn't always concur with game play. rycanada, run your new game as per originally planned while cheiromancer runs his (her?) players throught the variant. Both of you document, then post, your experiences and thoughts here on enworld. We can all then see how the systems are affected by the different epic levels and experience progression.

 

[Ry]

Well, I was thinking of starting at 2nd or 3rd anyway (I've run origin stories to death). So I think the most likely is E6 but starting with 3001 XP. E6 qua E6 (a hard cap followed by feats) was the pitch that earned me 2 extra interested players for this upcoming game.

 

[knight_isa]

Cheiromancer makes some good points, and at the moment I must admit I'm torn. Is 3-8 (with feats leaning the power level towards 10) more fun than 1-6 (with feats leaning power more towards 8)? Or should my new game of E6 start at 3 and go to 6 plus feats?

I think that it really depends on what levels you and your players enjoy the most.

For me, as a DM, I think the sweet spot starts around 5th level and goes through 8th (although I have to admit to enjoying building up to 5th as well).

I was planning on using the concept of E6, stretching it to be E8. I was was even pondering placing feats in between (in sort of a L6 -> 5 feats -> L7 -> 5 feats -> L8 -> more feats progression). I think Cheiromancer's suggestion will work out really well for me, and from what input I've had from my group I think it will work better for us than E6.

That said, I still think E6 has merit. It really all depends on where your "sweet spot" is, and what sort of story you want to play out.

 

[Ry]

I do think E6 has merit, because I've played it. But even if all this discussion caused was people using the rules their way, instead of being pushed from the game they like (say, levels 5-10) to the game they don't (11-20) then it was a good exercise.

 

[Ry]

(I was only torn for a minute there, until I realized that I could get Malazan Book of the Fallen style goodness out of levels 3 to 6 and keep doing E6.)

 

[Dragonblade275]

Cheiromancer,

I like your suggestion about changing the way XP works. Though, I'd leave the XP table the same as in the Player's Handbook and just adjust the amount of XP awarded.

Though, slowing level advancement might be irritating for some players. And, I've read that that was one of the reasons for making it so quick in 3.0 & 3.5 as compared with previous editions. Perhaps, breaking down each level into four parts (as Ryan has suggested somewhere) would help?

Either way, E6 is a great idea. I can see simulating most of my favorite swords & sorcery stories with just E6. The Death Dealer, Conan, Dragonlance... Just about all of them could work in E6.

But, our group is going to play 3.5 with some house-rules through level 20 at least once before committing to an E6 campaign.

 

[joela]

Malazan

(I was only torn for a minute there, until I realized that I could get Malazan Book of the Fallen style goodness out of levels 3 to 6 and keep doing E6.)

While I've heard of the series, I've never read it. Is it extreme high-fantasy or something?

 

[Ry]

It's funny. I see it kind of like Eberron but instead of translating 1st to 6th level characters into a big fat modern economy it's more like taking those characters (lots of wizards and other magic users, btw) and putting them on different sides of a clash of civilizations. There's some high fantasy elements there, but most of the really high powered stuff is in the hands of gods, demons, or elder races from another age (all of whom are quite impressive). While there's a few humans that have become demigods and can transform into dragons the characters I think of as "the humans" - or the protagonists - are quite mortal, and I think they could be done in E6.

cient past, etc.) For example, if there was a demiplane nearby, is a 3rd level spell OK to dimension door over to it? I'd say that's a fine spell.

 

[Ry]

Here's another point about starting level: If you start at level 1 you should want to do an origin story, whether it's E6 or not. If you don't want to do an origin story, you should start at level 2 or higher.