Elemental Evil characters not allowed in Season 3?

[Mirtek]

I don't know about that. I have been using a similar rule* in my home games since the days of 3.5, and it works wonders. In over a decade, I have yet to see an OP character at my table since I instituted this rule,

which is due to your players rather tgan this rule as there are op builds already with just the 3.5 phb let alone phb + two splats

You have players who do not want op rather than a rule that makes urzthat they can bit op

 

[Pauper]

Thanks Pauper. Sometimes I think its almost as if they just are bored and want to troll.

Not a problem, and glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks that.

I don't think the campaign staff is hostile to optimizers, but I do think they have enough experience running Organized Play campaigns to see what rampant optimization does to a campaign, and to know it's not pretty.

My own personal opinion is that every optimizer that leaves the OP campaign makes it that much better; it's refreshing to sit down at a table and pull out a half-orc wizard or a human without a bonus feat and not immediately get into an argument about why I didn't make a 'better' choice.

And yeah, if I were in charge of the campaign, it wouldn't be the Adventurers League -- it would be the Banhammer League, so it's probably a good thing that I'm not in charge. ; )

--
Pauper

 

[kalani]

For the record: I am an optimizer (as well as a roleplayer, as the two are not mutually exclusive), and even I know the risks associated with unrestricted optimization.

In a home game, a DM can sit down with a player and come to a compromise if a certain combination is problematic..... In an OP campaign, DMs lack this authority and are forced to rely on the OP ruleset to deal with these issues. Even though I love discovering the next uber-combo as the next optimizer, my main focus on researching such builds is theoretical. I like to push a system to its breaking point so that I know where the balance is, and then I optimize my actual characters on the balanced side of that line.

 

[aramis erak]

You and the other AL advocates have all become wonderfully adept at talking like a lawyer, so let me throw a few normal-language ordinary-folk sentences out here and you can all discuss how true they are

"So, I can rebuild once at any level, despite being told I can't once I am past level 5?"

"I can rebuild even if I created a brand new Rage of Demons character that already uses some SCAG options? It doesn't say I'm excluded from the offer."

"So you can rebuild even if you have no intention of adding any SCAG material? This means the organisers must have found it not worth their while to restrict rebuilds to SCAG. It means they have sacrificed the rebuild restriction in order to not make the SCAG announcement too hard and complex to read"

"What does the two asteriskes ** mean at the end? Is there a footnote somewhere? To explain why I can't wait six months to rebuild, I mean?"

Season 1, 2 or 3 origin characters may rebuild once at level 5-16†. Season 4+ probably won't, because SCAG will be core for them. If season 4 or 5 includes a mid-season evergreen addition, it will probably also be a trigger for a mid-high-master level rebuild.

Then again, it's not like that can be enforced effectively anyway in later seasons; right now, it's obvious that almost no one will have played enough to have leveled to even 4th with a SCAG character.

Most of my group did so. Even the Genasi, tho' she didn't take anything from SCAG.

†There is almost no feasible way for an AL character to have exceeded level 16, as I've seen no adventures legal for tier IV. I'd be really leery of someone presenting a 17th or 18th level PC at an AL game, and it's not like I have an AL module to run for them.

 

[kalani]

Not entirely true. Only those characters which were L5+ as of November 3rd 2015 are entitled to the free higher-level rebuild. Lower level characters do not get a free rebuild upon hitting 5th level, as these characters already qualify for the normal rebuild rules using SCAG.

 

[Pauper]

Trying to parse which characters are eligible for 'free rebuilds' and when is a good argument against not allowing future 'free rebuilds', no matter how unpopular that approach might appear to be.

--
Pauper

 

[kalani]

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide and You
Everyone, regardless of level or story origin, gets a chance to rebuild their character. Effectively this means nothing changes for characters under 5th level but those over 5th get one chance to include the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide options with their characters if they so desire.

This ruling grants all existing characters one free rebuild. While not the wording I would have chosen, the highlighted text clarifies that 4th level or lower characters gain no benefit from this one free rebuild, as they already benefit from unlimited rebuilds up to 5th level (this has been clarified on FB). As such, the ruling only benefits characters which were 5th level or higher at the time the ruling was released.

After discussions with Robert Adducci just prior to the release of my Advanced Logsheet Tutorial, I was asked to include additional information regarding this specific rebuild. As such, I took the opportunity to provide clear and concise guidelines surrounding this rebuild, based on the information in the above quote, and the clarifications received on FB, with the goal of eliminating any confusion surrounding this rebuild.

Excerpt: Advanced Logsheet Tutorial [Special Rebuild, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide]
On November 3rd, an amendment to the Player’s Guide (which you can read here) was issued regarding the legality of the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (or SCAG as it is frequently abbreviated).

As part of this amendment, players were afforded a unique opportunity to perform a one-time rebuild of their higher level character(s). While there is no specific expiry for this rebuild, Travis Woodall (Content Manager) has stated that ideally, this rebuild should be performed sooner rather than later, and that “it should not be banked”.

There are several differences between this rebuild, and the rebuild options available to 4th level or lower characters.

• High Level Characters Only: This rebuild is only available to existing characters which were 5th level (or higher) as of November 3rd, 2015. Characters of 4th level or lower on this date cannot take advantage of this special rebuild option after reaching 5th level.
• One time Rebuild: You can only perform this rebuild once for each of your 5th level or higher characters.

 

[qstor]

That is as opposed to the latest Living Greyhawk Campaign Guide, which can still be found in the net and contains hundreds of closed feats, PrCs, spells and domains
But that wasn't a LFR problem, that happened because the whole 4e ruleset was frquently errata'ed. Even if LFR had allowed only limited stuff, this stuff would still have been affected with every errata WotC put out

That's cause a lot of the stuff LG banned was overpowered.

 

[CapnZapp]

Not entirely true. Only those characters which were L5+ as of November 3rd 2015 are entitled to the free higher-level rebuild. Lower level characters do not get a free rebuild upon hitting 5th level, as these characters already qualify for the normal rebuild rules using SCAG.

Where, on the AL website - not socal media, can I read about this restriction?

I looked in the SCAG PDF addendum, but it has not been updated since November 6.

Thanks

 

[skerritthegreen]

Where, on the AL website - not socal media, can I read about this restriction?

I looked in the SCAG PDF addendum, but it has not been updated since November 6.

I don't believe it is yet, though we have clarified it on multiple social media avenues. You should also expect that in an effort to get you the clarity you desire, in the season 4 version of the ALPG, we will simply take the ability to rebuild your 5+ lvl PC away entirely. If you haven't used it by then, you won't get to. Hopefully that will make it more clear.