Flavor Alterations

[vulcan_idic]

In a new campaign world I'm designing I'm thinking about making a few flavor alterations and I wanted to bounce the ideas off the folks here as a sanity check/brainstorming session.

*All characters (PCs, NPCs, etc.) will be using Gestalt Classes a la UA.

*At the very beginning of the campaign there will be no magic - clerical/druidic or arcane... Psionics *are* different however and will be present - both from the XPH and the Psychics Handbook (Green Ronin Press)

- Corollary: Innately magical races (elves, etc.) do not exist (Initially)
- Exception: Dark Elves (heavily modified to be entirely Psionic)

*When Elves eventually are introduced I was thinking of giving Elven Characters the option of choosing between the standard Sword/Bow Proficiency, OR getting Eschew Material Components as a Free Bonus Racial Feat as a expression of their innately magical nature.

Bit of general background: Campaign begins on a fairly large continent which, unbeknownst to it's inhabitants, is entirely encompassed by an enormous Anti-Magic Field. Elves live on unknown continents beyond with other magical species after imprisoning humans and their allies on the continent under the Prison Mythal (which prevents people from leaving it and from using magic within it) as punishment for attempted domination of the world several millenia ago.

Thoughts? Reactions? Questions? Anything horribly unbalanced?

 

[Li Shenron]

In a new campaign world I'm designing I'm thinking about making a few flavor alterations and I wanted to bounce the ideas off the folks here as a sanity check/brainstorming session.

*All characters (PCs, NPCs, etc.) will be using Gestalt Classes a la UA.

*At the very beginning of the campaign there will be no magic - clerical/druidic or arcane... Psionics *are* different however and will be present - both from the XPH and the Psychics Handbook (Green Ronin Press)

- Corollary: Innately magical races (elves, etc.) do not exist (Initially)
- Exception: Dark Elves (heavily modified to be entirely Psionic)

*When Elves eventually are introduced I was thinking of giving Elven Characters the option of choosing between the standard Sword/Bow Proficiency, OR getting Eschew Material Components as a Free Bonus Racial Feat as a expression of their innately magical nature.

Bit of general background: Campaign begins on a fairly large continent which, unbeknownst to it's inhabitants, is entirely encompassed by an enormous Anti-Magic Field. Elves live on unknown continents beyond with other magical species after imprisoning humans and their allies on the continent under the Prison Mythal (which prevents people from leaving it and from using magic within it) as punishment for attempted domination of the world several millenia ago.

Thoughts? Reactions? Questions? Anything horribly unbalanced?

Well, the idea of a campaing with something that blocks magic is quite popular IMO, and many people can tell you their own experiences. I haven't played in a setting where magic ddidn't work, only where it was forbidden by the authorities, so it was fairly different.

I don't play with psionics either, but I think in your case they will replace magic entirely: no one would be able to take levels in spellcasters, but with the gestalt rules I think every player should really have psion as one of the classes (and a combat class as the other, obviously).

Gestalt classes are inherently imbalanced, which means that you have to scale up the encounters or the game may be annoyingly easy... but otherwise they shouldn't be a problem (just know that it's like having higher-levels characters).

My only problem with the combination of all this ideas could be that the characters may end up a little too similar to each other. I could see a rogue/fighter or rogue/barbarian being an exceptions, and of course you can hope they choose very different psionic powers.

 

[vulcan_idic]

Thank you for your input Li Shenron!!

Well, the idea of a campaing with something that blocks magic is quite popular IMO, and many people can tell you their own experiences. I haven't played in a setting where magic ddidn't work, only where it was forbidden by the authorities, so it was fairly different.

I understand that this is not a new idea, I hope to put a nice spin on it, perhaps something fresh though. In many ways, I'm more curious about general reactions here and ideas that the concepts cause to blossom in your mind rather than strictly balance issues, though it's always nice to know when balance may be an issue.

One of the major events catalysing the first part of my projected campaign is the more or less gradual degradation and eventual failure of the Mythal. It should be interesting to see how the world reacts when this apocryphal force "magic" suddenly begins becoming real. Since the world is, as usual for our group, high magic most people have something small or large with some magical properties that were supressed by the Mythal. Some people start to physically change into races/species which their forebears were before the Mythal was erected.

I don't play with psionics either, but I think in your case they will replace magic entirely: no one would be able to take levels in spellcasters, but with the gestalt rules I think every player should really have psion as one of the classes (and a combat class as the other, obviously).

That would seem to be one good option... there are many good options though.

Gestalt classes are inherently imbalanced, which means that you have to scale up the encounters or the game may be annoyingly easy... but otherwise they shouldn't be a problem (just know that it's like having higher-levels characters).

I understand your concerns and have read all the endless debates on various boards before making this decision. It seems to me that the difference should not be too much of a problem when it is the standard for the world... some monsters will be relatively weaker, but that can be played by ear to balance it out - though that should only be neccssary for the few with no class levels. In addition to this Epic Levels will not be uncommon in this campaign (for NPC's even before the PC's get near that) and you average 40 year old farmer will be spec'ed out in this world as probably a level 10 - 15 Expert Commoner. This campaign is designed to be high powered on *all* sides... which should hopefully make things interesting, and, more importantly, play into the story.

My only problem with the combination of all this ideas could be that the characters may end up a little too similar to each other. I could see a rogue/fighter or rogue/barbarian being an exceptions, and of course you can hope they choose very different psionic powers.

I can see how some may have many abilities in common, but I do not think that means neccesarily that their characters will be similar. For example, I got my BA in Theatre Arts and I knew many people in the department who had very similar skillsets, but were widely divergent in character... I think this may hold true with my group as well.

 

[Li Shenron]

I understand your concerns and have read all the endless debates on various boards before making this decision. It seems to me that the difference should not be too much of a problem when it is the standard for the world...

Well, I'm not really concerned In a way, gestalt rules are just a variant multiclassing rule (only that no one should stay single class). Some players drools at the idea, but most of the times they are just too hungry for character power that they don't understand the idea of gestalt rules. But in practice there's no problem for the DM except scaling the encounters appropriately.

 

[vulcan_idic]

I like them for flavor issues... i.e. the Monks of the Raging Storm Monastery (Barbarian Monks) are like the eye of a hurricane - the calm at the center of the storm, while another school of Monks - those of the Third Eye Monastery (Seer Monks) - are contemplative isolationists...

I choose Monks because I'm partial to them when a player... but the same is true of any other class I think... It's a way of shading things to me... if the basic classes are the primary colors of the D&D world, then gestalt charachters help to fill in some of the spectrum around the bare primary colors.

As for whether or not they will be a problem a lot of that depends on the group... and the group I plan on running this with is one I've been with for years... and we all have about the same idea of how things should be, what we like, etc. - so I don't *think* it should be a problem... but if it is, then I'm sure we'll figure out a good way to fix it.

Perhaps a good way to scale the creatures would be to use the Savage Species monster levels with the UA gestalts, with the Monster levels as one of the Gestalt classes... what do you think of that?

 

[vulcan_idic]

By the way, I want to say again just how glad I am for your responses... even though it may sound like I'm dismissing them out of hand (I'm not, but it has worried me that it may be coming across that way) I really appreciate this chance to discuss the ideas, and double check my own thoughts on the matter before hitting the road running so to speak. Thanks a lot!!!