"Heroic Paths?" (using Midnight's character elements)

[Driddle]

Anyone using the "Heroic Path" concept introduced in the Midnight campaign? Because the choices are so varied and applicable to any class/race combo, and because minor abilities are added at every level through 20, I'd think it would be very easy to co-opt such "paths" for almost any setting. They're pretty nifty.

 

[GlassJaw]

Well I played in a Midnight campaign for a while and I liked the paths a LOT. The cool thing about them is that they can totally change a class depending on the path you choose.

We also used the unwritten rule that no one can come back with a path that someone else has already used. Since the death rate in Midnight is a little higher than normal D&D, this made for a lot of varied characters.

I would just be careful if you use them as-is in a traditional D&D campaign because they are meant to give the characters a boost since there so few magic items. They are probably overkill in a high or even normal-magic world.

 

[Crothian]

For my next game I probably will., I want the players to have more ability and less dependancy on magical items and the paths will help that out.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

I like the heroic paths and have used them in non-Midnight games. The Heroic Path houserule in my last campaign was that you could trade a feat at character creation for a Heroic Path. I am not doing this in the current game, since I wanted to play a campaign pretty much by the RAW.

DM

 

[Driddle]

Oh, most definitely, they're a big cummulative boost and not appropriate for an already-powerful campaign. I would be reluctant to introduce the option, too, except that the paragraph of text preceeding does a very nice job of setting a well-defined tone for the character's path through life. Without that introduction, the abilities added at every level are nothing more than another "min-max" game mechanic.

 

[JohnSnow]

For my next game I probably will., I want the players to have more ability and less dependancy on magical items and the paths will help that out.

Yes, they absolutely will. D&D's Multiple-Magic-Item-Dependency (hereafter, MMID) problem is something that's been bothering me for a while now. I actually first became intrigued with Midnight not because of its setting, but because of its jettisoning of MMID, and its replacement with inherent character abilities. That said, if that's your cup of tea, I'm going to point you toward an upcoming product from Malhavoc Press that you may not have heard of- Iron Heroes. There's a LONG thread here, with the product's old title: Iron Lore.

(Aside to the admins...changing that thread title to Iron Heroes might make sense...)

Anyway, it's due out at Gencon, and rather than explain it myself, I'll simply quote first the marketing text, and then the book's creator.

"It is not the sword, but the arm that wields it. It is not the spell, but the mind that shapes it."

Its creator, Mike Mearls, an Enworld regular, wrote the following in his first design diary:

Iron Heroes' basic premise is simple on the surface, but it grows complex as you delve into the details. The one-sentence summary of the game is, "Iron Heroes is sword-and-sorcery fantasy where the hero's training, experience, and gumption allow him to defeat supernatural foes."

That describes a billion fantasy novels, but when you look at that definition in the context of roleplaying games, things become interesting -- particularly in comparison to D&D. As anyone who has played D&D beyond 6th or 7th level knows, a character's magical items and spells come to define him. Even class abilities, such as a monk's ki strike or a paladin's smite evil, are magical in nature.

From early on, I sought to define Iron Heroes by what it was, not what it wasn't. It's easy to simply yank out magic items and adjust the system for their absence, but I wanted to do something more. I wanted to build into the core of the system the concept that heroes are defined by what they do, not what they carry.

By the way, this is not to disparage or discourage the use of Midnight in any way. I love it and credit it with renewing my interest in DMing. I just thought that if you were bothered by the MMID problem, you might be interested.

I also have this fantasy of (Midnight designer) Wil Upchurch, (Iron Heroes creator) Mike Mearls, and (Eberron creator) Keith Baker joining forces on a new sword and sorcery product for Wizards of the Coast.

But that couldn't happen...could it?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

[sniffles]

The group I'm with have recently begun a new Forgotten Realms campaign using the Heroic Paths. We've created our own base city and deity for this campaign, and the GM wanted all the PCs to have been "blessed" with special abilities by their goddess. We looked into bloodlines or extra feats to simulate this, but ultimately decided on Heroic Paths. Most of the players rolled randomly to determine what path we got. We haven't been playing long but it looks like the paths will add an interesting element to our character development. One player who's running a bard and plans to go into Chameleon and Marshal got the Guardian path, which works perfectly with his character concept (and gives him a frighteningly high Diplomacy skill!).