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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 8729018" data-attributes="member: 907">Having grown up on Drakar och Demoner and other BRP-descended games, I see where you're coming from. I just don't think the organic approach works in a level-based system where the numbers can diverge so much. It could work in a flatter level-based system like Alternity, where level primarily worked as a way to force you to spread your XP around* plus gating certain abilities, but not in a system where you're expected to go from fighting goblins to fighting dragons. Particularly not if &quot;balance&quot; is supposed to be a selling point for the game.It's also a matter of economy of design effort. 3e-style monsters are hard to make, because you have to make all these fiddly choices about feats, skills, and so on, and be aware of how they affect the monster as a whole (and Gygax help you if you forget a skill synergy bonus somewhere!). With 4e-style, you just choose level and role, and you're like 75% done (PF2 is a little more involved since it involves choices at multiple levels, but it's similar).* In Alternity, the way it worked was that once you got 5+current level XP, you leveled up and they turned into an equal amount of skill points. IIRC you couldn't increase a skill more than once per level, so you couldn't spend it all in one place.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 8729018, member: 907"] Having grown up on Drakar och Demoner and other BRP-descended games, I see where you're coming from. I just don't think the organic approach works in a level-based system where the numbers can diverge so much. It could work in a flatter level-based system like Alternity, where level primarily worked as a way to force you to spread your XP around* plus gating certain abilities, but not in a system where you're expected to go from fighting goblins to fighting dragons. Particularly not if "balance" is supposed to be a selling point for the game. It's also a matter of economy of design effort. 3e-style monsters are hard to make, because you have to make all these fiddly choices about feats, skills, and so on, and be aware of how they affect the monster as a whole (and Gygax help you if you forget a skill synergy bonus somewhere!). With 4e-style, you just choose level and role, and you're like 75% done (PF2 is a little more involved since it involves choices at multiple levels, but it's similar). * In Alternity, the way it worked was that once you got 5+current level XP, you leveled up and they turned into an equal amount of skill points. IIRC you couldn't increase a skill more than once per level, so you couldn't spend it all in one place. [/QUOTE]

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