Intro:
The inspiration of this post was the discussion about pet subclasses in 5E alto Payn in the pf1 vs pf2 discussion reminded me sgain about this. Different Systems have the power distributed differently sometimes there is a lot of power in some choices like class or subclasses, somwtimes some choices can make almost no difference.
What I want to know is: How would you distribute the power of a character between its different choices?
Explanation:
Powerbudget only makes sense when we speak about games which are balanced.
So the designers want specific aspects of characters to have a specific powerlevel. As one example that all races be roughly equally strong. And this power level is a fraction of the total power of a character. So in D&D normally the class plays a much higher role than the race so the power budget of the class is higher.
When it comes to 5E we have class, subclass, race, background and attributes as first choices. Of course they can bring further choices with them (like a class or background can give you the choice of skills, or of spells etc).
I would have choices granted by an aspect (class or race etc) as part of zheir power budget. This means that stat increases/fests are part of the class as well.
Starting statsbI noemally see part of the class and subclass (dince you need specific ones to work) but this can be seen differently.
So how would you in your perfect D&D like want to see this power budgets distributed?
100% in the class would mean no subclassed, bsckground is just flavour snd race would be a class.
In 5E most power budget is in the class + subclass together. There is some for background and race but I would say both only really give 10% of the total power and as level increades it becomes smaller in genersl. How the power is distributed between class and subclass varies a lot by class. Some casters and monks have 90% of the class/subclass power budget in the class, while some martials can have 30% (depending on level) in the subclass.
Of course power budget can also be in general feats (like in 4e or 3.5) ehich you can select at specific levels.
And subclasses can also be different than in 5E.
The power budget of something decides how influential this aspect can be. Like how in 5e in the discussion many said that its hard to make a strong 5e pet subclass, because subclasses cant grant too much power (small power budget).
What I like:
To give you an example of what I want to discuss:
I do not like having aspects with a really small power budget. Either its here and remarkable or its not here at all.
So race and background should be remarkable which means roughly 15% power budget. This is similar to what in D&D 4e character theme and race has in a low level (lets say around 7). On lower level in 4e it was higher but in high level it becomes quite a bit weaker.
I like classes giving a clear identity so it should give the biggest contribution so something like 30-40%
Subclass for me should still make a difference (but "subclass" could also mean specific class featline choices in pf2 or tslent choices in 13th age). So roughly 25-30%
My Favourite in how this is handled would be something like the 4e monk which gave the main class "striker feature" but esch gave a different secondary stat and also secondary role.
So if you sre a monk you are always dex based and a striker (mobile + high damage) but depending on dubclass you have a different secondary attribute (strength, wis, con or cha) and with it also a different secondary focus (more controll, more defense, more pure damage).
I prefer if this power budget is the same for all classes, since this allows easier comparison. Or in 5e if this was the case it could allow subclasses to be shared between different classes if they had the same power budget.
What do you like?
The inspiration of this post was the discussion about pet subclasses in 5E alto Payn in the pf1 vs pf2 discussion reminded me sgain about this. Different Systems have the power distributed differently sometimes there is a lot of power in some choices like class or subclasses, somwtimes some choices can make almost no difference.
What I want to know is: How would you distribute the power of a character between its different choices?
Explanation:
Powerbudget only makes sense when we speak about games which are balanced.
So the designers want specific aspects of characters to have a specific powerlevel. As one example that all races be roughly equally strong. And this power level is a fraction of the total power of a character. So in D&D normally the class plays a much higher role than the race so the power budget of the class is higher.
When it comes to 5E we have class, subclass, race, background and attributes as first choices. Of course they can bring further choices with them (like a class or background can give you the choice of skills, or of spells etc).
I would have choices granted by an aspect (class or race etc) as part of zheir power budget. This means that stat increases/fests are part of the class as well.
Starting statsbI noemally see part of the class and subclass (dince you need specific ones to work) but this can be seen differently.
So how would you in your perfect D&D like want to see this power budgets distributed?
100% in the class would mean no subclassed, bsckground is just flavour snd race would be a class.
In 5E most power budget is in the class + subclass together. There is some for background and race but I would say both only really give 10% of the total power and as level increades it becomes smaller in genersl. How the power is distributed between class and subclass varies a lot by class. Some casters and monks have 90% of the class/subclass power budget in the class, while some martials can have 30% (depending on level) in the subclass.
Of course power budget can also be in general feats (like in 4e or 3.5) ehich you can select at specific levels.
And subclasses can also be different than in 5E.
The power budget of something decides how influential this aspect can be. Like how in 5e in the discussion many said that its hard to make a strong 5e pet subclass, because subclasses cant grant too much power (small power budget).
What I like:
To give you an example of what I want to discuss:
I do not like having aspects with a really small power budget. Either its here and remarkable or its not here at all.
So race and background should be remarkable which means roughly 15% power budget. This is similar to what in D&D 4e character theme and race has in a low level (lets say around 7). On lower level in 4e it was higher but in high level it becomes quite a bit weaker.
I like classes giving a clear identity so it should give the biggest contribution so something like 30-40%
Subclass for me should still make a difference (but "subclass" could also mean specific class featline choices in pf2 or tslent choices in 13th age). So roughly 25-30%
My Favourite in how this is handled would be something like the 4e monk which gave the main class "striker feature" but esch gave a different secondary stat and also secondary role.
So if you sre a monk you are always dex based and a striker (mobile + high damage) but depending on dubclass you have a different secondary attribute (strength, wis, con or cha) and with it also a different secondary focus (more controll, more defense, more pure damage).
I prefer if this power budget is the same for all classes, since this allows easier comparison. Or in 5e if this was the case it could allow subclasses to be shared between different classes if they had the same power budget.
What do you like?
