prosfilaes
Adventurer
I'm starting a new thread from http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/299069-what-world-needs-e6-book-format-4.html
To focus this, let me start with my thesis: that in an E6 game, high level monsters need to be pruned back, or the very nature of the game world will change.
I don't buy it. Again, most TSR settings have high-level characters running around, and powerful magic armor and weapons suitable for humans around.
Setting is more than what they would do normally. It is the perilous situation the characters find themselves in *right now*.
To focus this, let me start with my thesis: that in an E6 game, high level monsters need to be pruned back, or the very nature of the game world will change.
Really, humans aren't the apex predators: the PCs are.
I don't buy it. Again, most TSR settings have high-level characters running around, and powerful magic armor and weapons suitable for humans around.
Orcs are perfect E6 villains. I have a hard time believing that E6-leveled orcs attacked Waterdeep, because the high-level mages in Waterdeep could stomp them into the ground long before they got to the city gates without any risk to themselves.The Orcs do come out of the mountains and attack Waterdeep.
Elminster is one of the big complaints about Forgotten Realms as it is, because he takes away from what the PCs can do. If you have an Elminster-like character, how much more is he going to remind PCs that they are toys and everything really important is done by the DM's NPCs.If it weren't for the archmage protectors backed by their deity Mystra, and others;
But humans can kill orcs in an E6 world. They can't effectively kill dragons.Orcs are just one example. Ogres are another. Hobgoblins. And, yes, Dragons.
And the repeated complaint is that these stats are pointless and a waste of space. If you want the Monster Manual, you know where to find it. In any case, whether or not you need these stats in the E6 book is appropriate for the original thread, and not something I want to argue here.But the gods have stats in D&D, including two books focused on them: FR's faiths & Pantheons, and of course Deities and Demigods. Heck, Monte Cook's Call of Cthulhu d20 has a set of stats for Azathoth of all things (and the other Mythos members, like Cthulhu and Nyarlethotep), and I guarantee you no PC of a regular game will fight that guy for more than a round.
Setting is more than what they would do normally. It is the perilous situation the characters find themselves in *right now*.
Dynamite (invented 1867) is a touch anachronistic. Even large barrels of gunpowder are repeated controversy on these boards, and those are contemporary with some of the PHB's equipment.Maybe they just have to use dynamite on the Lonely Mountain, cave in the roof and crush the dragon.
The Macguffin hunt. It's doable, but you don't really need stats for the dragon, and you can't really do it more then once, maybe twice a campaign.Maybe they could quest for an artifact that could open a portal to the plane of water and *drown* the fire-breathing dragon. Maybe they need to make a pact with the Frost Giant Jarl, who sits on his throne in Jotunheim waiting to fight Thor at Ragnarok.
I never said that; what I said was that high-level creatures, above CR10 or CR12, are generally unkillable and don't really need stats. It's no longer good enough to explain why they don't unify to conquer; a single adult red dragon can control as much territory as it likes with no resistance from humans. A cloud giant controlling an area needs MacGuffins or an extreme plan to deal with. A small group of fire giants could exercise control over half a continent, and there's nothing in their description to explain why they wouldn't.Saying "it's E6: so there isn't anything beyond 6HD" doesn't make a good game, and it isn't E6.