Idle Musings: Class Power Progression

[Crazy Jerome]

Assuming a game where attack bonus and defenses do not automatically scale, sharply, is it possible to get more usage out of a class power progression built on accumulating minor but new abilities that gradually get better? How much "power" customization do you need to make this work?

For an example (which didn't much work in its own context, IMO), consider the ranger favored enemy mechanic where the ranger spreads out his favored enemy bonus every few levels, but increases the earlier bonuses at the same time. First level might be +1 versus goblins. At 5th, the ranger bumps that up to +2, and also picks up +1 against a new group. That's fine as far as it goes. However, between the first choices being made first and the later choice never going very high, the last few groups might as well have not been on there. A +1 against "my fourth or fifth most likely enemy" at high levels hasn't been very impressive.

This did not much work because it is pretty much the complete opposite of what spellcasters got: New abilities that are powerful and spiffy--and oh, we'll throw in a few extra shots of your lower level abilities, which just got better too. Power compounds (thus a great deal of what leads to "quadratic wizard).

4E got around part of this problem by providing a floor for any adventurer. No matter what, you get this baseline of ability, through the +1 per 2 levels boost. There are some niche objections to that, but by far the biggest objection has been against"getting better at everything."

But what if all abilities are pretty much on something like the old ranger favored enemy power progression? Not that they all gain "+1 every few levels and pick up a new one at the same time at +1," but that older abilities get stronger and newer ones come in weak? In a system where the scaling is sharp, why even bother. But in a system where the scaling is more narrow, those weaker abilities might have some niche uses.

The trick to this is also a way to "split the baby" on the "casters are magically wonderful" and the "casters should be sharply limited" camps. Namely, casters would start out sharply limited, and grow magically wonderful over time. However, things pulled in later would be more limited.

For example, say this is done by something similar to the "schools" that have been in several versions. A wizard starts out not like a 3E sorcerer, nor a 3E wizard, not a 2E specialist, but rather picks a couple of schools only. The wizard progresses in those. After a few levels, the wizard continues to get better in those, but picks up a new school, appropriately weak for just having started it. It's not compounded power, but situationally useful, and an investment in later levels--like the ranger's second favored enemy pick.

Next post, some key mitigating factors for customization ...

 

[Crazy Jerome]

So we've got slower scaling making relatively weak, new abilities still worth having. And we've made every class conform roughly to that pattern to maintain some rough balance over levels. That leaves two major problems:

1. Internal character sameness -- not as bad as locked in specialists, but no real opportunity to go for something like 2/2/2 instead of 3/2/1 on relative power jumps, either.
2. Cross-character sameness -- worse, every character is 3/2/1.

Here I'm using arbitrary numbers to show differences in power amongst abilities that were taken earlier and have grown, versus those that were picked later and haven't grown as much. So a "3" ability is one picked early, for a character that has grown a couple of times. But see below.

You can make a fun system that so locks into power patterns, but having gone to the trouble to set up a system where weaker abilities are still viable for some time, this system would be squandering some of its potential. Happily, the answer is the same for both, class customization.


That is, the class abilities lock in the rough progression, but things like "feats" or skills or special multiclassing options (e.g. similar to prestige classes or paragon paths) provide the way to modifiy this power. For this, you need at least a couple of things established in the baseline:

1. The base class abilities are never the upper end of what is possible. Rather, they get you in the ballpark--then customization options add on to that.
2. The customization options are limited enough--through numbers, stacking rules, etc.--that you can only boost one thing so much.

So, if the base class progression of power over the first few levels is something like 3/2/1, your options let you expand that a bit. So maybe 2/2/2 is not in the cards. However, at first level perhaps you were 1/1, with another customization option which could make your power 2/1 or 1/1/1. By the time you reached a base of 3/2/1, you could have gone 4/3/1, 4/2/2, 4/2/1/1, 3/3/1/1, or similar.

(In less abstract terms here, we are talking perhaps of a wizard with maxed out ability in, say, evocation, with trailing abilties in conjuration and illusion -- versus a wizard who did not max out the early school(s) in favor of picking up another school or two. Point is, the base class abilities don't max you out, but they are close enough that you can't just keep pouring customization options into the same things every level.)

There should be, of course, some options to expand into things that are reasonable for the class, but not tied directly to the specialty. When and where explicit multiclassing would be needed to get them is open for debate. For example, a fighter might mainly concentrate on more and more powerful maneuvers, but want to slip in some options for sneaking or diplomacy, to augment some skill picks. Naturally, this would depend upon exactly how the skill systems and maneuver systems are designed.