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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5866995" data-attributes="member: 54877">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: <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Cross-character sameness -- worse, every character is 3/2/1.</li> </ol>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: <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The customization options are limited enough--through numbers, stacking rules, etc.--that you can only boost one thing so much.</li> </ol>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.</blockquote>

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