I was looking at the Unearthed Arcana generic classes and noticed something, they are absolutely perfect for E6 play. I’ve been trying to find a good multi-classing system for the system and had even dabbled in gestalt feats, but there’s no need when using generic classes. The reasons are two fold.
A) A spellcaster gains his most powerful spells at 6th level. If he steps away from his chosen field for even one level he will never gain his most powerful spells.
B) A warrior gains his second attack at 6th level, if he multi-classes he will never gain a second attack. This eliminates completely the broken ranger/fighter/paladin/knight/swashbuckler/samurai with his ridiculous saves while maintaining maximum BAB.
It also fits in nicely with the concept of “mini-tiers”. Under this concept the 6 level character is broken down into 3 tiers:
* Levels 1-2 (commoner). 90% of the population is level 2 or lower.
* Levels 3-4 (hero/master). 10% of the population is level 3 or 4. Only master wizards can gain access to 2nd level spells, the common hedge wizards that dot the landscape are limited to minor magics.
* Levels 5-6 (legend). 1% of the population is level 5 or 6. I may adjust these numbers, as this seems to make high level characters too common. Only legendary casters may ever master 3rd level spells and only legendary fighters may gain a second attack.
Both pcs and npcs can be broken down into one of those 3 tiers. Not all legends need necessarily be adventurers. The party may need to find the legendary weaponsmith Caerlin who has a hidden forge deep in the Ice Teeth mountains. Caerlin would be a 6th level expert, of course.
To keep from high level non-adventurers being more powerful than lower level adventurers I’ve introduced the non-combatant feat. A character with this feat may trade hit dice and BAB for bonus feats on a one-for-one basis. So the ancient Caerlin may have a +0 BAB and only one hit die but still be maxed out in craft ranks.
Thoughts?
A) A spellcaster gains his most powerful spells at 6th level. If he steps away from his chosen field for even one level he will never gain his most powerful spells.
B) A warrior gains his second attack at 6th level, if he multi-classes he will never gain a second attack. This eliminates completely the broken ranger/fighter/paladin/knight/swashbuckler/samurai with his ridiculous saves while maintaining maximum BAB.
It also fits in nicely with the concept of “mini-tiers”. Under this concept the 6 level character is broken down into 3 tiers:
* Levels 1-2 (commoner). 90% of the population is level 2 or lower.
* Levels 3-4 (hero/master). 10% of the population is level 3 or 4. Only master wizards can gain access to 2nd level spells, the common hedge wizards that dot the landscape are limited to minor magics.
* Levels 5-6 (legend). 1% of the population is level 5 or 6. I may adjust these numbers, as this seems to make high level characters too common. Only legendary casters may ever master 3rd level spells and only legendary fighters may gain a second attack.
Both pcs and npcs can be broken down into one of those 3 tiers. Not all legends need necessarily be adventurers. The party may need to find the legendary weaponsmith Caerlin who has a hidden forge deep in the Ice Teeth mountains. Caerlin would be a 6th level expert, of course.
To keep from high level non-adventurers being more powerful than lower level adventurers I’ve introduced the non-combatant feat. A character with this feat may trade hit dice and BAB for bonus feats on a one-for-one basis. So the ancient Caerlin may have a +0 BAB and only one hit die but still be maxed out in craft ranks.
Thoughts?
