My Epic Level Rules
- Thread starter Lord Vangarel
- Start date
Star Gazer
First Post
Zelda Themelin said:I like reading your ideas. I like them.
Do not worry too much about game balance. It gets in the way of cool and interesting ideas and creative thinking. Keep possiblities open for what we want, rules are created for telling us how hard is to get, that what we want. Balance will create itself when you have enough wild ideas.
EEK! I can't believe you said that! Sorry, but that is just not the case, trust me on this one.
Wild ideas are an absolute necessity, yes. But the Dark Sun campaign world was chock full of fabulous ideas and you wouldn't believe the knock down, drag out arguments that go on in trying to balance all of those spiffy thoughts for the DS3e team...it's not that wild and crazy ideas in and of themselves are imbalancing, but that the gestalt of all of them interacting that makes things such a horror. Nintey-nine percent of the 'Team's' time goes into how to integrate this or that 'Sacred Cow' of Athas without letting one class or another race run away with everything.
You do not want to avoid wild ideas. What you 'really' want to avoid are those 'implementations' of those wild ideas that become what are called 'no-brainers': Those rules, powers, skills, feats or spells that absolutely 'must' be taken because it effectively reduces your character in power if you don't take them.
Making 'Fireball' a 1st Level Spell would be a classic example of a no-brainer... upping Magic Missile damage dice to 1d6 would be another one. Most of the Problems WotC has with complaint's about their new DnD system come from discovered no-brainers.
Never limit your imagination: excersize it by creativly implementing rules that aren't unbalanced in the first place.
My 2 bits.
www.athas.org for more information on the new and improved Athas
Zelda Themelin
First Post
Good basic points Star Gazer, however you misunderstood what I said.
Hehe, though I think you were upset about that 'wild ideas' part. When I read back what I said, I notice it leaves room for different interpretations.
Are you making Epic rules for Athas also? Just curious.
Hehe, though I think you were upset about that 'wild ideas' part. When I read back what I said, I notice it leaves room for different interpretations.
Are you making Epic rules for Athas also? Just curious.
Lord Vangarel
First Post
Ace32, thanks for the offer of playtesting, the rules have a way to go yet before completion but feel free to try any elements in the meantime. Eventually they should be available as a pdf document.
Star Gazer, thanks for the imput, as I have stated all along the rules shouldn't alter the core rules (if at all possible). So no changes to existing spells etc. As for ideas that are way out there then yes it's good to have these but unless they can be expressed in d20 compatible terms they don't really have a place in the rules, however one of the aims and challenges of the system is to think of these ideas and find a way of making them playable (one example being the Deity Templates).
Again, thanks for the comments and keep them coming.
Star Gazer, thanks for the imput, as I have stated all along the rules shouldn't alter the core rules (if at all possible). So no changes to existing spells etc. As for ideas that are way out there then yes it's good to have these but unless they can be expressed in d20 compatible terms they don't really have a place in the rules, however one of the aims and challenges of the system is to think of these ideas and find a way of making them playable (one example being the Deity Templates).
Again, thanks for the comments and keep them coming.
Similar Threads
