Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="sjmiller" data-source="post: 3372622" data-attributes="member: 17262">I must be confused then.&nbsp; In the first &quot;dead levels&quot; article you state the following:&nbsp;Just because there's not a new, shiny, sparkly listing in the Special column of the class table every level does not mean the levels are &quot;dead.&quot;&nbsp; I don't understand how gains in HP, BAB, skill levels, and saves are not a reason to rejoice.&nbsp; Those gains, and gains in spell levels, are all good things and make a level &quot;alive and well&quot; in my book.I honestly think that the problem lies not in the so-called &quot;dead levels,&quot; but in prestige classes and non-core classes that give a new &quot;toy&quot; every level.&nbsp; A level can be beneficial and &quot;alive&quot; and not have a new special ability.&nbsp; Your articles seem to be saying that any level without a special ability is not a good or fun level.&nbsp; Now, I may be misinterpreting your message, but if I am then I am not the only one.Finally, as a side note, if these special abilities are designed to have &quot;an imperceptible impact on game balance while remaining thematically consistent to the flavor of each character class,&quot; then why bother to bring them up?&nbsp; Until this article came to light I never knew there were &quot;dead levels&quot; in D&amp;D.&nbsp; In my 27 years of gaming experience the only time I encountered a &quot;dead level&quot; was when my character died.&nbsp; It's almost like you are trying to present a solution to a problem that didn't exist before you presented the solution.It's late, and I am probably not making sense.&nbsp; Maybe I am just not the target audience for this sort of stuff, I don't know.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="sjmiller, post: 3372622, member: 17262"] I must be confused then. In the first "dead levels" article you state the following: Just because there's not a new, shiny, sparkly listing in the [b]Special[/b] column of the class table every level does not mean the levels are "dead." I don't understand how gains in HP, BAB, skill levels, and saves are not a reason to rejoice. Those gains, and gains in spell levels, are all good things and make a level "alive and well" in my book. I honestly think that the problem lies not in the so-called "dead levels," but in prestige classes and non-core classes that give a new "toy" every level. A level can be beneficial and "alive" and not have a new special ability. Your articles seem to be saying that any level without a special ability is not a good or fun level. Now, I may be misinterpreting your message, but if I am then I am not the only one. Finally, as a side note, if these special abilities are designed to have "an imperceptible impact on game balance while remaining thematically consistent to the flavor of each character class," then why bother to bring them up? Until this article came to light I never knew there were "dead levels" in D&D. In my 27 years of gaming experience the only time I encountered a "dead level" was when my character died. It's almost like you are trying to present a solution to a problem that didn't exist before you presented the solution. It's late, and I am probably not making sense. Maybe I am just not the target audience for this sort of stuff, I don't know. [/QUOTE]

Verification