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<blockquote data-quote="ashockney" data-source="post: 397636" data-attributes="member: 1363">ECL misses the targetWe've experienced three big challenges with ECL's:1) The balance works great...at a certain point.&nbsp; When you are playing a fighter character with a &quot;BRUTE&quot; template, you're WAY overpowered compared to your peers at the lower levels.&nbsp; By the time you get above 12th to 15th, you'll be really lagging behind.2) It seems very difficult to effectively balance ECL's.&nbsp; The first example of this is the different DRAGON articles, ERRATA, and other that have come out with ECL's all over the place.&nbsp; Where do you turn for a good answer, with credibility with your gaming group?&nbsp; Another example is that depending on how you run your game, giving very specific powers to &quot;raise the bar&quot; above and beyond a certain &quot;ability level&quot; can unbalance the game.&nbsp; For example, granting a natural +6 to strength or more, sets the bar at a new threshold for to hit and damage capacity, given that all the other spells, buffs, and items can still apply.3) Balance between templates at low levels makes running a game very difficult.&nbsp; If the templates are built to give a &quot;type of advantage&quot; that works well with some characters, it may not work well with other types of characters (ie, Sorcerers vs. Barbarians) and therefore doesn't stack up very well, especially at lower levels.I've been working on a system to &quot;phase-in&quot; templates like prestige classes, and help bring a better balance to the game system.&nbsp; It's a ton of work for the DM, but it does help to address the needs for balance between characters and balance among levels.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ashockney, post: 397636, member: 1363"] [b]ECL misses the target[/b] We've experienced three big challenges with ECL's: 1) The balance works great...at a certain point. When you are playing a fighter character with a "BRUTE" template, you're WAY overpowered compared to your peers at the lower levels. By the time you get above 12th to 15th, you'll be really lagging behind. 2) It seems very difficult to effectively balance ECL's. The first example of this is the different DRAGON articles, ERRATA, and other that have come out with ECL's all over the place. Where do you turn for a good answer, with credibility with your gaming group? Another example is that depending on how you run your game, giving very specific powers to "raise the bar" above and beyond a certain "ability level" can unbalance the game. For example, granting a natural +6 to strength or more, sets the bar at a new threshold for to hit and damage capacity, given that all the other spells, buffs, and items can still apply. 3) Balance between templates at low levels makes running a game very difficult. If the templates are built to give a "type of advantage" that works well with some characters, it may not work well with other types of characters (ie, Sorcerers vs. Barbarians) and therefore doesn't stack up very well, especially at lower levels. I've been working on a system to "phase-in" templates like prestige classes, and help bring a better balance to the game system. It's a ton of work for the DM, but it does help to address the needs for balance between characters and balance among levels. [/QUOTE]

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