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<blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 3002610" data-attributes="member: 3051"><p>Well, it's more that the campaign world was designed to fit the new system, not the other way around. We wanted three very generic magic classes; one prepared caster, one spontaneous caster, and one with mostly innate abilities mixed with a few spell-like abilities. From there, it was just a question of restructuring the magic system such that they were more or less balanced.</p><p></p><p>In our experience, the Wizard one ended up being underplayed. Not that it was weak or anything (it had by far the most "Nova"/"Alpha Strike" ability), but people were so tired of slot-based casting that they avoided it in favor of the other styles.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It's not difficult to do. Tonight I can try to find the documentation on exactly how we did it, but you could just as easily use the old AD&D weapon proficiency system. This is one of the few areas where I think 3E really screwed up.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Oh, we do that, too, but I didn't bother mentioning it since we've been having that discussion in another thread on this board within the past few days.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I've always liked the d20Modern-style 6 stat-based Basic classes; they really encourage multiclassing, while the old archetype-split D&D classes usually skew towards staying within a single class.</p><p>The D&D classes tend to increase semi-exponentially in power, while the d20Modern ones are fairly linear. Also, the d20Modern classes only go up to level 10, so you HAVE to mix them if you don't take PrCs. But that's why we added the magic as Advanced classes.</p><p></p><p>The problem, though, is that few players take levels in things like Charismatic when they have the option of more combat-oriented stuff. But really, none of the players who tried this system took many non-magic classes; even the pure fighter-types thought Mutant was a more fun way to build a character.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and we had no Arcane/Divine split, because there was no such thing as "gods"; some people might claim their power comes from a deity, but it's just not true. In our cosmology, the Travellers (inhabitants of the Plane of Time) created most of the middle and low races, but retired from the "God" business long before the low races gained sentience. At that point some of the less reputable middle race members stepped in, called themselves "New gods", and became the pantheons of the low races until they became advanced enough to realize they were being conned. Some of the low-plane races (Tabiranths, Dragons, Kraelphs, Fins) were actually native species magically uplifted by the low races themselves.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That's easy to solve. Just say that you only get the extra +2 for a single class (which is exactly what WE did). If you mix Medium saves into this, do something similar for its +1.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Possibly, but that's nothing remarkable.</p><p></p><p>I can tell you, it's a LOT of work. We make fun of D&D's idea of "caster balance", but it's definitely not an easy thing to do by hand. And it really doesn't FEEL like D&D, since the end result of our system was that there were few "pure" characters. All the PCs had at least a little magic, and everyone used weapons at least a bit.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Spatzimaus, post: 3002610, member: 3051"] Well, it's more that the campaign world was designed to fit the new system, not the other way around. We wanted three very generic magic classes; one prepared caster, one spontaneous caster, and one with mostly innate abilities mixed with a few spell-like abilities. From there, it was just a question of restructuring the magic system such that they were more or less balanced. In our experience, the Wizard one ended up being underplayed. Not that it was weak or anything (it had by far the most "Nova"/"Alpha Strike" ability), but people were so tired of slot-based casting that they avoided it in favor of the other styles. It's not difficult to do. Tonight I can try to find the documentation on exactly how we did it, but you could just as easily use the old AD&D weapon proficiency system. This is one of the few areas where I think 3E really screwed up. Oh, we do that, too, but I didn't bother mentioning it since we've been having that discussion in another thread on this board within the past few days. I've always liked the d20Modern-style 6 stat-based Basic classes; they really encourage multiclassing, while the old archetype-split D&D classes usually skew towards staying within a single class. The D&D classes tend to increase semi-exponentially in power, while the d20Modern ones are fairly linear. Also, the d20Modern classes only go up to level 10, so you HAVE to mix them if you don't take PrCs. But that's why we added the magic as Advanced classes. The problem, though, is that few players take levels in things like Charismatic when they have the option of more combat-oriented stuff. But really, none of the players who tried this system took many non-magic classes; even the pure fighter-types thought Mutant was a more fun way to build a character. Oh, and we had no Arcane/Divine split, because there was no such thing as "gods"; some people might claim their power comes from a deity, but it's just not true. In our cosmology, the Travellers (inhabitants of the Plane of Time) created most of the middle and low races, but retired from the "God" business long before the low races gained sentience. At that point some of the less reputable middle race members stepped in, called themselves "New gods", and became the pantheons of the low races until they became advanced enough to realize they were being conned. Some of the low-plane races (Tabiranths, Dragons, Kraelphs, Fins) were actually native species magically uplifted by the low races themselves. That's easy to solve. Just say that you only get the extra +2 for a single class (which is exactly what WE did). If you mix Medium saves into this, do something similar for its +1. Possibly, but that's nothing remarkable. I can tell you, it's a LOT of work. We make fun of D&D's idea of "caster balance", but it's definitely not an easy thing to do by hand. And it really doesn't FEEL like D&D, since the end result of our system was that there were few "pure" characters. All the PCs had at least a little magic, and everyone used weapons at least a bit. [/QUOTE]
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