Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mengu" data-source="post: 5845276" data-attributes="member: 65726">I'm wanting there to be serious breaks in power, between the tiers. I'd like to see 5 levels of Apprentice. This would be where a DM could run some background building stuff for campaign. Then there would be maybe a year break in game, where the DM/players can narrate more apprenticeship stories that get the PC's to heroic level 1. The Apprentice tier is basically a prologue.From there, I'd like to see maybe 10 levels of Heroic play. This would be the meat and potatoes of a campaign, where the story evolves, PC's begin to influence significant events, develop stronger personalities, make friends and enemies, and work towards an endgame. Some campaigns might certainly come to a conclusion at the top of heroic tier. Other campaigns might start book 2. There would be a break again before book 2, where the heroes travel the land, forge alliances, gather followers, and the like.Book two would be about 5 levels of paragon play. There would be a big power jump again between the last level of heroic and first level of paragon. But during the paragon adventures where heroes help shape the world, they don't progressively gain that much power, they are sort of maxed out, on their adventuring and fighting abilities. The rules at this point would add more diversity instead. A fighter already knows everything there is to know about using his sword by this point. But he might begin to learn a few prayers to bolster his followers. Conversely, a wizard still has much magic to learn, but he has completed all he can do for enchantments, so he might begin studying divinations for scrying on his enemies (or his questionably loyal apprentice). Alternatively he could learn to mix some swordplay with his sorcery. I see this tier as more diversification, than getting more pluses.Then you could move onto book 3, the Epic tier, after either a break, or perhaps some significant event. Perhaps Tiamat tears the veil between the abyss and the primal world, and a war must be fought against an army let by his avatar. Whatever the adventure is, it might involve fighting other worldly creatures, avatars, beings of incredible power that threaten the very existence of the PC's plane. So the PC's might get blessings of the gods, or be made angels, or those with a darker side might fuse themselves with the powers of a demon, or perhaps in an effort to go all out in flames, a sorcerer might become a primordial being of flame in the process. This is all story that can be narrated to explain getting to Epic tier. Epic tier obviously again involves some significant increase in power. Those daily fireballs might become at-will. With the blessing of Bahamut, that dragonborn paladin may gain a decimating breath weapon, his sword becomes a thing of pure energy, and his will becomes near untouchable. For me, these would be the tools for epic play.So what I want to see is that going from Apprentice level 5 to Heroic level 1, should not feel like going from level 5 to level 6. It should feel like going from level 1 2e character to level 1 4e character. For paragon levels I don't want paragon level 1 and paragon level 5 to be all that different in ability to win fights. I want it to be different in amount of flexibility. I see paragon as sort of a plateau for fighting abilities, but an opportunity for developing story and additional abilities. For epic, I want a big power jump from paragon, basically with the PC's becoming superheroes.Unfortunately, I don't think the traditional leveling system of D&D can deliver this experience for molding each tier into a story. When you are gaining d8 hit points per level, a steady increase in attack and defenses, it's difficult to create power plateaus and power spikes.Throwing together some random numbers for power level (add a few zeros if you want to think DBZ'ish), here is what I would like to see:[sblock]A1 - 21A2 - 22A3 - 23A4 - 24A5 - 25H1 - 50H2 - 55H3 - 60H4 - 65H5 - 70H6 - 75H7 - 80H8 - 85H9 - 90H10 - 95P1 - 96P2 - 97P3 - 98P4 - 99P5 - 100E1 - 210E2 - 220E3 - 230E4 - 240E5 - 250[/sblock]</blockquote>

Verification