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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 1698686" data-attributes="member: 3820">Higher stats, for one. Since I presume that there will be far fewer items that will grant a +2 or +4 to the attribute of your choice (and in some cases, spells like fox's cunning and owl's wisdom didn't appear in the game), I grant players better stats at 1st level — if we're doing point-buy, this usually means being much higher than the recommended levels in the DMG. I've found, so far, that this means that right around the "sweet spot" of 5th-10th level the characters have stats that are roughly where they would be if they started with average stats and just added magical items. At lower levels, they have a definite edge over their foes, but that's good — it gently assuages the problem of survivability at low-level. Most everything else is not rule-based: it's judgment calls for how to enforce the idea that the player characters are special, and that they feel good about who they are and what they can do. A greatly lowered spellcaster density means that yes, there are fewer clerics to run to for healing and much fewer wizards to approach — but it also means that a PC cleric who can cast spells is, even at 1st level, really remarkable. Careful selection of opponents is also necessary, not just to make sure that you don't hurt the party overmuch by using monsters that presume the default level of magic, but also to showcase the PCs' abilities that they get from their class and race. If a fighter just picked up Great Cleave, it's time to hit him with a swarm of relatively low-HP monsters so that he can feel like a stud. (Actually, I'm prone to letting the PCs run into encounters that they can easily handle now and again simply so that they can really feel how they've improved over the years; sometimes you just wanna plow through some mooks.)This is exactly true. The quality and maturity of the players involved is usually better reflected in how well they agree on what sort of game they'd like to play, how respectful they are of each other's tastes, and how much fun they have around the table.</blockquote>

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