Gnomo
2009-02-05, 10:13 AM
Firstly, hello to everyone, I'm new to this boards.
I'm going to DM a high level campaign this month, and when I say high level I mean partially epic, the lowest level characters are 18th and the highest is 23th, I started this campaign six years ago and since then the DM has changed almost every year so all of us have DMed in the same homebrew setting. Almost all of us have been playing with the same characters, except for a couple of players that are more interested in trying new character builds than developing their characters.
One issue is that there are many things that go out of control at this level particularly with heavily optimized builds, and on the other side there are some players that are not very interested on trying to abuse the rules... so, I have a couple characters heavily multiclassed and some other characters who hasn't taken the most optimized choices (one is a pure fighter... go figure). During roleplay there's no problem cause they are all fairly decent roleplayers, but when encounters arise the optimized characters take all the glory and the regular characters do almost nothing, which has been a problem from a while now.
The other problem is that, to challenge the optimized characters I have to create optimized NPCs and monsters, and at this level is a bit tiring... epic level NPCs can take a while to create with all the multiclassing required, just to offer some challenge to some members of the party. I have given up on the idea of toning down the power level of the game, cause then this players complain... so I'm going the other way around... not multiclassed characters are going to be more powerful. So I'm planning to pimp up the base classes and so the players who doesn't go crazy multiclassing can have something nice and I can take single classed NPCs and challenge them enough without so much fizzle.
I said that the characters were epic, but I will not play with epic rules, those are so stupid that it hurts my eyes to read them, there are no epic feats, no epic class level progressions, no epic anything. Anyway at this levels they are so powerful that Epic is the only word to describe them.
So there are a few house rules I'm using that you might want to consider when analyzing the changes I'm proposing to base classes in my campaign:
All good saves are 1 point lower than indicated in class tables.
Characters are disabled when their hit points are less than 0 and at least their negative Constitution score. Characters are dying when their hit points are less than their negative Constitution score and at least double their negative Constitution score. Characters with less hit points than double their negative Constitution score are dead.
Racial Hit Dice receive a 1 extra hit points each Die. Racial Hit Dice receive one extra skill point per Die.
Maximum ranks in a class skill is equal to their character level.
Maximum ranks in a cross class skill is equal to half their character level.
All skill ranks prerequisites are lowered by 3, with a minimum of 1.
Characters choose two skills, those skills will always be considered class skills.
Characters do not multiply by 4 their skill points at first level.
A character can read and write in a language only if he knows the alphabet used in said language (table here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/speakLanguage.htm)).
All characters can choose to learn an alphabet instead of an extra language due to an increased Intelligence score at first level, except Barbarians.
New skill: Knowledge(alphabet). This skill lets you know a new Alphabet for every rank you have in it.
All bonuses equal to a Characteristic modifier have a maximum equal to the levels taken on the class that grants it.
All metamagic and metapsionic effects do not stack, they are all calculated off the base spell.
All characters have only 1 free action per turn, another free action will spent the use of a bigger action at player's choice (swift, move or standard).
All shields grant 1 more point to AC than indicated, except bucklers.
These are the changes to the classes i have thought so far:
Fighter
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain 1 fighter bonus feat every class level.
Cleric
Gain 3 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Lose the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells.
Lose the spell slots dedicated to domain spells.
At second level can spontaneously cast the 1st level spells from his two chosen domains. Every two levels after the second, the cleric gain the ability to spontaneously cast the spells of the next superior level from his two chosen domains.
At 20th level the Cleric gain access to a third domain of his deity.
Sorcerer
Gain 1d6 hit points every level.
Lose 1 spell slot per spell level.
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain the feat "Extra Spell" (Complete Arcane) at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, but all spells chosen must belong to the same magic school.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 2nd level, then again every two levels thereafter.
Monk
Gain 5 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain 1 bonus save point at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, this point can be added to any one of the three saves permanently.
Every 2 levels after 12th gain a new daily use of the class feature "Abundant Step".
Ranger
Gain 7 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His effective druid level to calculate the abilities gained by his animal companion is equal to his Ranger level -3.
At 12th level gains blindsense 10 ft. At 16th level gains blindsense 20 ft. At 20th level gains blindsense 30 ft.
Barbarian
At 9th level the class feature "Fast movement" increases its bonus to movement to 20 ft while raging.
At 15th level the barbarian gains "Mettle" while raging.
At 18th level the class feature "Fast movement" increases its bonus to movement to 30 ft while raging.
While in rage the barbarian gain 1 temporal hit point per class level.
Wizard
Gain 3 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Lose 1 spell slot per spell level.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 3rd level, then again at 13th level and at 19th level.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 2nd level, then again every two levels thereafter.
Paladin
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Holy Aura (su): At 7th level can, as a standard action, spend one daily use of Turn Undead to grant a morale bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, AC, saves, skill checks or grant fast healing (the Paladin chooses one benefit when using the power) equal to the bonus on the cleric level check of a turning attempt (the paladin can add bonuses granted by feats to this check but not by other means), minimum 0, to all allies adjacent to him (but not himself), this bonus lasts for a number of turns equal to the Paladin's Wisdom modifier + 3. The paladin can have only one aura active at a time, if he uses a new one the older one is dissipated.
At 13th level his Holy Aura class feature can affect allies within 10 ft away from the Paladin and the minimum bonus granted or fast healing amount is 1.
At 19th level his Holy Aura class feature can affect allies within 30 ft away from the Paladin and the minimum bonus granted or fast healing amount is 2.
Rogue
Gain 9 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain fast movement at 14th level.
Increase the bonus of fast movement to 20 ft at 20th level.
Swashbuckler
Is competent with light and heavy shields.
Gain 5 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain the "Dash" feat (Complete Warrior) at 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter.
Ninja
Gain the "Dash" feat (Complete Warrior) at 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter.
Warlock
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain the "Extra Invocation" feat (Complete Arcane) at 7th level, and again at 13th and 19th levels.
Scout
At 5th level gains an animal companion, in a similar fashion that of a Druid, but his effective Druid level to gain abilities with his animal companion is one half his class level.
Psychic Warrior
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 1 power point per level.
Do not gain a bonus feat at first level.
Gain the "Psionic Talent" feat at 1st level, and every six levels thereafter.
Psion
Gain 3 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 2 power points per level.
Gain the feat "Psionic talent" at first level, and again every 3 levels thereafter.
Spellthief
The "Steal spell" class feature works with psionic powers in a similar fashion that it works with spells, the victim loses a number of power points equal to the Spellthief class level and cannot manifest the stolen power in his next round (and also the actual round if he's playing at the moment). The Spellthief can manifest the stolen power once, the power level goes against the maximum spell levels that the Spellthief can hold, until he manifests it. The Spellthief can use the power points stolen to augment the power, but this power points do not belong to the Spellthief and can only be used to manifest this particular stolen power (the Spellthief do not gain a power point reserve when stealing a psionic power).
The "steal spell effect", "steal energy resistance", "absorb spell" and "discover spells" class features work against powers and manifesters in the same way they work with spells and spellcasters.
The "steal spell-like ability" class feature work in the same way with "psi-like abilities".
The "steal spell resistance" class feature work in the same way with "power resistance".
Warmage
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain medium base attack bonus instead of poor.
Favored Soul
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Lose 1 spell slot per level.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 2nd level, then again every two levels thereafter.
Gain 1 bonus save point at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, this point can be added to any one of the three saves permanently.
Ardent
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 2 power points per level.
Gain the feat "Psionic talent" at first level, and again every 3 levels thereafter.
Divine Mind
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 1 power point per level.
Gain the "Psionic Talent" feat at 1st level, and every six levels thereafter.
Lurk
Gain 5 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 1 power point per level.
Gain the "Psionic Talent" feat at 1st level, and every six levels thereafter.
Hexblade
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain the "Extra Slot" feat (Complete Arcane) at levels 8th and 14th.
Gain the "Extra Spell" feat (Complete Arcane) at levels 11th and 18th.
Knight
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain good Fortitude save.
Druid
Gain 5 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Lose 1 spell slot per level.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 2nd level, then again every two levels thereafter.
What I would like now is some insight on the changes proposed. What do you think of them?. The idea is not to provide another way of breaking the game, so most changes are very simple and straightforward.
PS: Please be brutally honest and forgive my crappy english :smalltongue: .
I'm going to DM a high level campaign this month, and when I say high level I mean partially epic, the lowest level characters are 18th and the highest is 23th, I started this campaign six years ago and since then the DM has changed almost every year so all of us have DMed in the same homebrew setting. Almost all of us have been playing with the same characters, except for a couple of players that are more interested in trying new character builds than developing their characters.
One issue is that there are many things that go out of control at this level particularly with heavily optimized builds, and on the other side there are some players that are not very interested on trying to abuse the rules... so, I have a couple characters heavily multiclassed and some other characters who hasn't taken the most optimized choices (one is a pure fighter... go figure). During roleplay there's no problem cause they are all fairly decent roleplayers, but when encounters arise the optimized characters take all the glory and the regular characters do almost nothing, which has been a problem from a while now.
The other problem is that, to challenge the optimized characters I have to create optimized NPCs and monsters, and at this level is a bit tiring... epic level NPCs can take a while to create with all the multiclassing required, just to offer some challenge to some members of the party. I have given up on the idea of toning down the power level of the game, cause then this players complain... so I'm going the other way around... not multiclassed characters are going to be more powerful. So I'm planning to pimp up the base classes and so the players who doesn't go crazy multiclassing can have something nice and I can take single classed NPCs and challenge them enough without so much fizzle.
I said that the characters were epic, but I will not play with epic rules, those are so stupid that it hurts my eyes to read them, there are no epic feats, no epic class level progressions, no epic anything. Anyway at this levels they are so powerful that Epic is the only word to describe them.
So there are a few house rules I'm using that you might want to consider when analyzing the changes I'm proposing to base classes in my campaign:
All good saves are 1 point lower than indicated in class tables.
Characters are disabled when their hit points are less than 0 and at least their negative Constitution score. Characters are dying when their hit points are less than their negative Constitution score and at least double their negative Constitution score. Characters with less hit points than double their negative Constitution score are dead.
Racial Hit Dice receive a 1 extra hit points each Die. Racial Hit Dice receive one extra skill point per Die.
Maximum ranks in a class skill is equal to their character level.
Maximum ranks in a cross class skill is equal to half their character level.
All skill ranks prerequisites are lowered by 3, with a minimum of 1.
Characters choose two skills, those skills will always be considered class skills.
Characters do not multiply by 4 their skill points at first level.
A character can read and write in a language only if he knows the alphabet used in said language (table here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/speakLanguage.htm)).
All characters can choose to learn an alphabet instead of an extra language due to an increased Intelligence score at first level, except Barbarians.
New skill: Knowledge(alphabet). This skill lets you know a new Alphabet for every rank you have in it.
All bonuses equal to a Characteristic modifier have a maximum equal to the levels taken on the class that grants it.
All metamagic and metapsionic effects do not stack, they are all calculated off the base spell.
All characters have only 1 free action per turn, another free action will spent the use of a bigger action at player's choice (swift, move or standard).
All shields grant 1 more point to AC than indicated, except bucklers.
These are the changes to the classes i have thought so far:
Fighter
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain 1 fighter bonus feat every class level.
Cleric
Gain 3 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Lose the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells.
Lose the spell slots dedicated to domain spells.
At second level can spontaneously cast the 1st level spells from his two chosen domains. Every two levels after the second, the cleric gain the ability to spontaneously cast the spells of the next superior level from his two chosen domains.
At 20th level the Cleric gain access to a third domain of his deity.
Sorcerer
Gain 1d6 hit points every level.
Lose 1 spell slot per spell level.
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain the feat "Extra Spell" (Complete Arcane) at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, but all spells chosen must belong to the same magic school.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 2nd level, then again every two levels thereafter.
Monk
Gain 5 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain 1 bonus save point at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, this point can be added to any one of the three saves permanently.
Every 2 levels after 12th gain a new daily use of the class feature "Abundant Step".
Ranger
Gain 7 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His effective druid level to calculate the abilities gained by his animal companion is equal to his Ranger level -3.
At 12th level gains blindsense 10 ft. At 16th level gains blindsense 20 ft. At 20th level gains blindsense 30 ft.
Barbarian
At 9th level the class feature "Fast movement" increases its bonus to movement to 20 ft while raging.
At 15th level the barbarian gains "Mettle" while raging.
At 18th level the class feature "Fast movement" increases its bonus to movement to 30 ft while raging.
While in rage the barbarian gain 1 temporal hit point per class level.
Wizard
Gain 3 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Lose 1 spell slot per spell level.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 3rd level, then again at 13th level and at 19th level.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 2nd level, then again every two levels thereafter.
Paladin
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Holy Aura (su): At 7th level can, as a standard action, spend one daily use of Turn Undead to grant a morale bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, AC, saves, skill checks or grant fast healing (the Paladin chooses one benefit when using the power) equal to the bonus on the cleric level check of a turning attempt (the paladin can add bonuses granted by feats to this check but not by other means), minimum 0, to all allies adjacent to him (but not himself), this bonus lasts for a number of turns equal to the Paladin's Wisdom modifier + 3. The paladin can have only one aura active at a time, if he uses a new one the older one is dissipated.
At 13th level his Holy Aura class feature can affect allies within 10 ft away from the Paladin and the minimum bonus granted or fast healing amount is 1.
At 19th level his Holy Aura class feature can affect allies within 30 ft away from the Paladin and the minimum bonus granted or fast healing amount is 2.
Rogue
Gain 9 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain fast movement at 14th level.
Increase the bonus of fast movement to 20 ft at 20th level.
Swashbuckler
Is competent with light and heavy shields.
Gain 5 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain the "Dash" feat (Complete Warrior) at 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter.
Ninja
Gain the "Dash" feat (Complete Warrior) at 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter.
Warlock
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain the "Extra Invocation" feat (Complete Arcane) at 7th level, and again at 13th and 19th levels.
Scout
At 5th level gains an animal companion, in a similar fashion that of a Druid, but his effective Druid level to gain abilities with his animal companion is one half his class level.
Psychic Warrior
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 1 power point per level.
Do not gain a bonus feat at first level.
Gain the "Psionic Talent" feat at 1st level, and every six levels thereafter.
Psion
Gain 3 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 2 power points per level.
Gain the feat "Psionic talent" at first level, and again every 3 levels thereafter.
Spellthief
The "Steal spell" class feature works with psionic powers in a similar fashion that it works with spells, the victim loses a number of power points equal to the Spellthief class level and cannot manifest the stolen power in his next round (and also the actual round if he's playing at the moment). The Spellthief can manifest the stolen power once, the power level goes against the maximum spell levels that the Spellthief can hold, until he manifests it. The Spellthief can use the power points stolen to augment the power, but this power points do not belong to the Spellthief and can only be used to manifest this particular stolen power (the Spellthief do not gain a power point reserve when stealing a psionic power).
The "steal spell effect", "steal energy resistance", "absorb spell" and "discover spells" class features work against powers and manifesters in the same way they work with spells and spellcasters.
The "steal spell-like ability" class feature work in the same way with "psi-like abilities".
The "steal spell resistance" class feature work in the same way with "power resistance".
Warmage
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain medium base attack bonus instead of poor.
Favored Soul
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Lose 1 spell slot per level.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 2nd level, then again every two levels thereafter.
Gain 1 bonus save point at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, this point can be added to any one of the three saves permanently.
Ardent
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 2 power points per level.
Gain the feat "Psionic talent" at first level, and again every 3 levels thereafter.
Divine Mind
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 1 power point per level.
Gain the "Psionic Talent" feat at 1st level, and every six levels thereafter.
Lurk
Gain 5 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
His power point table is reduced by 1 power point per level.
Gain the "Psionic Talent" feat at 1st level, and every six levels thereafter.
Hexblade
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain the "Extra Slot" feat (Complete Arcane) at levels 8th and 14th.
Gain the "Extra Spell" feat (Complete Arcane) at levels 11th and 18th.
Knight
Gain 4 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Gain good Fortitude save.
Druid
Gain 5 + Int. mod. skill points every level.
Lose 1 spell slot per level.
Gain the feat "Extra Slot" (Complete Arcane) at 2nd level, then again every two levels thereafter.
What I would like now is some insight on the changes proposed. What do you think of them?. The idea is not to provide another way of breaking the game, so most changes are very simple and straightforward.
PS: Please be brutally honest and forgive my crappy english :smalltongue: .