PDA

View Full Version : Balance: DnD 3.5e vs. WoT d20



Crel
2009-09-08, 09:58 PM
I've got two questions:

1) Which is more balanced, Wheel of Time d20 or regular DnD 3.5. I'm inclined to believe WoT, 'cause there's less random "holy ****!" stuff that magic can do.

2) If I used a WoT magic character in normal DnD 3.5e, how effective/ineffective would they be? I ask because, while they don't have etherealness-style cheese (at least just by the rulebook) they can do pretty much whatever they want with many weaves (harden air to gag and suffocate someone, v/ difficult to be broken out of, etc) and they have BALEFIRE. Which can kill elder gods (Theoretically, of course. The DM may have a word or two on that.).

Hzurr
2009-09-09, 10:20 AM
1) WoT is exceptionally unbalanced. Casters (channelers, whatever you want to call them) are exceptionally more powerful than non-channelers. It's not even close. However, it's also very accurate to the books.

2) I don't feel like they would mix well at all. The channellers can do some pretty ridiculous stuff thanks to the fluff from the books (No offensive spells? Open up a gate sideways, and split the people in two with the razor sharp edge). Also, the way defenses work are very different, because WoT doesn't have a lot of magic items or anything, which is why defensive scores are built into the class.

Voldecanter
2009-09-09, 11:05 AM
Just remember if you have an Aes Sedai Initiate in your WOT Party and they do use their weaves offensively against normal people ,(you even must stop and think about killing murderers that may kill you) , or they break anything under the oath rod (even if they haven't taken the oath rod) , some of your sisters may come after you .

and some of the more powerful weaves are considered [lost] so basically that's the book telling your dm not to let you use them .

Crel
2009-09-09, 09:27 PM
I still kinda want to convince my DM for 3.5e (once he finally starts a campaign again...) to let me use an Asha'man, ask if I can just have all weaves available/all talents available so I don't have to learn from others as an initiate ('cause I'm the only one!), take Balefire, wait until the final boss, and sic' em. Imagine.

DM: In front of you is a colossal great wyrm red dragon. He is very angry at being awakened by the Cult of the Dragon cultists, but thinks that you did it. The cultists convince him that you want to manipulate him, and they all attack. What the hell do you do?

Everyone but me: Oh ****.

Me: One weave. Balefire. I OHKO him. I win. Hand over the treasure and xps.

DM: Uh... When/why/how did I let you use this?

Me: At the beginning of the game. Also, I overchanneled it so that everything he did for the past year was erased because you let me use the Choedan Kal and have a cohort that can use the pair and we linked. So, yeah. Everything dies, I win.

*Everyone groans*

Sooo tempting... And actually, compared to Wizard "I rules the universe and create the internet" (Yes, I've seen it done) mayhem, this isn't too extreme. But balance-wise, yeah. Its ordinary madness.

cupkeyk
2009-09-10, 01:57 AM
When we played WoT some eight years ago, I played an Aes Sedai with only warding abilities. I was level 1. We came across one of those nazghul rip-offs which was obviously above our challenge rating capabilities. Regardless, instead of running away as was obviously the choice for plot development, we killed the thing. I placed three wards around the thing so it can't move from its square (unless it digs or flies, which it can't). We started crossbowing it to death. Villagers started joining in with rocks and rotten vegetable matter.

I think we levelled up twice. Humiliating death for that whatever.

WoT is definitely on the unbalanced side of the spectrum.

Fizban
2009-09-10, 05:32 AM
My first thought: huh what?

Yeah, everyone above's got it right. WoT RPG is horribly unbalanced, and only mitigated somewhat by how the unbalance is totally canon. Mixing it with DnD just doesn't work even if they use the same dice and level mechanics.

Now, there are plenty of DnD spells which could substitute for WoT spells, it's just that you won't act anything like a WoT caster would. You won't be wrapping people in air for auto-win at 1st level, and you can't pull something like it even with a save till mid level. You can however kill stuff plenty good whenever. Flame Blade and Earth Reaver would both fit quite nicely for example. So if you want to try and make a DnD approximation, we can probably find some spells to substitue. Even better would be using psionics, which can do the augmenting far better, but I don't know nearly as many powers as I do spells.

As for Baelfire, you'd have to cut out the time twisting most likely. Without time twisting it's probably a 7th or 8th level reflex save or die that works on anything, with no effect on a failed save. With time twisting you can bump that up to 9th and give it one round of undoing, with a note that tells the DM to start keeping track of stuff round by round for easy reversal. Epic version is epic.