Zansumkai
2010-08-06, 02:00 PM
Hello, first time poster here with a question. I'm a player in a game of BESM d20 (if you don't know, BESM, or Big Eyes, Small Mouth, is a anime variant for D&D that adds a fair amount of flourish and, unfortunately, game breakage) and am eyeballing the Shadowbane Stalker prestige class from Complete Adventurer for my paladin/adventurer. When making the character point conversion, I ran into some trouble assigning +1 level of divine spellcasting class a point value.
The problem is that when BESM converted the core D&D classes to their character point system, all the spellcasters got a unique calculation for their per-level allotment of points for casting ability. Simply put it reflects that a pure casting class, like the cleric, gets a much greater portion of their power from spells then a class with only a smattering of spells, like a paladin. Additionally, each level of spells is worth progressively more points
So here is the dilemma. With the above information in mind, a cleric gets a lot more from gaining a extra level of spellcasting then a paladin, and the points should change depending on what level their gaining. Right now the solution I've settled on is rather then trying to come up with a new mathematical formula is to just assume that a full caster class is roughly equivalent to BESMs dynamic sorcerer, and a 'partial' caster like the paladin is approximately half. So with that in mind its 8 character points to gain a level of dynamic sorcery, and dynamic sorcerers gain that every other level. So we split that to 4 points for each additional caster level since they'd have to gain two to get any benefit, while standard D&D casters typically calculate their casting on a per-level basis. I rounded 4 up to 5 to reflect the added versatility gained from levels in the prestige class, and then refunded 2 points to partial casters (anyone who doesn't have access to spells all the way from 1st to 9th level) to reflect their casting disability.
In the end, I ended up with +1 to caster level being worth 5 character points, making it roughly on par with a mid/high-end attribute. When all was said and done the Shadowbane Stalker had approximately 110 character points over 10 levels, putting it above the normal power curve, but I also estimated a little high on some point costs for fairness sake.
However, my DM thinks we need to have a more accurate assessment, because he thinks on its face the class looks underpowered, and it should have some additional character points built in. I guess I shouldn't argue with him since I'll be getting said points, but being a DM myself I'm not a fan of unbalenced house rules, which is what this is turning into. Is anyone here familiar enough with BESM and the converting of standard D&D classes to give some imput on the matter?
Wow, that got long. Well if you made it this far I thank you in advance. So if you know what BESM is and have any idea what I'm talking about, I would greatly appreciate a response, even if it is just to scold me for making my first post so large and full of irritating questions. :smallsmile:
The problem is that when BESM converted the core D&D classes to their character point system, all the spellcasters got a unique calculation for their per-level allotment of points for casting ability. Simply put it reflects that a pure casting class, like the cleric, gets a much greater portion of their power from spells then a class with only a smattering of spells, like a paladin. Additionally, each level of spells is worth progressively more points
So here is the dilemma. With the above information in mind, a cleric gets a lot more from gaining a extra level of spellcasting then a paladin, and the points should change depending on what level their gaining. Right now the solution I've settled on is rather then trying to come up with a new mathematical formula is to just assume that a full caster class is roughly equivalent to BESMs dynamic sorcerer, and a 'partial' caster like the paladin is approximately half. So with that in mind its 8 character points to gain a level of dynamic sorcery, and dynamic sorcerers gain that every other level. So we split that to 4 points for each additional caster level since they'd have to gain two to get any benefit, while standard D&D casters typically calculate their casting on a per-level basis. I rounded 4 up to 5 to reflect the added versatility gained from levels in the prestige class, and then refunded 2 points to partial casters (anyone who doesn't have access to spells all the way from 1st to 9th level) to reflect their casting disability.
In the end, I ended up with +1 to caster level being worth 5 character points, making it roughly on par with a mid/high-end attribute. When all was said and done the Shadowbane Stalker had approximately 110 character points over 10 levels, putting it above the normal power curve, but I also estimated a little high on some point costs for fairness sake.
However, my DM thinks we need to have a more accurate assessment, because he thinks on its face the class looks underpowered, and it should have some additional character points built in. I guess I shouldn't argue with him since I'll be getting said points, but being a DM myself I'm not a fan of unbalenced house rules, which is what this is turning into. Is anyone here familiar enough with BESM and the converting of standard D&D classes to give some imput on the matter?
Wow, that got long. Well if you made it this far I thank you in advance. So if you know what BESM is and have any idea what I'm talking about, I would greatly appreciate a response, even if it is just to scold me for making my first post so large and full of irritating questions. :smallsmile: