E6 World-Building

[Kosjsjach]

By now, I assume most of you are familiar with the E6 variant (http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-house-rules/202109-e6-game-inside-d-d-pdfs.html) of D&D 3.5, where characters stop leveling at 6th and increase in feats instead. I think it's brilliant, and does its intended job of keeping play at a "gritty/high fantasy" level.

Keeping humans and others at maximum 6th level has the added effect that spells higher than 3th level are rare. My question is, how does this change the usual assumptions of D&D world-building? Also, would there be anyone willing to engage in building a collaborative E6 world?

[Reynard]

I'm up for some collab world-building, mostly becuase now that I've broken off for winter, I have little else to do.

As for how E6 effects the world... It probably wouldn't, much. Yes, powerful magical items become to domain of the gods, and "a Wizard did it' becomes a bit less of an excuse.

Unless you provide a few methods of breaking through that level cap, such as Lichdom, selling your soul to the Devils, or swearing your soul to the Gods, something that only the most desperate, persistent and crazy would ever achieve.

Or, you can have the current state of the world as a post-cataclysm sort of setting, where all-powerful wizards and great heroes existed a few centuries ago, until something happened* and there were no more heroes like that of legend.

*Warning, cliches may be damaging to the integrity of your setting.

[Amechra]

I'm willing to help build; in fact, I'm kind of working on a setting at the moment.

One of the things to keep in mind is that magical items will most probably be less common; so look around for homebrew mundane weapon enhancements. Or grab stuff like Dwarvencraft.

[Roderick_BR]

I've thinking about using the scenario of Monster Hunter Tri as base for an E6 scenario. Guilds keep a hold on adventurers (hunters) that are the responsible in keeping the most dangerous monsters in check. Characters are mostly in the limit of human power (no high level fighter soloing a dinosaur and ignoring dozens of points of damage due to it's big HP, or high level wizards soloing... well, everything). Pilling up feats for new abilities, and making complex team work plans, AND questing for more powerful weapons become the main focus of adventuring instead of just "builds" to one-shot stuff.

[Thurbane]

Also, would there be anyone willing to engage in building a collaborative E6 world?
Absolutely, would love to contribute.

[0Megabyte]

Random thoughts:

This is probably just my opinion, but it seems to me that E6 is great for a fairly gritty dark ages landscape, coupled with a much heavier dose of mythological fantasy.

The treant is not a mere normal monster, but the ancient spirit of the forest. A normal person, or even a band of normal people, would have little chance if they didn't make liberal use of fire: enough to burn down the whole forest. Most people better off bargaining with it, or leaving the forest alone entirely. This leaves the small town at the edge of the forest, along the river, terribly cramped. Fear of entering the forest keeps loggers away, and even firewood is growing scarce, within sight of a lush, primeval forest.

It is up to adventurers to deal with the situation. Yes, they could fight it, and in fact possibly lose. If it turns out that the spirit of the forest takes the form or two or four treants... then they have a much lower chance of winning. So perhaps they must bargain with the spirit of the forest. Perhaps they must trick it. Whatever they do, it will require careful planning, for just rushing in to defeat it is nigh hopeless.

Or take the elder air elemental. Not some mere thing you can summon at higher levels, this being is in fact the personification of air. At CR 11, it is not a battle any mortal could hope to win, even as a group. For this is no monster... this is a force of nature. And when it goes mad, and starts destroying towns near the windy mountain, what can possibly be done?

At CR 12, the Frost Worm is something that cannot be defeated except by both exploiting its weakness and finding the ancient magic to stop it. Called a myth by some, only a rare few have ever lived to tell of what it can do. Legend has it that the Frost Worm wiped out an entire civilization, and made the north a frozen waste by itself...

[Tvtyrant]

It would be interesting to run it as being post 3.5 as opposed to separate. At one time mankind was more powerful (levels ran to 20) but with withdrawal of the gods from the world they have become weaker and less capable of their wondrous achievements. So magic items from the higher ups still exist sprinkled around as artifacts, and because the decline was slow rather then rapid massive attempts were made to stop it that caused the modern day; totems that drain the life force of everything within miles to feed some wizards (now dead) need for magic, overlapping permanent Hallowed places to boost Cleric powers, etc. This is fairly generic in fantasy, but the details would be much more interesting when all of your players have played 3.5 and know what things refer to. So when an "artifact" is capable of being created by say a level 10 wizard but now its as far as the moon from your reach you get an actual feeling of loss, like the world really has gotten weaker.

[InaVegt]

Imagine a city blessed by the god of water.

Blessed in the form of the decanter of endless water.

These days, a giant fountain is at the center of the city, with the decanter encrested into its center, water flowing down from the fountain into aquaducts that bring fresh water to different parts of the city. The rich and powerful might even have a tap in their own homes.

----

There's three guilds of magic, The Guild of Arcane Protection, The Guild of Arcane Mastery, and The Guild of Arcane Influence.

Each of those has an archmage.

Each of those archmages is granted a Robe of the Archmagi, ancient robes crafted by the god of magic to ensure magical balance.

----

The Holy order of Paladins has one, single artifact of their own, which is used by their primary champion on the crusade against evil. This is the Holy Avenger.

----

High level magic items are no longer loot, they are the stuff of legends, as these examples show. An everpresent reminder of the might of the gods, or whomever was capable of crafting these things.

[Tvtyrant]

A level 20 item familiar that is literally stronger then its wielder can be. The item is actually the most potent living thing in the world, and is manipulating its users into getting what it wants.

(I would make it a rod of Lordly Might or Thunder and Lightning that has an ungodly number of lesser and greater powers and the Greater Shout 3/day at 15d6 goal power)

It would also have the Detect Thought continuous as a greater power, with continual detect magic and deathwatch as lesser power. Nothing gets the drop on the item.

[Shademan]

here's one I made
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/homebrew-1
teeechnically it's not completely done. but oh well.
Didn't include the map.

[Roc Ness]

Just throwing in my lot as a helper. An E6 world is an interesting prospect. :smallcool:

I'm going to throw something brief out there, though: Be careful with the selections of powerful Magic Items in a campaign world. Powerful items with heavy relevance to a PC's line of work, such as a Robe of the Archmagi, some PCs may go to extraordinary, and occasionally unreasonable or illogical, lengths to get. Better to insert items of a value that doesn't mean a lot to an adventurer, but can still shape the world, such as the aforementioned Decanter of Endless Water. PCs wouldn't really need it, or want it, for themselves, but it could mean a lot to a nation, and hence the campaign world.


EDIT: I'd like to come up with the plot hooks. :smallwink:

[Yora]

Regarding magic items in E6: The Caster Level listed with magic items is not part of the prerequisites, but only a suggestion for the usual CL that item has regarding temporary dispelling and disjunction and such. To make a magic item, you only need the feat, the spells, and the raw materials.
And there are quite a lot magic items with a listed CL of 7th or greater that can be created with a CL of 6th without any problems. Unless it requires spells of 4th level or higher, or is a rod, staff, or ring, it can usually be made.

But I strongly suggest for allowing to create magic rings without having CL 12th. There's simply no reason for a world to have lots of magic amulets and bracers, but no rings.

[Zeta Kai]

For the record, the Hourglass of Zihaja campaign setting (see signature below) was made with the idea that E6 play would be a viable option there. The high-level NPCs are much more rare than in most other settings, & magic (especially flashy high-level spells) is feared & hated. It's a very gritty, down-to-earth place, at least in the mortal realm. Check it out.

[JeenLeen]

I'm in the process of making an E6 world and used two things I think might be helpful to make differences between normal 3.5 and E6.

1. Since there are no high-level clerics or others able to use divinations, Contact Other Plane, etc., the clergy are unable to directly contact their god and atheism is a possibility. The gods do not, except in extreme cases (so rare and easily disbelieved as exaggeration), interact in the world. Also, the clergy are not necessarily in line with their deities' belief. (I'm also using no alignment restrictions.)

In my world, one nation is ruled by a theocracy split into three sections, one ruled by the church of Pelor, one by Kord, and one by Heironneous (sp). The cleric of Kord controls the seaside and trade, and is more a merchant than a devout warrior. The only real CG God of Strength aspects are that the nation is very free (to the extent of allowing the church of Hextor to legally exist), there is an annual tournament, and intolerance is not tolerated.

2. The highest human-made magic items are those that a level 6 wizard can make, including +2 armor/weapons.
However, I wanted stronger weapons to be possible. Instead of having an ancient war that ended the age of E20, I decided to have there be True Dwarves and True Elves that do reach to level 20. These beings often avoid humans, although they sometimes trade, so the party could be given a special and rare magic item (something +3 or a good magic item) easily. To still have the dwarf and elves from the PHB, I refluffed these as half-breeds and refluffed the half-elf as a 25% elf.

I also added some recent catastrophe in their lands to keep them from getting directly involved in any high-risk thing the humans are dealing with.


I don't think I should devote time to help worldbuild, but I thought I'd share the above things I noticed work for my setting.