A New Take on Ignoring Class Fluff

[Rossebay]

This is something I've been stewing on for a while, and I've finally decided to make a post about it.

The best example is this: Necropolitan Human
"Paladin" (Cha to AC) 2/Exoticist 1/Spellthief 1(or Battledancer 1)/Sorcerer 2/Spellfire Channeler 2/Abjurant Champion 5/(Spellsword 1/Eldritch Knight 6)*

*May switch out for Raumathari Battlemage 7, depending on if I like BAB or Channeling abilities more...

Anyway, so that's my build. Instead of the Familiar, I'm getting an Imbued Staff, detailed in Dragon 338, but it's a Heavy Metal Longsword instead of a staff. Sorcerer gets spell progression as Wizard (2x level -1).

This all works out to be one thing: A spell-eating, armor-wearing, spellcasting and channeling arcane Knight.

But, the abilities come at weird levels. My spellcasting progression is non-existent until around level 9. Then it shoots up every level, and my CL grows rapidly. I get all kinds of spell-channeling abilities from Raumathari Battlemage, as well as metamagic specialization.



The Point:

What if we took a look at all of the abilities gained from my entire build, and averaged them out over the levels? So any Abjuration spell that increased armor class would get a boost to the bonus it provided at levels throughout the build. Say, levels 1, 5, 10, 15, 20.

My spellcasting, what if my progression was equal to 3x Spell level - 1?
So, at level 2, 1st level. Level 5, 2nd. 8 for 3rd, 11 for 4th, 14 for 5th, 17 for 6th, 20 for 7th.

See where I'm going with this? You take a build at level 20, and average out the growth of each ability. You give the character each class ability it would gain at the same time as another class gains an ability of equal power. So, I'd be channeling spells at level 3, like the Duskblade. Things like that.

Obviously, this idea could really use some work, but I feel like it could make for a cool campaign of 'make your own pseudo-class' sort of thing.

Thoughts?

[eggs]

I think you just discovered something called "homebrew." :smalltongue:

Once I proposed this idea for a build that was actually a lot like yours. When the DM looked at what the final class would look like, there was not one **** in his house left unflipped.

Anyway, I like the idea a lot. I even get annoyed at Rangers for their weird uneven progression (not a hint of magic until level 4, then suddenly they have porpoises appearing from thin air). Concepts that aren't coherent from level 1 are a major flaw in 3e's system, IMO.

Totally unrelated, but do the quotes mean that Paladin is homebrew?
That looks like something that would save a lot of work in certain builds.

[Rossebay]

I think you just discovered something called "homebrew." :smalltongue:

Once I proposed this idea for a build that was actually a lot like yours. When the DM looked at what the final class would look like, there was not one **** in his house left unflipped.

Anyway, I like the idea a lot. I even get annoyed at Rangers for their weird uneven progression (not a hint of magic until level 4, then suddenly they have porpoises appearing from thin air). Concepts that aren't coherent from level 1 are a major flaw in 3e's system, IMO.

Totally unrelated, but do the quotes mean that Paladin is homebrew?
That looks like something that would save a lot of work in certain builds.

Not homebrew, no. Just trading out everything I can so that it resembles Paladin as little as possible by the end. I'm attempting to find a way to remove alignment requirements.


Yeah, I feel like my DM may do something like that, haha. It's a cool concept, but... I dunno. I don't like how my character just suddenly gets random abilities that he should have been developing all along. I just wish it were easier to work out.

[Mystify]

Legend (ruleofcool.com) actually does that innately. Multiclassing is done via tracks, which are basically a coherent thread of class abilities. Instead of the 3.5 style of multiclassing where you take the first x levels of various classes, you instead take a vertical slice of the class, and combine those. This results in something far more coherent than 3.5s system, and with a much stronger sense of balance.
For instance, barbarian has 3 tracks. You have rage, which boosts your attack power and defenses. You have destruction, which gives you cleave and whirlwind attack and related abilites. And you have ancestors, which gives things like enhanced healing and damage reduction.
If you want to multiclass barbarian and paladin, you can remove the path of destruction, and lose all of its abilities, and add in a the smiting track, and gain all of its abilities. The smiting track basically allows you to add charisma to damage. repeatedly. Your rage progresses at full strength, the smiting progresses at full strength, and the path of ancestors operates at full strength. your abilities remain coherent across all levels. You don't dip to get a task of a class, you give up part of your class for an entire ability of another.
Then Legend is also very amiable to refluffing. It even has guidelines on how to alter the mechanics to align with new fluff. For instance, smiting on a paladin is about channeling righteous fury. You put it on a swashbuckler rogue, and you know have a dashing swordsman, using his wit to deliver piercing blows to your opponents.
This also extends to racial abilities. There is no LA. You want to be a dragon, or a devil, or a vampire, or whatever, you just trade out one of your tracks for a racial track. Your race is now providing you with abilities on par with class features, and they will scale with you as you level. Being a special race is actually a meaningful, balanced decision.

[Rossebay]

Legend (ruleofcool.com) actually does that innately. Multiclassing is done via tracks, which are basically a coherent thread of class abilities. Instead of the 3.5 style of multiclassing where you take the first x levels of various classes, you instead take a vertical slice of the class, and combine those. This results in something far more coherent than 3.5s system, and with a much stronger sense of balance.
For instance, barbarian has 3 tracks. You have rage, which boosts your attack power and defenses. You have destruction, which gives you cleave and whirlwind attack and related abilites. And you have ancestors, which gives things like enhanced healing and damage reduction.
If you want to multiclass barbarian and paladin, you can remove the path of destruction, and lose all of its abilities, and add in a the smiting track, and gain all of its abilities. The smiting track basically allows you to add charisma to damage. repeatedly. Your rage progresses at full strength, the smiting progresses at full strength, and the path of ancestors operates at full strength. your abilities remain coherent across all levels. You don't dip to get a task of a class, you give up part of your class for an entire ability of another.
Then Legend is also very amiable to refluffing. It even has guidelines on how to alter the mechanics to align with new fluff. For instance, smiting on a paladin is about channeling righteous fury. You put it on a swashbuckler rogue, and you know have a dashing swordsman, using his wit to deliver piercing blows to your opponents.
This also extends to racial abilities. There is no LA. You want to be a dragon, or a devil, or a vampire, or whatever, you just trade out one of your tracks for a racial track. Your race is now providing you with abilities on par with class features, and they will scale with you as you level. Being a special race is actually a meaningful, balanced decision.

Yeah, I was checking out Legend a few weeks ago... For some reason, I never really put the two together. That's actually kind of funny.


Legend is a great system, but it'll be a while before my group accepts switching over to it from their old ways. They want to see more material for it before they make their final decision. Until then, I've just got to figure out new ways to refluff old things.