Expectations of level and class features [3.P]

[Tanuki Tales]

I've been homebrewing for not too short awhile now and the homebrew competition that I'm the head of is just mere days from it's one year anniversary. The trick to creating acceptable homebrew (not "amazing" or "great" or even "good" homebrew, but homebrew that could be conceivably allowed alongside official printed material at a table) is to have an understanding of the flow behind the mechanics of the game itself and to have a grasp of the balance and way of the game. Constructive criticism can always help you in this endeavor and should always be reflected upon, since more heads put together tend to be better than just one. This is especially true when you're trying to devise a base class, which, depending on your goal and concept, can be one of the more complex of creations (aside from whole system or subsystem writes or re-writes of course).

But let me cut to the chase:

I've been pondering about what exactly are the expectations, from level 1 to 20, of a Tier 3 class (we'll use Tier 3 for this discussion since it's considered the "sweet spot" for the most part) and what exactly are the expectations for the class features gained at each of those levels? What are you reasonably assumed to be capable of doing in the pursuit of all thing adventurer in each step of your long career and what do your class features have to bring to the table in order to sufficiently allow your character to surmount these tasks?

Twenty levels though is a lot to dissect and go over; an exercise that most certainly exceeds the limits of a simple pique of curiosity and potentially the confines of a single forum thread. So let's break this down and make it much simpler:

What is a Tier 3 class expected to be capable of at 1st level? How much should each of its class features contribute?
At 5th level?
At 10th?
At 15th?
At 20th?



Thank you in advance to anyone who indulges this current musing of mine. :smallsmile:

[Alienist]

The tier system values spellcasting above everything else. From this we can conclude that it is calibrated (for spell casters) at the level 15-20 range when they are not so squishy.

The tier system values skills highly. From this we can conclude that is it calibrated (for skill monkeys) at the level 1-5 range (when skills have not yet become irrelevant)

From memory the three standard tests are:
(1) defeat an attacking army
(2) get a dragon's treasure
(3) go somewhere and use social skills

For #1 and #2 fighting is strictly optional, for #3 fighting will auto-fail the test.

#1 and #2 are clearly high level challenges, #3 (the one which requires skills) not so much.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Varies a lot depending on the class.

For example a damage-focused class should be able to

Kill a CR equivalent enemy within 1 or 2 rounds at every level break point while being able to survive a counter attack.

Meanwhile a skill focused class (let's say focused on UMD) should be able to reach the DC expected at the level. In my experiece Wands don't become reliable until level 5-6 ish so this hypothethical class should be able to reach DC 20 roughly %50 percent of the time at level 5.

[Psyren]

The tier system values spellcasting above everything else. From this we can conclude that it is calibrated (for spell casters) at the level 15-20 range when they are not so squishy.

Not quite; the tier system values options, particularly a large list of powerful options from which a smaller, focused subset can be chosen day to day. Spells are simply the most varied and powerful options available in D&D.

[TuggyNE]

From memory the three standard tests are:
(1) defeat an attacking army
(2) get a dragon's treasure
(3) go somewhere and use social skills

For #1 and #2 fighting is strictly optional, for #3 fighting will auto-fail the test.

#1 and #2 are clearly high level challenges, #3 (the one which requires skills) not so much.

If by "high-level" you mean "at least level 8 or so", then yes. Otherwise, no; the detailed army thread had a category for PCs as low as level 6, and I expect the dragon cave would also be scalable pretty low.