An E6-Esque 3.5 Alternative I just came up with

[Empedocles]

This is a 3.5 alternative I came up with, sort of out of nowhere. It owes its ideas to the E6 (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?206323-E6-The-Game-Inside-D-amp-D) 3.5 alternative, but maybe more importantly, to the Third Kingdom rpg (http://www.thirdkingdomgame.com/) which I STRONGLY recommend you all check out.

Basically, here's the idea:

-10 Levels total.
-The experience required to reach each level is doubled. This is done to extend gameplay. This experience total will be referred to as the T.L.R. (total leveling requirement). The original, normal 3.5 experience thresh holds (1000 exp for 2nd level, etc) will be referred to as the O.L.R. (original leveling requirement).
-However when a player reaches half the number of experience points he would need to reach the O.L.R. he can choose to increase one of the following things


His HD and Base attack
His abilities (as specified in the "special" column) and spells.
His skills
His feats and saves


Once a character reaches his O.L.R. (halfway to the T.L.R.) he can choose to "level up" another item on this list. When he gets 3/4 of the way to the T.L.R., he levels up another, and when he gets to the T.L.R. he levels up another. Once he's reached the T.L.R. he can pick a 4th one of these things, and then begin advancing to the next level. Spellcasting/abilities cannot be leveled up first.

Sorry, that explanation was really, really poor. I wrote it off the top of my head. Basically, the character levels up in "fourths." It takes twice as long to level up fully, but half as long to level up partially. AH that's much better.

Edit #1: Characters gain levels at every odd level (1st, 3rd, 5th, etc). This is to mitigate the fact that leveling up the "feat" category often does nothing.

Edit #2: Considering, as per Grod the Giant's idea, cutting this down to at the halfway point getting either a chassis (HD, BAB, skills, feats) or a special ability/spell level up and then getting the other one when you finish leveling up.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Hmm. And after you hit 10th level, you start picking up new feats at regular intervals? I can dig it. Levelling up feats kind of stinks, though, since (unless you're granting feats every level) 2/3 of the time doing so gives you nothing.

[Empedocles]

Hmm. And after you hit 10th level, you start picking up new feats at regular intervals? I can dig it. Levelling up feats kind of stinks, though, since (unless you're granting feats every level) 2/3 of the time doing so gives you nothing.

Guess so. How about you get a feat at every odd level instead of every 3rd?

[Gnorman]

So what happens to feats at levels 2, 4, and 5? You just can't choose it?

What about medium/poor BAB classes on levels they wouldn't get a point of BAB? Or dead levels?

[Empedocles]

So what happens to feats at levels 2, 4, and 5? You just can't choose it?

What about medium/poor BAB classes on levels they wouldn't get a point of BAB? Or dead levels?

The feats I just addressed, but I do need to think of a better way to not make the levels so empty...

Possibly re-doing class tables? I didn't think to do that when I started this since it was so spur of the moment, but that actually sounds appropriate.

[Grod_The_Giant]

To be honest, I might cut back to just alternating chassis level ups (BAB, saves, skills, feats, ability boosts, etc) with feature level-ups (special column and spells).

[Empedocles]

To be honest, I might cut back to just alternating chassis level ups (BAB, saves, skills, feats, ability boosts, etc) with feature level-ups (special column and spells).

See...I like that less, but I feel like it's probably a lot more practical.

EDIT: So I added in a line about that. It seems like a good idea, probably more playable then mine. As usual though, I feel like spellcasters are the problem children. They don't fit neatly into this system since everything they do is based on their spells (that's all that really matters. A 20th level wizard with 1 hp is still tier 1).

[Grod_The_Giant]

(also also also, your saves apparently never advance here)

[Empedocles]

(also also also, your saves apparently never advance here)

Whoops. Added those in with the feats.

[Mighty_Chicken]

I liked it and've been thinking of something like this for some time. Good to see someone do the hard work for me :)

I've also been thinking, because my campaign will rely so much on skills, on adding an extra skill point every half TLR.

The twist being that the player doesn't choose where to put this point. The players and the DM have a friendly talk after each adventure. The DM has the final word, but the players discuss who did helpful, awesome or funny things: this characters will get situational points I'm homebrewing.

In the same talk, whenever a character has enogh XP to get that aditional skill point, the players will discuss what have this character been doing in an extraordinary, or repetitive, or funny, or heroic, or character-relevant way. That's where the extra skill point is going to be put on.

For example, if the bard survived being drowned, the group may decide the free skill point goes to Swim. Or maybe his constant concern about gold means he get an Appraisal rank. Perhaps his interaction with that NPC old lady that never stopped talking was really funny, so now his has a rank on Knowledge (history). This is my way of making players get a "loot" from exploration, social situations and roleplay, a little thing that is both useful - in a non-optimal way, because it's "random" - and a souvenier.

If the players are trying to use this feature to improve the group's "build" (always giving the monk more Tumble ranks, always giving the wizard more Spellcraft), the DM should not allow it.

[Empedocles]

I liked it and've been thinking of something like this for some time. Good to see someone do the hard work for me :)

I've also been thinking, because my campaign will rely so much on skills, on adding an extra skill point every half TLR.

The twist being that the player doesn't choose where to put this point. The players and the DM have a friendly talk after each adventure. The DM has the final word, but the players discuss who did helpful, awesome or funny things: this characters will get situational points I'm homebrewing.

In the same talk, whenever a character has enogh XP to get that aditional skill point, the players will discuss what have this character been doing in an extraordinary, or repetitive, or funny, or heroic, or character-relevant way. That's where the extra skill point is going to be put on.

For example, if the bard survived being drowned, the group may decide the free skill point goes to Swim. Or maybe his constant concern about gold means he get an Appraisal rank. Perhaps his interaction with that NPC old lady that never stopped talking was really funny, so now his has a rank on Knowledge (history). This is my way of making players get a "loot" from exploration, social situations and roleplay, a little thing that is both useful - in a non-optimal way, because it's "random" - and a souvenier.

If the players are trying to use this feature to improve the group's "build" (always giving the monk more Tumble ranks, always giving the wizard more Spellcraft), the DM should not allow it.

That's an interesting mechanic. Sounds like a pretty cool houserule to have actually! Brings in a whole other train of thought regarding advancement based on what the PCs do, rather then what fits their build (e.g. the wizard finds himself better at fighting after running out of spell slots and being forced to clobber goblins for half an adventure).

And I'm glad you like the design!