Yora
2013-06-14, 07:38 AM
Recently I've been seeing a lot of E6 threads regarding both specific rules question and the still frequent question "What is E6?".
I think having a decitated thread for E6 in general might be interesting.
And to answer the most common questions right at the beginning:
What is E6?
E6 is a very simple, quick anddirty variant system for D&D 3rd Edition that also works perfectly well with Pathfinder. The only real difference to the regular game is, that characters only advance up to 6th level, after which they basically "Epic" characters, hence E6. Characters who have reached 6th level still gain XP as normal, but instead of gaining any more levels, they get a free bonus feat for every additional 5,000 XP they make (the amount it takes to get from 5th level to 6th).
Why 6th level?
6th level is the default maximum level for a number of reasons. Single class characters advance all their saving throws at 6th level, characters with a Base Attack Bonus of +6 (and only these characters) get a second attack per round, and being an even level both wizards and sorcerers have access to 3rd level spells but not 4th level spells.
Also, many Prestige Classes in D&D 3rd Edition have a prerequisite of 8 skill ranks in some skills, which a character can have at 5th level, allowing characters to take one level of those PrCs as their 6th level class level.
What about the special feats?
The guy who introduced the E6 variant system also created a small number of special feats that are only available to 6th level characters and allow them to also improve their ability scores, skill ranks, and spell slots even though they don't get any more levels.
Probably the most important are:
Expanded Casting: Grants all spellcasters one additional spell slot per day.
Expanded Knowledge: Grants sorcerers and bards (and oracles and inquisitors in PF) one additional known spell
Caster Training: Improves the caster level of the spells cast by multiclass characters
Skill beyond your Years: Increases the maximum Skill Ranks from 9th to 12th.
Open Minded: (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#openMinded) Grants 5 additional skill points to distribute as desired. (While the feat is from the Expanded Psionic Handbook, it has no relation to psionics.)
Why bother with all this?
The main purpose of E6 is to cap both maximum spell levels and skill ranks. Some years ago, one player made a comparison between world record athletes and the kind of things characters can do in D&D, and got the results that 6th level characters with 9 skill ranks can on average perform the same achievements as these athletes.
3rd level spells include a number of really nice classics like fireball, haste, dispel magic, hold person, and magic circle against evil, but generally don't include spells that drastically alter reality. (4th level spells are a bit on the border, while 5th level spells are major game changers, so some groups cap character advancement at 8th level instead of 6th.)
And also, 6th level characters can easily defeat considerable numbers of low-level enemies, like guards, goblins, and gnolls, but their attacks and defenses are not yet so high that they will always hit while never getting hit in return. If you throw enough 1st level goblin warriors at them, 6th level characters will eventually be overwhelmed and killed. Yet at the same time, a group of four 6th level characters that prepares well for a fight can still take down a CR 10 creature and a considerably number of famous monsters fall below this level of power.
All these things combined result in a game in which the PCs can do things that no normal person can do, but except for the casting of spells, they are limited to what the human body is capable of and they are not invincible. This resembles a lot more the more common types of fantasy fiction and while PCs can still gain new abilities and tricks, they never really reach an amount of power that would be simply superhuman.
The full article describing the system can be found here. (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?206323-E6-The-Game-Inside-D-amp-D)
--
With that said, I have my own first question: Personally, my games rarely make it beyond 6th level anyway. But how much bonus feats do characters actually get in other peoples E6 games? After all, you still need to gain almost as many XP rewards to get another feat as you would have to make to gain another level under the normal rules. Somehow I don't see a lot of groups actually making more than 3 or 4 bonus feats before the campaign reaches its end.
I think having a decitated thread for E6 in general might be interesting.
And to answer the most common questions right at the beginning:
What is E6?
E6 is a very simple, quick anddirty variant system for D&D 3rd Edition that also works perfectly well with Pathfinder. The only real difference to the regular game is, that characters only advance up to 6th level, after which they basically "Epic" characters, hence E6. Characters who have reached 6th level still gain XP as normal, but instead of gaining any more levels, they get a free bonus feat for every additional 5,000 XP they make (the amount it takes to get from 5th level to 6th).
Why 6th level?
6th level is the default maximum level for a number of reasons. Single class characters advance all their saving throws at 6th level, characters with a Base Attack Bonus of +6 (and only these characters) get a second attack per round, and being an even level both wizards and sorcerers have access to 3rd level spells but not 4th level spells.
Also, many Prestige Classes in D&D 3rd Edition have a prerequisite of 8 skill ranks in some skills, which a character can have at 5th level, allowing characters to take one level of those PrCs as their 6th level class level.
What about the special feats?
The guy who introduced the E6 variant system also created a small number of special feats that are only available to 6th level characters and allow them to also improve their ability scores, skill ranks, and spell slots even though they don't get any more levels.
Probably the most important are:
Expanded Casting: Grants all spellcasters one additional spell slot per day.
Expanded Knowledge: Grants sorcerers and bards (and oracles and inquisitors in PF) one additional known spell
Caster Training: Improves the caster level of the spells cast by multiclass characters
Skill beyond your Years: Increases the maximum Skill Ranks from 9th to 12th.
Open Minded: (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#openMinded) Grants 5 additional skill points to distribute as desired. (While the feat is from the Expanded Psionic Handbook, it has no relation to psionics.)
Why bother with all this?
The main purpose of E6 is to cap both maximum spell levels and skill ranks. Some years ago, one player made a comparison between world record athletes and the kind of things characters can do in D&D, and got the results that 6th level characters with 9 skill ranks can on average perform the same achievements as these athletes.
3rd level spells include a number of really nice classics like fireball, haste, dispel magic, hold person, and magic circle against evil, but generally don't include spells that drastically alter reality. (4th level spells are a bit on the border, while 5th level spells are major game changers, so some groups cap character advancement at 8th level instead of 6th.)
And also, 6th level characters can easily defeat considerable numbers of low-level enemies, like guards, goblins, and gnolls, but their attacks and defenses are not yet so high that they will always hit while never getting hit in return. If you throw enough 1st level goblin warriors at them, 6th level characters will eventually be overwhelmed and killed. Yet at the same time, a group of four 6th level characters that prepares well for a fight can still take down a CR 10 creature and a considerably number of famous monsters fall below this level of power.
All these things combined result in a game in which the PCs can do things that no normal person can do, but except for the casting of spells, they are limited to what the human body is capable of and they are not invincible. This resembles a lot more the more common types of fantasy fiction and while PCs can still gain new abilities and tricks, they never really reach an amount of power that would be simply superhuman.
The full article describing the system can be found here. (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?206323-E6-The-Game-Inside-D-amp-D)
--
With that said, I have my own first question: Personally, my games rarely make it beyond 6th level anyway. But how much bonus feats do characters actually get in other peoples E6 games? After all, you still need to gain almost as many XP rewards to get another feat as you would have to make to gain another level under the normal rules. Somehow I don't see a lot of groups actually making more than 3 or 4 bonus feats before the campaign reaches its end.