Player Flexibility Settings

[Gwazi Magnum]

Basically me and some others are talking about good ways to give players more flexibility in D&D.
(Power level concerns being balanced out by the DM simply ramping up encounters).

And so far we've considered the following used in combination.

1. Pathfinder and 3.5 all are viable

More resources the better, plus this seems an accepted norm in most campaigns anyways.

2. Gestalt + An additional free racial progression from savage species

Gestalt makes it so one isn't locked into to one stereotypical class role, and the racial progression gives access to more unique races for story and campaign enhancement.

[GilesTheCleric]

Having a free racial progression is an excellent idea, since it means that players aren't effectively capped to LA+3 races.

In my last campaign, I also did away with all alignment requirements save for classes/PrCs that had an "ex-class" section, although I don't remember if any of the players took advantage of that. Other changes:

-removed the multiclassing xp penalty (does anyone play with that?)
-no multiclassing drawbacks for classes like monk, paladin, etc.
-allowed characters to re-train one level per in-game year
-stated that the necrotic cradle and the gates of dawn were both extant
-coins weigh .01 lb instead of .02 lb
-granted even faster xp progression to those behind the average party level
-all classes gain perception/its constituents as a class skill
-class skills always remain class skills after being gained as such

[Gwazi Magnum]

-removed the multiclassing xp penalty (does anyone play with that?)
-class skills always remain class skills after being gained as such

These are two we actually use as well.
It's just been so normal for us that I forgot to mention them. :P


-no multiclassing drawbacks for classes like monk, paladin, etc.
-allowed characters to re-train one level per in-game year
-granted even faster xp progression to those behind the average party level
-all classes gain perception/its constituents as a class skill

These I also like though. :)


-stated that the necrotic cradle and the gates of dawn were both extant
-coins weigh .01 lb instead of .02 lb

Though I had no idea that coins even had an official weight. :/
Nor do I have any idea what you mean by Necrotic Cradle and Gates of Dawn (yes I did google them first).

[Rainshine]

Using PF/4.0 style skills, in that I pretty much always compress down to Perception, Athletics, and Acrobatics. Having a fighter who can't climb a tree because he decided swim would be helpful is pretty silly in a fantasy game to me.
Allowing in-game acquiring of certain never-taken feats for "free". That is, rather than spending a feat taking something that is of little standard combat value, allowing each player a chance to pick up one or two that they like through in-game means. Training with an NPC for a time, doing a quest for a magic user, etc. This might include getting them something that would otherwise be deemed a "feat tax".

[Crake]

I prefer giving players the option to gestalt rather than forcing (potentially) unwanted complications on a player, since gestalt can be quite hard. I have an optional gestalt system, which can be used for either class levels, LA or racial progression as I've outlined here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?394344-Optional-Gestalt-LA-gestalting&p=18696663#post18696663)

It's had playtesting over 2 long running games so far (both running from low to high level play with some players opting in gestalt and others opting out) and has seemed to prove relatively balanced at least in a mid to high OP environment.

It not only gives players the ability and option to progress otherwise inhibiting character choices such as lycanthropy or vampirism, it allows them to play most racial classes, and, if they're interested in doing so, going full gestalt with a scaling LA that matches most dual progressions in the endgame, while allowing decent early game dual progression (most classes upon entering a dual progression caster class only have 3/6 caster levels on each side, my system loses you a caster level at ECL 3, 8 and 12, with a final progression of 17//16 at ECL 20)

[GilesTheCleric]

Though I had no idea that coins even had an official weight. :/
Nor do I have any idea what you mean by Necrotic Cradle and Gates of Dawn (yes I did google them first).


The standard coin weighs about a third of an ounce (fifty to the pound). It is the exact size of the coin pictured in the illustration on page 168.
It's not really an important rule, so no worries. I don't think many people care about encumbrance to that level of detail (and I don't, either, really), but it's nice for those few situations when it comes up. My character sheet has that already built in (link in sig), along with other irritating small details (carrying capacity modifiers, size modifiers, non-core skills and easily-overlooked skill synergies, and a few other things). It's a useful sheet if you spend a lot of time making the most of every resource available to a character. Unless you're a truenamer, in which case my sheet has a built-in Bane:Truenamers effect.

Necrotic Cradle and Gates of Dawn are in PHB2 ch8; they're wondrous locations that allow one to entirely re-build their character, somewhat like Reincarnation. Ostensibly it's random, but it can just be random in-character in my opinion. Rebuilding characters is an important ability for PCs to have, I think, since as a game progresses they'll learn more about the DMing style, and might decide that they don't want to keep playing their fighter 10 once they've reached that level and have learned more about the game. This way, they don't lose the RP they've already accomplished and have to integrate a new person into the party, and it even provides for some fun RP... or some not-so-fun RP. But that's the way of it. In the last game I used Gates of Dawn in, my gay male cleric changed into a straight female cleric of a different deity. Her once-lover (cohort) was pretty miffed by this, which ended up causing him to become a BBEG by the end of the game. All of this RP was fun and great, but I wasn't happy with the response of one of my fellow PCs: as soon as my now-female character stepped out of the gates, one of our players decided it would be a great idea for his character to hit on mine... badly. Needless to say, having one of your long-term party members attempt to grope you the first time you step out into the world with a hazy sense of something being changed, an entirely new set of memories, and no idea of how you got there isn't conductive to starting with your best foot forward. Luckily he had a very good fort save and I rolled poorly on Mummify.


Using PF/4.0 style skills, in that I pretty much always compress down to Perception, Athletics, and Acrobatics. Having a fighter who can't climb a tree because he decided swim would be helpful is pretty silly in a fantasy game to me.
Allowing in-game acquiring of certain never-taken feats for "free". That is, rather than spending a feat taking something that is of little standard combat value, allowing each player a chance to pick up one or two that they like through in-game means. Training with an NPC for a time, doing a quest for a magic user, etc. This might include getting them something that would otherwise be deemed a "feat tax".
Giving feat taxes for free is a wonderful idea. I'm going to give every PC in my future games dodge, mobility, 1x school focus, 1x skill focus, point blank shot, combat expertise, 1x weapon focus, toughness, and blind-fight for free. They can pick up improved initiative, combat reflexes, extra turning, save bonus feats, and MM feats themselves. What other common pre-reqs do you give out? Actually, allowing a PC to pick an arbitrary number of pre-req feats, maybe 3, seems more reasonable than giving all of them to all PCs.


I prefer giving players the option to gestalt rather than forcing (potentially) unwanted complications on a player, since gestalt can be quite hard. I have an optional gestalt system, which can be used for either class levels, LA or racial progression as I've outlined here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?394344-Optional-Gestalt-LA-gestalting&p=18696663#post18696663)

It's had playtesting over 2 long running games so far (both running from low to high level play with some players opting in gestalt and others opting out) and has seemed to prove relatively balanced at least in a mid to high OP environment.

It not only gives players the ability and option to progress otherwise inhibiting character choices such as lycanthropy or vampirism, it allows them to play most racial classes, and, if they're interested in doing so, going full gestalt with a scaling LA that matches most dual progressions in the endgame, while allowing decent early game dual progression (most classes upon entering a dual progression caster class only have 3/6 caster levels on each side, my system loses you a caster level at ECL 3, 8 and 12, with a final progression of 17//16 at ECL 20)

Those gold costs hit hard at early levels, then the ECL increases hit hard at late levels. That seems appropriate, though; it's a neat system. I'll bookmark it for my next game, and see if the players are interested.

[Crake]

Those gold costs hit hard at early levels, then the ECL increases hit hard at late levels. That seems appropriate, though; it's a neat system. I'll bookmark it for my next game, and see if the players are interested.

Might I ask which gold costs you're referring to? I don't recall mentioning it at all?

[GilesTheCleric]

Might I ask which gold costs you're referring to? I don't recall mentioning it at all?

I misread/misconsidered "cost" and "cumulative cost" to mean "gold cost" and "experience cost"; my apologies.

[atemu1234]

Using PF/4.0 style skills, in that I pretty much always compress down to Perception, Athletics, and Acrobatics. Having a fighter who can't climb a tree because he decided swim would be helpful is pretty silly in a fantasy game to me.
Allowing in-game acquiring of certain never-taken feats for "free". That is, rather than spending a feat taking something that is of little standard combat value, allowing each player a chance to pick up one or two that they like through in-game means. Training with an NPC for a time, doing a quest for a magic user, etc. This might include getting them something that would otherwise be deemed a "feat tax".

Unfortunately for me, my players would reject pathfinder skills now.

My d20 Future game uses pathfinder skill rules, however.