E6 Campaign (Some Houserules i want to use)

[Blackhawk748]

Im designing an E6 setting inspired by the Calderon Valley from the Codex Alera Series (i am NOT trying to replicate their magic system) and there are several alternate rules and houserules i want to use. Most are fairly normal for me, but three i have never done before and im wondering what the unintended consequences may be.

The first is the E6 "Gestalt" style. Last time i did E6 we did the "Lean Up" style, so PCs could grab features usually unavailable to 6th level characters. Now the "Gestalt" style apparently makes class features available as feats post 6, so you could have a Paladin 6//Rogue 1, but you would only get Trapfinding and +1d6 Sneak Attack, not the saves or skills. (honestly i could be wrong on this, ive seen several threads that talked about this but i never asked for clarification).

Secondly, i want to make some PrCs available for the "Gestalt" if the PC in question would usually qualify. Now the nature of PrCs makes this a very swingy proposal. On the one hand a Paladin 6//Topaz Guardian 6 is entirely reasonable. While a Wizard 6//Incantatrix 6 is still rocking some of the best features of the Incantatix. Now obviously Caster Level is still caped at HD so the above Wiz//Incant would still only have CL 6 (except for the usual culprits that break CL) but the Pally would too as Topaz Guardian improves CL. (this is the one im most worried about)

Lastly, i want to use the Armor as DR Variant from UA, but the DR is kinda unimpressive, even in E6, so i wanted to make it stack. So for example a suit of Adamatine Fullplate would give DR 7/- instead of 4/-. If i did this i would have shields follow the same formula so Sword and Board looks a bit nicer. Honestly the highest DR i pulled off was 12/- (Adamatine Mountain Plate with Heavy Armor Opt, Greater Heavy Armor Opt, a Tower Shield and Barbarian 6 with their "Lean up Feat", so a tone of investment) Now this works for that, but how screwy does this make other DRs? (if it gets too bad ill just have the DR from armor stack with similar DR, as DR x/- is fairly uncommon.)

[Drork]

Im going to go though things in reverse order.
Stacking DR = high DR values, which means that things that E6 campaigns are fighting are going to be useless. Strongly advise against doing this. DR12 means a large number of foes are never going to hurt you no matter how hard they try.
Gestalt style does not let you get a prestige class unless you have a rule about retraining levels (which is a massive bookkeeping nightmare). The classes are picked at the start and level up at the same time.
The idea of Gestalt is to empower low number groups to have extra things effectively giving a single player 2 different rolls in a party. This enables a small group to be well rounded when it comes to filling roles like tank, dps, sneak/trap finder etc. Another way to solve this problem if you have it is just give everyone 2 characters.

It sounds like you actually want a campaign that is something like E12, where you may or may not cap off any class at 6 or maybe just spell casting if that is what you have issue with.

Something which I tried recently that worked quite well was E6 got awesome stat block E8 got a worse stat block E10 had to roll their stats with stat locations before rolling the dice. This made for an interesting dynamic as far as character progression and design. It enabled myself as a DM to still be with in the rules with some more powerful foes. It also meant that E6 characters where stronger at the start and leveled off which meant that people doing hard yards would end up stronger in the end.

[paranoidbox]

The campaign I'm playing in has a houseruled E6 system in place as well.

What we do is that actual levels go up to 6th as per usual E6 rules, but numerical class abilities and spell casting keep going up to 12th. The effect is that your characters are strong and versatile enough to take on, for instance, a Chimera or a Hydra, but they're also still fairly fragile in such a way that you don't feel too confident doing it. It favors spellcasters a little more (what else is new?), but mundanes aren't that far behind and still remain relevant. Especially because we have implemented a kind of Gestalt E6 rule, where class abilities in line with the character's classes may be bought with a feat.

I'm not sure about the PrC idea. I have thought about it, but it seems like that would be too hard to balance properly and so far we're staying away from it. Of course, we're more of a low to mid-op kind of group.

I've always wanted to try the UA's armor variant with the DR, but haven't had a chance to do it. I'm thinking it would not be too strong if you let it stack, but it's true that a regular goblin isn't going to penetrate the tank's DR at all then (although, I would argue that they have a good build and they deserve it then). Also, not everyone is going to have DR 12/- (if anyone), and opponents such as hill giants or clay golems are still going to be able to damage them. I guess it kind of depends what the party's adversaries are going to be. If they're going to be facing largely humanoid opponents, then you should probably not let the DR stack. If there be monsters everywhere... well, I say good luck to them then and the DR isn't really going to unbalance things too much. (Also, mundanes really need a boost.)

[Blackhawk748]

I'm not sure about the PrC idea. I have thought about it, but it seems like that would be too hard to balance properly and so far we're staying away from it. Of course, we're more of a low to mid-op kind of group.

I've always wanted to try the UA's armor variant with the DR, but haven't had a chance to do it. I'm thinking it would not be too strong if you let it stack, but it's true that a regular goblin isn't going to penetrate the tank's DR at all then (although, I would argue that they have a good build and they deserve it then). Also, not everyone is going to have DR 12/- (if anyone), and opponents such as hill giants or clay golems are still going to be able to damage them. I guess it kind of depends what the party's adversaries are going to be. If they're going to be facing largely humanoid opponents, then you should probably not let the DR stack. If there be monsters everywhere... well, I say good luck to them then and the DR isn't really going to unbalance things too much. (Also, mundanes really need a boost.)

Ya the PrC idea seems like it needs a lot of DM involvement to make work properly.

And ya, i figured if they built DR 12 on to themselves (which isnt easy) then they deserve that, as a Troll can still get through it.

[jiriku]

My group has experimented with the armor DR rules from time to time. Our experiences have always been that it limits options for martial characters: it kills monks and TWF builds, renders crossbows, slings, and most thrown weapons worthless, and further biases martial characters towards cookie-cutter charger builds. The question you need to ask yourself is not what it does when PCs wear armor, but what it does when every humanoid NPC is wearing armor.