Overclocking Eberron

[TotallyNotEvil]

So, being utterly unable to do worldwide geography, I realize it's much easier to simply plop the handcrafted regions in a well estabilished setting, and Eberron has a great many similarities to what I was aiming for anyway.

However, I was envisioning a world where your average, if well trained, City Guard/Soldier would be a Warrior 3 or thereabouts, with experience, talent or extraordinary training (say, Knights, whom are trained since they can walk) making one reach around 6th level without too much trouble, give or take depending on the area. An adult peasant, dirt farmer really, would be Commoner 2.

PC levels instead of NPC ones would further distinguish the great from the rifraff without bloating them with levels.

So a Guard Captain in a decently sized town is probably a Fighter 6 or so, to give an idea, but higher levels are achievab,e by people with both talent and the circunstances to make use of it, say up to level 9.

However, I note someone level 6 would be considered a well known hero by Eberron's standards, or at least something of a celebrity.

Is simply bumping the standard across the board a viable strategy to fix this dissonance? Or would it inherently break the premise/setting? Note that I'm not talking about raising the bar wholesale, no epic commoners for every 25k people, just bumping the "achievable level to your average person" to 3~6 instead of 1~3. People 10+ are still rare, Bishops and Royal Wizards and such.

I'd like to run a campaign starting by 6~8, which in default Eberron seems to be not really plausible (in the sense of being consistent with the setting).

[ExLibrisMortis]

It should be fine, as long as you have a good cover when the PCs ask why [army x] has never cleared [monster den y] with its superior 6th-level commandos. Make sure monsters are raised to match NPCs, and make sure that what the NPCs are doing matches their new skill level, either by raising DCs or by making NPCs do more/better work. I doubt the PCs will notice if you keep the NPCs a little overqualified, though.

[DeTess]

I'd like to run a campaign starting by 6~8, which in default Eberron seems to be not really plausible (in the sense of being consistent with the setting).

Is there some very specific reason the campaign can't start with a band of already seasoned adventurers? I personally don't see any reason why 'Standard people can't exceed level 3' means that your campaign can't start at level 8.

[TotallyNotEvil]

It should be fine, as long as you have a good cover when the PCs ask why [army x] has never cleared [monster den y] with its superior 6th-level commandos. Make sure monsters are raised to match NPCs, and make sure that what the NPCs are doing matches their new skill level, either by raising DCs or by making NPCs do more/better work. I doubt the PCs will notice if you keep the NPCs a little overqualified, though.
Yeah, monsters would get the same treantment. I do some optimization to the NPCs anytime I run a premade adventure, uneven ability scores and the Tarrasque having 6x Toughness irks me :smallwink:

Is there some very specific reason the campaign can't start with a band of already seasoned adventurers? I personally don't see any reason why 'Standard people can't exceed level 3' means that your campaign can't start at level 8.
It's more due to the specific bit of homebrew I'm putting in, and and the campaign I'm planning on, it works much better with them working their way up.

[DeTess]

It's more due to the specific bit of homebrew I'm putting in, and and the campaign I'm planning on, it works much better with them working their way up.

Ah, okay. In that case, I reckon you'll be fine if you follow Ex-libris Mortis's suggestions.

[Nifft]

The Last War was 5 years ago. There could be an arbitrary number of veterans within that level range, and it wouldn't break the setting.

But it's also possible that the PCs are in fact famous -- ask them how they got famous, what their big accomplishment was (as a group or as individuals), and why they aren't satisfied with that accomplishment.

[Togath]

Doesn't the Eberron campaign setting actually suggest upping npc levels anyway?

[TotallyNotEvil]

I'm also considering giving templates instead of levels as a way to make things more competitive while avoiding more level bloating. Instead of a Cleric 17 for a High Priest, a Cleric 15 with the Saint template, and so on.

[Prime32]

However, I note someone level 6 would be considered a well known hero by Eberron's standards, or at least something of a celebrity.
[...]
I'd like to run a campaign starting by 6~8, which in default Eberron seems to be not really plausible (in the sense of being consistent with the setting).Eh... a level 6 character is close to the peak of what real-world humans can accomplish, but just being good doesn't mean the whole world knows about it - fame only comes when you do something that catches peoples' attention. If House Kundarak hires you to penetrate an old vault and you do it with flying colours, then word will spread within that branch of House Kundarak and maybe some of their business associates, but not much further. If you do a job for the Dark Lanterns then almost no one is going to find out, and if they do they won't admit it in public.

Also, while Eberron doesn't have a lot of high-level characters, it does have advanced travel and communications, even newspapers. That is, information on mid- and high-level characters is widely available, which makes a lv6 character's feats seem less impressive even if they're above what most people can do.

[Sagetim]

I think the setting would work fine with what you're suggesting. After all, having a reliable number of clerics around who can cast Remove Disease would do a lot if they work hand in hand with Epidemeologists to figure out the root causes and work to treat plagues before they spread. Given the whole 'industrialization, progress, investigation, learning' feel that Ebberon put off to me while reading rulebooks for it, the main adjustments would be a bump in qualify of life.

Third level spells offer some convenience factors like that, and as long as you're fine with the players being justified in assuming that there's a least one cleric in town who can cast lesser restoration and remove disease and what not on them, then there's not much problem. Mind, they might still have to wait a day for the cleric to prep those spells instead of create food and water (that they use for charity work) or they might have to get in line (behind others who have been waiting patiently for cures to their syphillis or what have you), or negotiate with the cleric to get them to prioritize casting for the party (possibly with a donation to the church commiserate with the going rate of spellcasting laid out in the player's handbook).

Ultimately, tipping npcs up to the point of being able to cast some higher level spells just makes the world more convenient for your players, if you're fine with that, all's good. The monsters don't necessarily need to be adjusted, because people got things to do. Even if there's a dedicated commando team whose sole purpose is to monster hunt, they aren't going to clear all the monsters in the land solo. As mentioned, the Last War annihilated vast swaths of the population (more than simple decimation) so, again, as mentioned, there's bound to be a lot of places that have been abandoned where monsters now reside.

The biggest winners are going to be npc crafters, who can now more reliably pump out items. Magewrights in particular will reliably have access to spells (if I recall their chart right, they only start getting spells after level 2 or 3 or something, instead of at 1). Increased Craft ranks, increased spell access, and a spell list dedicated to crafting stuff will make your mildly higher level Magewright npcs an economic force to be reckoned with. In the end, you could well be justified in having certain goods be either always in stock when their stock might be in question in other games, or overabundant to the point of market over saturation and prices falling on the items. This isn't as much of a problem if npcs are making items on commision (like how smiths to in most dnd games for weapons and armor), but in Ebberon the idea of mass production of goods and possibly assembly line construction seem like they are either taking form or primed to break into the economic scene. Your players may never think about it, but they may be happy that chain is higher quality and cheaper, or that tindertwigs are sold in packs of 20 for a gold or something.

Having a higher level world can drive different kinds of stories, if you want it to, is my point. Maybe the alchemists in town need new sources of cheap materials to make tindertwigs with so they can start undercutting their competition with the 20pack for 1 gold thing I was talking about. Maybe they hire the players to scout such locations out, or already have a place in mind but need the players to clear the monsters. Handsome rewards (and some tindertwigs) await!

[Nifft]

Magewrights in particular will reliably have access to spells (if I recall their chart right, they only start getting spells after level 2 or 3 or something, instead of at 1).

A 1st level Magewright can cast 0th and 1st level spells.

[Sagetim]

A 1st level Magewright can cast 0th and 1st level spells.

oh, nice, does 3 to 6 get the to 2nd or third level spells?

[ZamielVanWeber]

Magewright gets 0 2nd level spells at 4th and 0 3rd at 8th. I actually like how Magewright learns spells. I am understanding why it was not made available ad a 9th but am still sad it was not.