BerzerkerUnit
2020-06-17, 04:40 PM
So I had this idea for a legendary warrior to train a level 10+ party as a reward and everyone would get Action Surge. Then I thought if a Fighter is in the party it’s exactly as good but I think a Fighter deserves a little more.
So the idea was the Fighter gets a 2 or 3 level bump as well. But that causes imbalance in the party level. So then I dig into what sets the levels apart and it seems like the major components of setting levels apart are:
# of attacks or Spell Level access (moreso than slot level)
Hitpoints
Proficiency bonus
Action economy, limited combat time, etc really prevent a lot of broken combos from being brought to bear.
So it made me wonder, could allowing the acquisition of Class features without the increase of scaling elements be a functional reward.
Say you have a fighter 10, you plan to take the campaign to 20. Fighter frees a god or something, but at level 10 MCing into Paladin is explicitly going to weaken him. That’s a mechanical penalty as a narrative reward. Boooo.
So what if instead you just layer on 2 or 3 levels of Paladin Features. No bonus HP, no increase in Proficiency. Minimum spell access or none, just use the slots to smite. That’s a pure upgrade, on par with a legendary magic item maybe.
Now if the Fighter chooses to jump into Paladin he’s going in at 4th, and if he stays Fighter, he can still collect his capstone 4th Attack.
In the legendary warrior case, it means he still levels up, gaining his later features earlier, but when he 17th or 18th he can MC “for free” bc he’s already a 20th Level Fighter, just missing a few hit dice and that 4th Attack until he hits 20th.
Just a thought as it scales back the insanity of pure gestalt. I’ve started to experiment with it a little, granting subclass features that make sense here and there as rewards. In general they don’t see too much use bc the player is limited by how much they can do in a turn, but it makes for a unique character that doesn’t worry about a magic item being stolen or being a weeny through the mid levels bc they wanted a Bard/Cleric.
So the idea was the Fighter gets a 2 or 3 level bump as well. But that causes imbalance in the party level. So then I dig into what sets the levels apart and it seems like the major components of setting levels apart are:
# of attacks or Spell Level access (moreso than slot level)
Hitpoints
Proficiency bonus
Action economy, limited combat time, etc really prevent a lot of broken combos from being brought to bear.
So it made me wonder, could allowing the acquisition of Class features without the increase of scaling elements be a functional reward.
Say you have a fighter 10, you plan to take the campaign to 20. Fighter frees a god or something, but at level 10 MCing into Paladin is explicitly going to weaken him. That’s a mechanical penalty as a narrative reward. Boooo.
So what if instead you just layer on 2 or 3 levels of Paladin Features. No bonus HP, no increase in Proficiency. Minimum spell access or none, just use the slots to smite. That’s a pure upgrade, on par with a legendary magic item maybe.
Now if the Fighter chooses to jump into Paladin he’s going in at 4th, and if he stays Fighter, he can still collect his capstone 4th Attack.
In the legendary warrior case, it means he still levels up, gaining his later features earlier, but when he 17th or 18th he can MC “for free” bc he’s already a 20th Level Fighter, just missing a few hit dice and that 4th Attack until he hits 20th.
Just a thought as it scales back the insanity of pure gestalt. I’ve started to experiment with it a little, granting subclass features that make sense here and there as rewards. In general they don’t see too much use bc the player is limited by how much they can do in a turn, but it makes for a unique character that doesn’t worry about a magic item being stolen or being a weeny through the mid levels bc they wanted a Bard/Cleric.