I don't know what the old people race is. No Akaviri, if that's what you mean.Not sure either... seems to represent older characters regardless of normal races... some info.
I see. Well, sod that. Lol. Pathfinder already has ways to make you elderly. :) I didn't know the Elder Scrolls did that.
I'd probably pass on playing as a pet. I see far less opportunity for quality role-play there. :/
And I love a good HP fan-fiction. A good one. :)
The main thing with HP fanfiction is that it's hard not to end up spending loads of time wading through crap.
I've found a couple good ones though. Not many, but a few.
Tenro, thank you for those races in the link. I may decide to use those.
well, if you do, count me in for an argonian! they're my favorite race.
Argonians are pretty cool. If I remember correctly, they were the only race that, when the daedra invaded in Oblivion, fought back so hard and started invading the daedric lands, that the daedra closed the portals to the Black Marsh to defend themselves.
Argonians are pretty cool. If I remember correctly, they were the only race that, when the daedra invaded in Oblivion, fought back so hard and started invading the daedric lands, that the daedra closed the portals to the Black Marsh to defend themselves.
hmm, i would love to read about that, where did you find that?
Argonians are pretty cool. If I remember correctly, they were the only race that, when the daedra invaded in Oblivion, fought back so hard and started invading the daedric lands, that the daedra closed the portals to the Black Marsh to defend themselves.hmm, i would love to read about that, where did you find that?
The Infernal City.
So, while I was checking my sources, I saw this line. "The Empire earned the hatred of the Dunmer by pulling Imperial forces out of Morrowind during the crisis in order to better protect Cyrodiil."
... Since when did the Dunmer not hate everyone else?
I've always felt they did hate everyone else. Perhaps that's just the thing they can point to. "See? We were right to hate them Imperials. Abandoned us, jes' like we said they would. Yeah, we were driving them out with an underground insurgency, but they still abandoned us when we wus' gettin' our backsides handed back to us by the Draemora horde."
i am interested
Alright. Lets get an official count. This is what I would like:
If you are interested in submitting a character, please state so (again, possibly). With it, please include the following.
- Gender, race, class and a one paragraph basic summary. (i.e. My character is named Two-legs, a female Argonian with a limp in her left leg. She grew up as a slave in Morrowind. Eventually he master died, and in the will she was freed. She travelled to Cyrodiil, attempting to join the Imperial Legion (she felt she would be accepted). They charged her with the murder of her master, and she fled north. Her goals in life are to survive, and to own land, preferably near a body of inland water. She feels uncomfortable around other Argonian's, that comes across as awkward racism. She loves gardening, and is great with alchemy. (female argonian alchemist))
- Tell me if you think Epic 6PF would fit better than traditional advancement. It would facilitate a little "looser" class development.
- Tell me what "storyline" in Skyrim interests you the most. Treasure hunter, Dragonborn, Civil war, Thieves guild, Dragon hunters, Grey Cowl of Nocturnal, Thalmor insurgency and politics, Companions, etc.
- Tell me if you think I should try to incorporate or just ignore - Soul gems, piecemeal armor, gathering of ingredients for alchemy, a more integral and detailed crafting system, etc.
I know I'll think of more later, lol.
I don't know what I want to play, though for skill reasons probably a bard or rogue. I've learned over the past few day I'm nowhere near how many pbps I can handle, so I'm tossing my hat in. As for system, I'd like to see sould gems piecemeal arrmor, gather of alchemy ingredients, etc, And given the wide variety of classes the skyrim system could produce, how would you feel about 3pp?
3pp is individual approval. I'd have to have access to it, and feel it's balanced. I do accept almost all Paizo (there's only a couple I don't do), and most WotC. You should have more than enough options, especially if you focus on RPing well.
Huh, let's see. I've got the germ of an idea...
Male, race (undecided), slayer (I think)
Koro Decur (work in progress :) )
Fell in love with a lass way out of his league, and to his surprise the love was reciprocated. On the evening they'd planned to elope, her father arrived and in his rage at his daughter's defiance, slew her. Framed for his lover's death, he's been on the run ever since....
Male, Cathay-Raht (big scary jaguar themed Khajiit), Martial (undecided, but certainly a class of martial bent).
"Do-Khajva is everything and nothing one expects from a Cathay-Raht, yes? Do-Khajva has claws and fury that can rend a man in half, like jaguar beast is expected, but Khajiit also keeps fine steel for when cautious approach is needed. Do-Khajva thinks slow and talks little, like dumb muscle is expected, but this one also thinks carefully and layers the meaning of his words. Do-Khajva is far from home of sands, but Khajiit is home in his footsteps here."
I feel like E6 wouldn't be a bad starting point, but I'd like some mods. :P For starters, there's talk of a gestalt system that got taken out, and I'd like such back in. The feat system seems to mostly give you more tricks and bigger numbers within your specialty, whereas ES characters tend to start growing more laterally as you begin to plateau in your main class. Secondly, I'd like the E6 to be a suggestion, not a hard limit. Things like, "Alright, seeing you got personally blessed by Nocturne, I think you earned Rogue 7." Story advances like that allowing you to slowly slip beyond the realm of mortal and into legend.
Though it didn't make it into my piece on the character due to Khajiit speaking patterns, Do-Khajva would be heavily invested in Thalmor politics, and by extension, the civil-war. He thinks his people weak for capitulating over the moons. It is the Khajiit's job to to climb upon the winds of Khenarthi's breath and set Masser and Secunda aright, should they fail. And so his travels have brought him to Skyrim, where some still stand against the Thalmor. That said, he is quite open to any of the other plotlines. There's no point being free from the Thalmor if you can't enjoy yourself with a little treasure hunting or dragon slaying on the side. :P
I certainly like the idea of piecemeal armor, but Paizo's execution means there's practically never a point to mix and matching. If you wear anything other than a matched enchanted together suit, you suffer heavy penalties for no benefit. Soul Gems, Crafting, and Alchemy sound fun! Let's put some work into this and make it special. :)
... Since when did the Dunmer not hate everyone else?
i thought they were essentially put on a reservation, that reservation being Morrowind?
Alright. Lets get an official count. This is what I would like:
If you are interested in submitting a character, please state so (again, possibly). With it, please include the following.
- Gender, race, class and a one paragraph basic summary. (i.e. My character is named Two-legs, a female Argonian with a limp in her left leg. She grew up as a slave in Morrowind. Eventually he master died, and in the will she was freed. She travelled to Cyrodiil, attempting to join the Imperial Legion (she felt she would be accepted). They charged her with the murder of her master, and she fled north. Her goals in life are to survive, and to own land, preferably near a body of inland water. She feels uncomfortable around other Argonian's, that comes across as awkward racism. She loves gardening, and is great with alchemy. (female argonian alchemist))
- Tell me if you think Epic 6PF would fit better than traditional advancement. It would facilitate a little "looser" class development.
- Tell me what "storyline" in Skyrim interests you the most. Treasure hunter, Dragonborn, Civil war, Thieves guild, Dragon hunters, Grey Cowl of Nocturnal, Thalmor insurgency and politics, Companions, etc.
- Tell me if you think I should try to incorporate or just ignore - Soul gems, piecemeal armor, gathering of ingredients for alchemy, a more integral and detailed crafting system, etc.
I know I'll think of more later, lol.
My character is named Sits-in-Shade, a male Argonian born under The Shadow in Black Marsh. As a shadowscale by birth, he was groomed for Dark Brotherhood membership. There being no major conflicts going on at his time, he finds himself with a good deal of free time as there are more Murderers than there are contracts. That isn't to say there are no contracts, just that it sometimes takes over two months for Sits-in-shade to get a contract. He has done three contracts, and feels he is on the brink of promotion. His goals are to ascend to a higher status within the Dark Brotherhood, and even when not on contract he seeks ways to improve or widen his skillset to be more of an asset.
As for class, which I haven't named above, I am not sure yet. I would like to try out one of the Dreamscarred Press (3pp) Path of War classes. Failing that, I would be looking at probably some kind of Arcane character like Alchemist (vivisectionist). If there is a form of gestalt i would have this character grow into a melee type as well and probably take crafting feats.
As for Epic6PF, I could see the system used with modifications. I like the idea but mirror the sentiment expressed by others that it tends to focus a character rather than broadening them. What i WOULD suggest, however, is that you put in some sort of pseudo-gestalt. For instance, once we reach 6th, perhaps either:
A.) Allow us to use future XP to buy levels of a second or third class, or
B.) Add in E6PF bonus feats that would give us class features of other classes. For instance, I am a Level 6 fighter already, and I could take a feat to cast spells as a Cleric CL 3 (and another feat to bump that to CL 6). Have the first of the two feats give one domain, the second feat gives a second domain. Or have a feat that gives Rage as a Barbarian, but just for CON rounds per day, then have a second feat that gives more rounds and a single rage power.
Soul Gems are an important feature of ES games that should probably be left in. These could be a significant portion of the cost of enchanting one's items, and could allow us to get more "treasure" from creatures that would normally drop very little (like atronachs/elementals).
Piecemeal armor, cool for the overall aesthetic but seems like a lot of bookkeeping and penalties to melee-ers.
Gathering Alchemy ingredients should be good, i know there is a system in place to use those ingredients to boost power of spells, that would be good. More detailed crafting system would also be good.
EDIT: I also feel that Birthsigns are very important to the ES system, and should be included. I would recommend handling these as extra RP (race points using the system for creating custom races) and having players pick their sign and use the set number of RP to do what they can to create their sign powers. For instance, the Shadow gives invisibility as a SLA once per day. Some signs would be tough to reproduce due to the PF system but we could avoid those or just reproduce as close as possible.
Thanks, Julie. :)
I was thinking of, if there is not to be a plot important inciting event that gets us together (aka, all in a cart...), I'd like to have Do-Khajva have a pre-existing partnership with someone sneaky, devious, and fast talking. A Han to my Chewie so to speak.
Also, my initial instinct was against the spell point system... Until I realized how well it could work with races/birthsigns. I'll post my ideas on refining that when I've had more time to polish.
Alright, you can start in the following "guilds". The others you'd have to find out they even exist and how to contact them, contact them and attempt to join.
- You can be a part of any City watch of the main cities. We'll sort details of what that means.
- Imperial, Sons of Skyrim, or Thalmor.
You know there are colleges in Solitude, and a wizards college somewhere, and you've heard of the Companions, and you know most cities have thieves guilds.
Only a Shadowscale would have any idea of the true existence of the Dark brotherhood, but not necessarily how to contact them. All others would think they are a rumor.
Dawnguard, and any werewolf or vampire factions would be unknown.
Consider yourselves citizens more than adventurers. It's much more interesting, in my opinion, to watch a farmer lead a rebellion than a trained werewolf mage who is part of the thieves guild. Should he join those later, that's cool. But lets start relatively normal. :)
I do play Skyrim a bunch, and mod my game pretty fiercely. To give you an idea of my game, which will likely influence the world and playstyle I present -
- Skyrim is freezing in my game.
- Mana regeneration is about 10% of the vanilla game. Spellcasting is MUCH slower. It feels more PF-ish, to be honest. Less "I'm 1st level but can cast spells all day".
- Health regen is almost non-existent. About 1% of vanilla.
- In the game I walk, I don't run in full armor across a continent.
- Crafting takes real-time. So does hunting. And I get hungry.
- Basically it's just immersive.
- Armor gets damaged and falls apart.
I did look at piecemeal armor...yeah. No. That's kinda crap. I'll think about it some more.
I'm thinking of doing E6PF, and then just allowing you to purchase any feats, or class abilities with an increasing XP cost.
So, as an example.
You take 6 levels of fighter. But now you join the College of Winterhold, and you want to do a little spellcasting. For (Let's say) 1,000 XP you'd unlock you're bloodline. You choose Deep earth bloodline, because you've learned you may have had an ancestor who was a Dwemer, and you gain the bloodline power. You spend another 1,500 XP (Let's say), and gain the sorcerer Cantrips, manifesting 1d4+your ChaMod new spells, which show up over the next little bit of time, say, one random one every 1d4 days as your Innate spellcasting power "awakens".
You clear a ruin, and head to Dawnstar to rest, where you are approached by a Dunmer saying he is part of the Dark Brotherhood, and wants you to kill a woman in town. You spend 2,000 XP and take the Poison use (1st level) ability of the Ninja class, and attempt to eliminate this woman. You fail, and are chased out of town, with the guard hot on your heals. You're party flees into the mountains, and you lose your longsword on the way. But you find a monument on the mountain, with a Khajit that speaks of the way, a form of unarmed combat taught in Elswyr. You train and meditate with him for a couple of days, and spend 2,500 XP to gain the 1d10 HP of the Brawler level 1, and 3,000 XP to gain Unarmed strike.
I think a system like this could be functional. If you cherry pick, and say "HP from Paladin 1, HP from Ranger 1, HP from Warpriest 1", you'd have a lot of HP, but would lack in other places. Lower Bab. Less feats. Less class abilities.
And to get a second level ability in a class, I'd say you have to have unlocked ALL the abilities of the level before it. So you can't go "Rogue sneak attack +1d6, Rouge sneak attack +2d6." You'd have to "purchase" all the other fist and second level rogue things.
Any comments? It means you're main six levels will likely be your focus, and shape the flavor of your career. After that, levelling gets more personal, lol. More individualized.
and would that rule remain in effect if we focused our later points on a class feature of our starting class? Say, continuing to purchase sneak attack damage when having started as a rogue?
At that point (lets say six levels of rogue), you'd work on level 7 of rogue.
yes, but i meant bit by bit picking up the next piece and not being able to continue without picking it all up.
Give me an example. I think I'm misunderstanding the question.
I'm asking if we will still need all pieces of the class level before being able to pick up the next level after that.
Correct. So you'd need to get all the 7th level options (Lets say Bab and saves are one, Skills, HPs, and each ability, plus any spells. Not sure if It should be each spell level separate or not) before you can take any 8th level options for that class. But for the fighter options (if you took 6 rogue), it would eb the first level options.
I hope that clears up your question?
I think you should refine this a little, a single hit die seems like a very tiny benefit for the xp you'd have to put into it.
Well, as I said, I'm not sure on the costs. I don't want it to be cheap. I don't want it to be stupid expensive. I do want it to get more expensive for every slot you purchase. This should make people get strategic with their purchases. If I recall the original E6, it was like 5,000 XP for each step.
Any suggestions? :)
I didnt understand your bit about the guilds.
As a Shadowscale, where would that put me with the Dark Brotherhood? as Shadowscales are viewed as "theirs by right" coupled with the fact that it is the societal norm for Shadowscales to go to the Dark Brotherhood, i figured contact would have already been made? Or maybe they're actively seeking him out and he is, for some strange reason, not in the place he should be?
also, regarding class, would Stalker be acceptable? It is 3PP, but Dreamscarred Press is highly regarded among 3PP.
Son of a, I wrote it all down and my internet crashed and it didn't go through. Alright, here's how I suggest. alright, separate the standardized bits of a class away from it's class features. The class features like stunning fist, ki powers, sneak attack etc, you have to get all of those to buy the next level of class features for that class. You have to buy both the skill package, which includes the initial class skills for the class, and the bab, saves, and hit die as a single package, you have to buy both of those before you can take the next level in those. Or you know what, separate those out entirely, I know that hit die affects bab and probably which save you get. just separate those into their generic packages with the option to buy a second good save for that level.
and as for costs, i think those costs might be high. considering a normal fight in a PbP can take 2-4 weeks, and you'll be getting a few hundred XP per fight at most, you are looking at 3 months of PbP time to get a few extra HP under what you've sketched above.
I'd say, either reduce the costs significantly, or group the benefits together.
As an exercise, take all the little things you gain from a class level, assign an XP value as you have above, and look at that level's total.
Looking at Rogue level 1, you'd said something like the following:
1000xp HP
1500xp Skills
2000xp Sneak Attack
2500xp Trapfinding
total
7000xp - damn near 4th level of a regular class.
A suggestion that might scale better, I would say something like 500xp times the level you are buying the ability from. So to get the above 4 abilities (after you are already level 6), it would cost you 2000xp, but to get the 2nd level benefits (HP, skills, evasion, sneak attack +1d6) would cost you 4000. then 3rd level (four benefits) would cost 6000xp.
ALL THAT ASIDE, i think that including HP in this is probably a bad idea anyway, at least for "lateral advancement" where you are picking up abilities that are of level 6 and below. The point of E6 is that certain things are almost entirely capped:
You should not have more than 6 HD
You should not have a base save modifier of more than +5
You should not have more than BAB +6
You should not have more than 6 ranks in a single skill
Those caps should not be exceeded except with one of the feats that are included for that purpose, such as the feat that can give fighters +1 BAB past their normal cap of +6 BAB.
That said, if you are a level 6 rogue (BAB +4) and you just bought a 5th level of fighter, then your BAB should increase to +5. same goes for saves and such, take the better of the levels you have attained in your classes.
Tenro, I'd prefer to not have contact already made.
It's the difference between "I'm playing a Jedi apprentice, or Sith apprentice", and "I'm playing a moisture farmer." Luke is interesting as a character. The Transporter (while fun to watch) is boring as crap as a character. No development. No forward movement. Just bad-assing all over. Luke gets to hold a light-saber for the first time. He gets to learn about the Force. Starting out as an assassin to me is like starting at the finish line. Luke's whole goal was he wanted to get off world. Spend time with his friends. He became an apprentice, and then a Jedi. And he was a pilot as well. He grew into it, rather than starting as it.
Having an Argonian that wanted to be a Shadowscale, like his great-uncle, but really he just sold pumpkins? That's cool. Because then when you meet a real assassin, it will mean something to your character.
Be Luke. Be a moisture farming Shadowscale. ;p
Stalker...is that Dreamscarred's answer to the SwordSage from WotC?
I like the per level cost (500 at 1st, 1000 at 2nd, etc), except that would promote buying the pieces for Monk 1st level, then Fighter 1st, as it's cheaper than doing Monk 2nd. Hmm...
Bugger it. it's the number of "packets" you upgrade. 250 XP each. So 1st one is 250, next is 500, third is 750, etc.
Tenro, I'd prefer to not have contact already made.
It's the difference between "I'm playing a Jedi apprentice, or Sith apprentice", and "I'm playing a moisture farmer." Luke is interesting as a character. The Transporter (while fun to watch) is boring as crap as a character. No development. No forward movement. Just bad-assing all over. Luke gets to hold a light-saber for the first time. He gets to learn about the Force. Starting out as an assassin to me is like starting at the finish line. Luke's whole goal was he wanted to get off world. Spend time with his friends. He became an apprentice, and then a Jedi. And he was a pilot as well. He grew into it, rather than starting as it.
Having an Argonian that wanted to be a Shadowscale, like his great-uncle, but really he just sold pumpkins? That's cool. Because then when you meet a real assassin, it will mean something to your character.
Be Luke. Be a moisture farming Shadowscale. ;p
Stalker...is that Dreamscarred's answer to the SwordSage from WotC?
the analogy works, in a sense, except i didn't really like Luke at all.
There is no "wanting to be" a Shadowscale, it is a condition of birth. you are, or you are not. Born under the sign, or you arent.
I can see, however, the contact not being made yet, since he is level 1. But he should know it is coming, it is an important rite of passage that would have been taught to him, drilled in his head from a time shortly after hatching. He should know that they will contact him, and he is doing all he can to have the skills necessary to succeed at his first mission, because failure could mean death, or at least extreme dishonor (not sure they would want to waste such an auspicious birth, but who knows?). Or simply mean imprisonment/execution at the hands of the guard.
RE:Stalker: yes. Just as Dreamscarred brought Psionics forward to PF, so too did they update Tome of Battle or whatever it used to be called. Tome of 9 Swords? I think they also updated the Tome of Magic or truenaming/pactmagic or whatever. They took all the cool add-ons, but balanced them for PF.
I like the per level cost (500 at 1st, 1000 at 2nd, etc), except that would promote buying the pieces for Monk 1st level, then Fighter 1st, as it's cheaper than doing Monk 2nd. Hmm...
true, but you are then a jack of a few trades, master of little. nothing is all that great at 1st level, and few classes get anything meaningful to a 6th level character at first level.
Bugger it. it's the number of "packets" you upgrade. 250 XP each. So 1st one is 250, next is 500, third is 750, etc.
That wouldn't be terrible, provided we are not buying HP with it.
Right on. I do like Dreamscarred, and loved Tome of Battle, 9 swords and Tome of magic.
I'm actually not too worried about the idea of buying HP being bad. It seems fine to me, but then...I've never tried anything like E6PF. Lol.
Right on. I do like Dreamscarred, and loved Tome of Battle, 9 swords and Tome of magic.
I'm actually not too worried about the idea of buying HP being bad. It seems fine to me, but then...I've never tried anything like E6PF. Lol.
I've been in a few E6 games, and like i said above, a lot of the idea and feeling of the system is predicated on certain universal things not exceeding the level 6 benchmarks too much. Even the standard feats you get do little to affect your HP.
The level 6 character that has 80 HP (and only the class abilities of his main class) is going to be SOOOOO much better off than the level 6 character that has the abilities of his main class lv6 and a side class lv3 but only has 50 HP.
Okay. That works. :)
I just looked at Shadowscales on the Elder Scrolls Wiki. They are implied in Skyrim to be an extinct order, apparently. I think it would be cool if you were born under the sign, and not trained as a Shadowscale (maybe not even from the Black Marsh), and that is something that as a character you feel lack of honor, or something for. It becomes a motivating thing.
Perhaps a "the order of assassins are dead, but I carry myself with my own 'version' of their code. Trying to emulate what once was. What I could have been." Think (sort of) D'artagnan trying to be a Musketeer. He completely misses the point in his youthful arrogance and exuberance, but learns it over time with the other three.
Or perhaps "The order may be dead, but my daddy raised me on it. I'm the last", only to discover that he raised you on a back-woods, hillbilly Argonian version of it.
There are some interesting possibilities you could write. :)
But there is a Shadowscale in the Dark Brotherhood enclave... that makes no sense
He's the last of a broken order, Kinda like Obi-Wan and Yoda.
Precisely. Which means he's likely the one who would approach your character, eventually. :)
I suppose, though your examples are far more comical than i plan to lean. Murder is serious business! Haha
I'm not playing a hick who murders people
But what is he besides a murderer? How does the Civil war affect him? What are his politics? How, as a citizen of the Empire who may be going on an adventure with others, does he function, aside from "pull over in Barstow, I've got to put a cap in a mouthy house-husband. Oh, and can we get In-n-out while we're here?"
I tend to hate the Brotherhood in The Elder Scrolls, lol. It's literally a group of people with their fingers up to the rest of the population. Hard to have a meaningful adventure as that. :) You can't be the hero, especially when everyone else should be hunting you, not rewarding you.
Well they are involved in the politics of the highest payer and often on both sides of the conflict. I'll have to look again at the civil war specifically to see what side i like, i always either pick nords or ignore the questline when i play.
Alright, so I like the idea of the group trying to influence those things. see if you can figure out a story-line of someone before they start on the journey.
Even an Argonian who was born under the sign, but because they are no longer around, never assumed he would be one. He became a trader/bodyguard with a Khajit caravan, and ended up in Skyrim, where Obi-wan is waiting. ;)
I'm interested, so long as we can get a coherent set of rules / house rules that I can figure out, in one place rather than spread across a bunch of posts. Maybe a google docs version? I googled for "epic 6 pf" and found basically nothing of use, so on that basis alone I'd suggest we use standard advancement.
Anyway, depending on the final version of racial stats and such, I'd probably go with a Khajiit barbarian/brawler. Mostly natural weapons unless we end up fighting something they'd be ineffective against (dragons, liches/dragon priests, high rank dremora), then probably either an axe or twin daggers/shortswords, depending on what the system makes usable.
Character: Male Khajiit, fleeing slavery, captured and tortured by Thalmor, escaped again and has heard that someone in Skyrim is actually standing up to those pointy-eared bastards, so he's headed that way in search of allies. Somewhat paranoid/survivalist, but realizes he needs others to succeed.
Would prefer exploring the Thalmor story (obviously), since it was woefully underexplored in Skyrim proper. Liked the Dark Brotherhood questline (although the one in Oblivion was better), along with the Companions. Not a huge fan of Mages' Guild or Thieves' Guild (storylines - I'm not opposed to them at all, just thought the stories were rather lackluster). Civil war story would be almost necessary to explore Thalmor stuff. I'd be okay with the Dragonborn stuff actually being a background to what we're doing, so long as he doesn't end up as an uber GMPC/NPC - it might be interesting if we're the ones who do all the really crucial stuff and he just takes the credit historically.
Mechanically, I do like the idea of having a more ES-ish crafting system, so ES materials, soul gems, alchemy, all that is great.
Gentlemen, I believe we've been miss-communicating! I shall do my best to alleviate that! Or, potentially I misunderstand, and I'll be adding another joyous level of pointless confoundery.
A shadowscale who is born a shadowscale, but has no one around when he is born who knows what a shadowscale IS, does not get delivered to a Dark Brotherhood that has lost its ability to supernaturally find out information. Or any other stuff. It may be a bit cheap to say it, but being an orphan really solves a lot of the problems here.
"I think a system like this could be functional. If you cherry pick, and say "HP from Paladin 1, HP from Ranger 1, HP from Warpriest 1", you'd have a lot of HP, but would lack in other places. Lower Bab. Less feats. Less class abilities."
This is not how Gestalt works!
Allow me to have a Theoretical Fighter 6. He has BaB 6, +5/2/2 saves, and got 2+Int modifier skill points per level, 6d10 HD.
I buy ALL OF THE THINGS from Paladin 1, gestalt style.
My saves, do not change. +2/0/2 is not better than +5/2/2.
My HP, does not change, 1d10 is not better than 1d10.
My number of skill points, does not change, 2+Int is not better than 2+Int.
My BaB does not change, +1 is not better than +1.
I do get some new class skills.
But what I really came for? I get Aura of good, detect evil, and a level 1 Smite Evil once a day.
*inconsistent bit, I think it should boost thy saves. Maybe by 1 until your new save exceeds the old one.
Let's say, instead, I picked Barbarian for my 1 level of gestalt.
Again, no save or BaB changes... BUT THIS TIME!
I gain 2 skill points! 4+int is better than 2+int, but this only applies on that first level.
I gain 2 HP! 1d12 is better than 1d10, and the first hit die is maxed.
Still get some new class skills.
And I get fast movement and rage!
That is the sort of thing happening when gestalting.
If in the original situation... The Paladin got a second level..
Then you'd get +1 to will saves, because 3/0/3 is 1 better in will than 5/2/2, making your new base saves 5/2/3, and then A LOT MORE to saves with Divine Grace, and lay on hands. In addition to your second level smite.
Gestalting is about widening your character, not empowering them.
You may have become a Barbarian 6/Wizard 6/Rogue 6, giving you 6d12 HP, BaB 6, 5/5/5 saves, CL 6 full spellcasting, 8+int skills, full sneak attack.... But, your still not a better fighter than a Barbarian 6, unless you get a sneak attack or a buff spell off, you're still not a better wizard than a wizard 6, except that you're durable and sneaky, and you're still not a better rogue than a rogue 6 unless you use spells or your barbarian speed.
What you were suggesting, Mittean, was effectively a slower exp advancement and bizarro-multiclassing after level 6. I think any actual level advancement after level 6, should be story based, with no influence by exp. Even for the normal E6PF stuff that allows you to increase BaB and stuff.
What I think would be appropriate that we pick a "main class" that we can take up to level 6, and then be allowed to gestalt other classes to half our main class (to add a provision for getting the gestalts to level 4, after you've been allowed to level up your Warlord to level 8 by absorbing the martial knowledge of Fjorn of the Five Hundred by defeating his lingering spirit in ritual combat and ascending to guildmaster of the fighters guild or what not).
So, if you pick a main caster class, you can eventually give yourself +2 BaB and 3 decent hit dice and slightly better weak saves, as well as a bunch of skill points, Wizard 6/Fighter 3/Rogue 3. You're still the group's wizard, but you've mitigated some weaknesses by training everything a little bit.
Conversely, a Fighter 6/Wizard 3/Rogue 3, has picked up some nice 2nd level magical tricks and isn't an AoE destealth to his team. But is still recognizable as the party fighter.
A different Fighter could go Fighter 6/Barbarian 3/Ranger 3, just desiring to put EVERYTHING into be a little better at bashing people over the head. He barely gained any saves, and no BaB, but got a lot of helpful abilities for his fightering, what with Rage and Favored Enemy.
And that Monk 6/Paladin 3/Warpriest 3 is just standing over there tumbling through enemies yelling, "You're not gonna kill me! I have SAVING THROWS WHEE!"
Concur with Julie
Also a thought... We could do an all dreamscarred run.
Replace magic with psionics and call it magic. That way we're already using a "SP" system, for fun use with the old style races and Birthsigns, that really dramatically change how you play, rather than act as light flavor.
It would also work very well with mittean's opinion on priests.
Any healing magic that we as players would have access to would come from "arcane" magic, aka, school of restoration, drawn from the same SP pool as spells of destruction. True divine empowered abilities are solely the realm of NPCs for storytime blessings and stuff.
I could get behind a gestalt DSP-class-only (plus pure martials) game. Still not a fan of E6, though. :)
I think restricting main class advancement beyond level 6 to important story events rather than number of slaughtered goblins is potentially entertaining. :P
Cathay-Raht mark two... what do you guys think?
Cathay-Raht
Racial Traits:
-+2 Strength, +2 Constitution: Cathay-Raht, the legendary "jaguar men" of Elswyr, are well known for their fearsome size, strength, and endurance. And not much else.
-Medium Size: Cathay-Raht have no bonuses or penalties based on size.... Barely.
-Humanoid Type: Cathay-Raht are humanoids with the (Khajiit) subtype.
-Normal Speed: Cathay-Raht have a land speed of 30 ft.
-Jaguar's Girth: Once per day, when a Cathay-Raht makes a Fortitude saving throw, he can roll the saving throw twice and take the better result. He must decide to use this ability before attempting the saving throw
-Desert Runner: Khajiit are those who walk in the desert. +4 racial bonus on constitution checks and fortitude saves to avoid fatigue and exhaustion, as well as any other ill effects from running, forced marches, starvation, thirst, and hot or cold environments.
-Claws of the Khajiit: Cathay-Raht possess the razor sharp claws of all Khajiit that they can use in melee. They have 2 claw natural attacks that deal 1d4 points of damage each.
-Eye of Fear: Cathay-Raht can use the spell Cause Fear 1/day as a spell-like ability at a caster level equal to their character level.
-Low-Light Vision: Cathay-Raht can see twice as far as a race with normal vision in conditions of dim light.
-Languages: Cathay-Raht begin play speaking Tamrielic and Ta'agra. They can choose any common language as a bonus language (except secret or esoteric languages, like Dwemeris).
Flexible Stats 2
Jaguar's Girth (Cat's Luck but for Fort) 1
Desert Runner 2
Claws 2
Spell-like Ability 1
Low-Light Vision 1
Linguist Array 1
Total RP 10
Oh hell no. I am not messing with Psionics. At all. Period. I never understood those.
Aw, that's not very adventuresome of you!
Regardless, you could just not take psionic classes or psionic related birthsigns.