Hey all, I'm running CC now and that has been great while school was going on but we are yearning to get back into homebrew land so after CC my group and I are heading into my new world with intention of a 1-20 campaign there. I want to start characters with lower ability scores and give ability increases every even level instead of 4,8,12, and so on. I want to show a bigger progression and spice things up a bit. My question is..
With odd level increases to abilities how would you generate stats?
((Sorry for the inconvenience if this should have been in house rules))
Are you providing a +1 at every even level in addition to the core bonuses at 4, 8, 12, etc.?
If that's the case, I'd start with a ten point buy. If you are removing the 4, 8, 12... bonuses and replacing them with +1 at every even level, I'd start 15 point buy.
My 2cp
I am replacing the standard
Hey all, I'm running CC now and that has been great while school was going on but we are yearning to get back into homebrew land so after CC my group and I are heading into my new world with intention of a 1-20 campaign there. I want to start characters with lower ability scores and give ability increases every even level instead of 4,8,12, and so on. I want to show a bigger progression and spice things up a bit. My question is..
With odd level increases to abilities how would you generate stats?
((Sorry for the inconvenience if this should have been in house rules))
There are certain potential pitfalls here. While your system will grant significant benefits at higher levels, it will be a while (in actual time) before they get there. Even if you get a +1 at every even level, thats still many sessions (weeks and months of actual time) before they get back what comes from a lower point buy.
And lower point buy/stat generation methods limit certain concepts. Wizard and heavy armor martials dont have an issue. But the guys who rely on multiple ability scores will suffer for a long time before their exta couple of +1s add up to make the difference.
If I were you, instead of lowernig point buy or dice rolls, I'd instead set a cap.
So something like a 15 point buy (whatever is normal for your group) but no stat can be over 14 after racial modifiers. So the highest numbers start low, but if someone wants to be a monk, or a rogue or a magus its actually possible to make it function.
+1 to Kolokotroni's advice. It is very sound and balanced advice.
No intention of changing magic items significantly. Maybe a little below average but nothing of note.
Small foot and kolo are on the right track. Thanks.
I am going to work with the players and swap things about for lower tiered classes. My group is super mature so no whining worries.
I wonder if I'm fixing something that is not broken though? That is why I brought the idea here before it comes into the game.
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Honestly its going to be a lot more trouble than its worth IMO. But if you do want something so they feel like they are progressing every level how about starting them with a low point buy and then giving them a point every level, that will stop someone just dumping everything into Int and being a wizard with a 40 Int at level 20 without magic or items. I would keep the bumps at 4, 8, 12, etc., and make those the only way to advance above 18.
No intention of changing magic items significantly. Maybe a little below average but nothing of note.
Small foot and kolo are on the right track. Thanks.
I am going to work with the players and swap things about for lower tiered classes. My group is super mature so no whining worries.
I wonder if I'm fixing something that is not broken though? That is why I brought the idea here before it comes into the game.
My fidings are honestly that at low levels, the range of ability scores you want for 'main' stats is about 14-17. If platers have a +3 (or +2) in their main ability, things are sufficiently difficult at low levels, where the stats are most important in determining success rates.
At higher levels obviously theres a ton of other modifiers. So its harder to judge. But the impression I have is that at low levels people need about a +3 in their 'thing' from abilities scores to function effectively. In my own game I do a 25 point buy with no stat being lower then 10 before racial modifiers and no stat higher then 17 after racial modifiers. It works rather well, and the math seems to play out in a way that is satisfactory to me, and is similar to a 15 point buy where people dont have 2 or more dump stats, and it does it without penalyzing multi-ability score dependent characters which I like.
In the end you arent really 'fixing' anything. You are just altering some of the games statistics for lower levels. How much you want to do that is up to you.
i would caution against this...
as broken points out it is ripe for abuse. if you start the characters on a 10 or 15 point buy that strongly favors SAD builds- then you give them +1 to a stat each level and by 10th all the players who built SAD casters will have 30+ in their casting stat while the MAD characters will finally have decent stats. imagine for a minute that someone builds a druid or lunar oracle (or even worse, a sylvan sorcerer) that focuses on control- at early levels the animal companion will outshine any martial PCs (since its 'point buy' hasn't changed), and by the time the other PCs become more powerful than the companion Casty McGee has such a monster DC that he's just controlling all the enemies and laughing.
IMHO- this isn't just "fixing something that isn't broken" its breaking something.
i've run games in the past where I wanted to make leveling more significant, or wanted the PCs to become 'something more' as they leveled... the best way i have found to do this is with quantifiable static bonuses. i've had good success with templates (like at some point everyone gains the advanced simple template for example), that way everyone gets a similar bump and it probably benefits weaker MAD classes a little more, and its easy to predict new APL so that CRs remain a useful tool. even just keeping the boosts every 4 but giving +1 to every stat instead of just 1 would probably be more effective and have much less impact on how PCs compare to CRs...
also the mythic rules are really designed for exactly this flavor (start our 'normal' and then develop unusual power). PCs on a lower point buy (or even a normal buy but in a world where lots of people have PC classes instead of NPC classes) will feel pretty unremarkable until they start gaining crazy mythic powers and then they sort of take off.
edit: the rules for mythic, if you're not familiar but interested are all listed on the prd, under Mythic Adventures
Appriciated guys!