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That stands for Over Powered On Purpose.
Has anyone ever done this? I don't know how long the interest would last, but I think it would be at least a little amusing to run through an Adventure Path starting at 10th level. I don't mean starting at the 10th level module, I mean starting the PCs at 10th level and going through part 1 of the AP without any adjustment to the module.
I mean, there are powerful adventurers out in the world already, and occasionally they're in the kinds of places that 1st level adventurers find themselves in. Can you really believe that not a single experienced character goes back to Sandpoint every year for the Swallowtail Festival?
"OK a bunch of goblins are running toward the stables with torches."
"Chain lightning."
"OK, moving on..."
I think making the module a timed event would add some challenge to it and make it more interesting than a brutal smackdown on the bunny slope.
God mode tends not to be as fun as a challenge that matches the players' power. It's less gratifying unless it's a specific thing you're looking for. I'm not sure my interest or my players' interest would last very long. Usually a super-powered mode comes before "the fall" and the contrast between immense might and weakness is interesting. That, or it comes at the end of the campaign when it's more of a reward than anything.
I feel like being 9 levels ahead of where you are supposed to be would be boring, even if you were just playing it for the story and a speed run.
I could see playing as high power races with strange abilities. You'd still have to try, but it would be a bit like playing with weird unbalanced mods rather than on god mode.
It would probably be very boring. Even players who enjoy steamrolling things prefer a little challenge. But if you're 10 levels higher, nothing has any chance to do any harm to you.
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That stands for Over Powered On Purpose.
AWESOME!
Has anyone ever done this?
Yes!
I don't know how long the interest would last, but I think it would be at least a little amusing to run through an Adventure Path starting at 10th level. I don't mean starting at the 10th level module, I mean starting the PCs at 10th level and going through part 1 of the AP without any adjustment to the module.
Oh, I see what you're saying now. That is completely different than what I was thinking. This changes everything!
My new answer is: YES!!!
I mean, there are powerful adventurers out in the world already, and occasionally they're in the kinds of places that 1st level adventurers find themselves in. Can you really believe that not a single experienced character goes back to Sandpoint every year for the Swallowtail Festival?
"OK a bunch of goblins are running toward the stables with torches."
"Chain lightning."
"OK, moving on..."I think making the module a timed event would add some challenge to it and make it more interesting than a brutal smackdown on the bunny slope.
This is more or less what I'm doing right now in a single-player game. When my wife was stuck in the hospital getting prepped for early birth with our next baby, she was bored and achy, and needed something fun to do... but couldn't actually be put into a large amount of stress.
So, as she'd played one for a different game, I handed her the basic "character sheet" of a succubus, and after a little consternation and trying to figure out how she'd make this one different, she finally developed a brand new character. She was a little woozy from the IVs and drugs, so she didn't want to come up with a character background, hence a character waking up with amnesia.
And voila, a game was born.
While she's 8 HD instead of 10, and a succubus isn't exactly a PC, I gave her the Agile mythic simple template and started her on a set of adventures for first level characters, and added a special "Super-spell" mechanic where the character can basically learn a 10th-level variant of the wish spell (really a Supernatural Spell-like ability) that imitates any 9th level or lower spell of a given spellschool ("given" according to the spell school she chooses) - each of these spells is named after one of the seven sins, ala sin-magic; she can pick up one of the super-spells per "major arc" (she tells me what wants to be working on, and, at the end of the arc she receives it). She started, "strangely" (hee-hee) enough, with Pride already learned. She also lacked the alignment subtypes and started neutral/chaotic neutral in alignment.
We've been having a blast, and it's only been getting better. Tons of fun, and engaging, as, given she's so very powerful (she's been growing rapidly in level, and gaining 3.X-style divine ranks), the ways she deals with adventures is substantially different.
In the early levels, she didn't slay the foe in combat, she charms and suggestions some foes into attacking others, or distracted them via illusion. In later levels, she gained Lust (because "it just makes sense") and then Wrath, allowing her to more personally... deal with the issues as they arise. She creates webworks of telepathically-connected allies (via a succubus' Profane Gift ability) that has helped her establish her business (a "Bath and Bodyworks" health-spa-like place, with massages, work-outs, and special foods*).
It's actually been a very deep, campaign-enriching experience, allowing her to use extremely advanced power, but also (because she values people**) learn how to not necessarily do everything herself, while still enjoying her power.***
One of her greatest in-character/out-of-character challenges was qualifying as a Harper Agent. As they didn't trust her at first, and didn't know what she could do, or how trustworthy she was, they challenged her to a series of tasks for them... one of which included grabbing a large number of items under extremely difficult circumstances without the use of magic.
The intent (both of the Harpers and of the GM^) was for her to fail. However, clever player being clever, used her various non-magical abilities to move, jump, leap, climb, and avoid most of the trials, talk her way into and out of dangerous locations and situations, and acquire all of the items required, if only just in the nick of time.
Player loved it... and learned from it. She has since used the same techniques to avoid tangling with mages, to hide from any magic-detection schemes, and to even skirt by the "no-divine-interference" clauses that would otherwise prevent gods from interfering with mortal affairs directly.
While that's an amusing anecdote, it's not the only time (the game was based on a 3.5 book Mysteries of the Moonsea, meant for characters from 1st-18th level). Kingmaker was one in which I took an OP-on-purpose character into the game; it was explicitly allowed before game, and, though he ended up a tad too OP, he later created a golem "brother" for himself that continued to adventure while he ran the kingdom. It was great. Similarly, in Council of Thieves, we had a very OP character to start (the other succubus, as mentioned before) gaining mythic abilities and hit dice, but when the actual adventurers came in, they were enhanced substantially by the power of the initial OP character, too. This... worked out really well, actually. Great stories.
The point is, it can work, and it can work well, if both the GM and players are on board, and understand going in that "this game is different"... and are okay with that. It can feel strange, as a GM, just allowing the player to bypass obstacles that seem like they should be bigger, but it allows you to play around with scenarios a bit, and introduce a very different kind of challenge - the challenge of making the adventurer integrated into the world around them, and linked to significant and important characters, as well as challenging them in ways outside of their comfort-zone. And that challenge is actually really cool, and can lead to amazing story elements later and even at the time. It can also give a very different view to the player - perhaps that of the controller, mastermind, or quest-giver, as well as the adventurer, if you spin it that way. That's also a neat experience.
("What are those super-powerful creatures doing while we're on these adventures anyway?" ... "... oh, I see.")
So, yeah, I've done it, run, it, and still am, and it's terrific.
EDIT: For the record, I've almost discarded "+" magic items entirely [just adding +1/3 enhancement bonus to everything, maximum according to what's being affected]^^ and, once the PC got a hold of Greed, she literally never had to worry about money ever again, meaning we no longer keep track of it (imagine fabricate as an at-will spell-like, no material components needed for the focus... hence creating anything within the size allotted by caster level).
* No, none of this is innuendo, and no, it's not very "succubus-like", and yes, that's on purpose.
** Your experience may vary.
*** She's sponsored no less than five different adventure parties, a group of pirates "privateers", and three adventuring "guilds", establishing a diplomatic alliance of different formerly-competing mages, and enacted several hostile takeovers (without violence) against businesses that opposed her philosophically (not economically). And then she's taken over five cities and towns, successfully pushing through laws that allow her to maintain power indefinitely, due to her political and mental manipulation of the wealthy elite - aka the preponderance of patrons at her expensive and very, very nice spas.
^ Sort of. I was not going to force a failure - I merely presumed it would be one. More specifically, I expected her to rely on her magic at some point or another. She did not. It was well done.
^^ Non-"plus" items are still useful, but mainly for story purposes - bags of holding and whatnot - and "plus" items still exist... which are great gifts to give to NPCs and others of too-low a level to have that "+" on their own. :D
