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Has anyone tried capping the level in any particular class at 6, but still allowing advancement in other classes and using the regular XP tracks? (So e.g. a brawler could get to level 6 and hit the cap, start taking levels in kineticist until reaching character level 12, and then start taking levels in another class.) It seems like one way to make E6 work with published APs where certain numerical values are expected of the PCs - stuff like hp, AC, and attacks won't scale too differently from a regular game without level caps. It also gives players permission to explore new classes without feeling they sacrificed ultimate power, while keeping that ultimate power from changing the GM's story every single session. And for those who are worried about 15-minute adventuring days, it would certainly mean more self-healing fighters and fewer nova-ing alchemists.
Disadvantages I see are that those published APs do expect certain spells at high levels, and that players would still have to choose their additional classes wisely over the long run (ideally everyone would pick up some sort of caster levels at some point, as a purely martial character would be more disadvantaged in this system than in regular E6). It's possible that non-buff spellcasting would really suck when you get to later books - you're facing mind-melting horrors of the distant past and your paltry 3rd-level spells just can't break through SR/saves at all. Something would have to be changed on the player or GM end: either remove those monsters or give characters the option to synergize spells of two different disciplines to emulate higher-level magic. Maybe this would finally be the time to build a system for adding multiclass caster levels.
Thoughts on problems with this idea? I don't have an AP, or even a player group, in mind for this system, but it'd be interesting to know if anyone's done something similar. Also, maybe it'd be better to do with an 8-level cap, so that all classes come into their own?
I was thinking about a similar thing for a campaign I'm writing: capping at level 10 and thus forcing multiclassing.
I changed my mind because of spells: as you already considered, while numerical bonuses (BaB, saves...) keep going up, spell are effectively limited to the lower-level ones and while it may be desiderable in some way, it also means that at higher levels spellcasting becomes mostly ineffective.
Why choose a caster class, then, knowing that your best ability is going to be almost wasted?
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Yeah, I mean - if they keep scaling DCs and CL without getting new spell levels, this mod might work. And buff/utility spells are still useful no matter what CRs you're facing. But no one's going to throw a DC 18 fireball for 6d6 damage at a monster with a +15 save when each of their friends are dealing 100+ DPR. So the whole group of debuff- and blasting-focused casters is no longer viable.
What if you let characters apply metamagic by using spells from other disciplines? Like, say my wizard 6/druid 4 has fireball prepared in a 3rd-level wizard slot and flame blade prepared in a 2nd-level druid slot, and then gets to add the 2 levels of flame blade to make the fireball a CL 8 spell and slap 2 levels worth of metamagic feats for good measure. Some possible problems with sorcerer casting progression where they get a shit ton of slots. Maybe using a spell in that way would block off the sorcerer's ability to access that particular spell for the rest of the day. Probably would need limits like only spells within the same school can be used, and/or that descriptors all need to match up.