The following is a Crunch-heavy post on tweaking the mechanics of D&D 3.5 character classes. As D&D 4e draws nearer I feel more and more comfortable with playing under the game’s hood. Something I would never had dared with previous editions of the game.
One of the things that came out of last Friday’s game is that there appears to be imbalances in the power level of the characters of our campaign. Some of it is because of sub-optimal player choices such as Multiclassing: Math’s Duskblade 6/Arcane Archer 1* and Yan’s Pixie 3/Sorcerer4. But a lot of it stems from a paradigm shift in class design that came around the time that Iron Heroes and the Book of Nine Swords came out (Both of which were either written or developed by Mike Mearls).
Aside: Iron Heroes is a low-magic variant of D&D 3.5 that replaces all core classes with classes based on various archetypes of Western medieval Fighters (The Archer, The Hunter, The Men at Arms, etc). All classes are balanced to be on par with the power level of Geared up vanilla D&D characters of the same level, except that Iron Heroes do not have (nor are supposed to use) any magical gear at all. All powerups are class- or feat-based. Although word on this gaming forum is that the characters are a bit more powerful than their D&D equivalent (and I agree, after having played such a campaign for a year and a half).
Aside #2: The Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine swords features 3 new fighting core classes with a distinct West meets Anime + wire-fu feel. All classes have fighting stances that provide permanent bonuses (individual or aura based). They also choose a certain number of Maneuvers that are akin to a spell effect and that are triggered by succeeding on an attack. These maneuvers are usually reusable at least once from encounter to encounter (This is a great departure from the usual x/day philosophy of D&D and the main source of power creep I think). It is, by the way, incredibly cool.
As I was saying, these 2 products created classes that are significantly stronger than those from other sources. I don’t believe them to be broken per say, they seem to have been designed slightly above the power curve by someone who did not mind the creep. I certainly don’t .
So after the last game. It became clear to me that Cixi (The Iron Hero Archer) and Cruger (The Book of 9 swords Crusader) were destined to be in a league of their own. With the three other characters risking playing second fiddle or at least, not have as much fun with their character’s abilities. (You know the feeling: you’re 8 years old and mommy gets you a Vanilla Ice Cream cone at DQ. You enjoy it… until Brent comes in with his dad and HE gets a Rocky Road Special with extra fudge).
So here I am, the DM with the fabled Power. I can either take away Brent’s treat or offer you to dip your cone in Chocolate, roll it in candy Sprinkles, dip it again in Caramel and put a cherry on top. So thinking, yet again of the Rule of Cool , and something I read on Treasure Table about never having to say NO, I set out to awesome up the 3 other classes.
Please understand the following when you read my tweaks:
- I’m not doing this to re balance the character classes against some philosophical ideal, I’m only doing this to increase my 3 player’s enjoyment of the game without penalizing the other 2.
- I do not mind the power creep at all. I’ll probably end up considering the complete party as 1 level higher and plan my games as such. To control XP progression, I’ll downgrade monsters, on average, one Challenge Rating.
- Its quite possibly our last D&D 3,5 game, let’s go out with a Bang!
Pixie/Sorcerer:
Weaknesses:
- Having traded 3 levels of Sorcerer to gain Flying, Damage Resistance, Invisibility and a few decent Spell-like abilities, Yan has a real hard time with Spell Resistance
- Traded away 3 level’s worth of damage on his spells
- Forever lost his 3 highest levels of spellcasting.
It arguably remains a good tradeoff, but it could be tweaked to give Yan a little better.
Solution:
- Give the character 3 bonus caster levels without giving him the spells. He can now deal more damage and punch through Spell Resistance more easily.
Tradeoff:
- Yan accepted to never take the 4th and 5th Pixie levels that grant his character Spell Resistance and the Irresistible Dance spell-like ability.
Dragon Shaman (Arguably the character who needs the tweaks the least and whose player would never think of asking for them):
Weakness:
- Cleric base attack progression
- Limited to simple weapons and Medium Armour.
Solution:
- Give the character a fighter’s progression
- Give access to Martial Weapons and all armors and shields.
- Add a ‘Draconic Swiftness’ at low level to cancel the speed penalties of wearing heavy Armor.
- Possibly increase Draconic Swiftness to increase speed at higher levels.
Tradeoff: None.
Duskblade/Arcane Archer:
Weakness:
- Other characters in the party are more efficient at doing everything Math wants this character to do. Major unfun alert here
- Multiclassing always sucks!
- All Duskblade abilities are restricted to Melee weapons.
- Character needs to take a few more levels in Arcane Archer to see some synergy between both classes. Note, it still is better than the original path of Fighter/Sorcerer/Arcane Archer.
- Some of the Duskblade’s niftier abilities are x/day abilities.
- 6 of the 20 Duskblade levels give the character no additional class features or upgrades.
Solutions:
- Get rid of the Arcane Archer class.
- Make all Duskblade abilities usable with Melee and ranged weapons.
- Change the class ability to cast a quickened spell from x/day to x/encounter.
- Add some of the Arcane Archer’s class features in the empty spaces on the Duskblade level progression.
Tradeoff:
- Possibly drop a higher level Duskblade class ability that would allow the casting of one touch spell to affect all targets of arrows fired in the same round.
There we go… I talked to both Math and Yan today and they were way cool with that. I don’t expect the others to have any trouble with that either. If not, well they know where to find me.
Ahhhh, I believe a fresh dose of awesomeness was served. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
*So Math’s character concept is an hybrid of an hybrid… you can smell the potential waste of efficiency from here can’t you?
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