Post/Author/DateTime	Post
bitnine 01-19-07, 04:40 PM	Howdy. I'd like you to perform a thought exercise with me for a moment. Let us assume for the exercise that magic is real. Some people can go around casting 1st level spells here and there. Professionals can even cast 2nd level spells. There are a few people who can cast 3rd level spells, they are regarded as experts in their fields and/or in record books. More likely, people cast in concert to obtain 3rd level spells. Accounts of 4th level spells exist, and their actual veracity is hotly debated, particularly on the internet. Higher level stuff is the thing of myths and legends, or in stories of "magic fiction." Consequently, many magical characters in D&D, particularly high level ones, are fairly unrealistic. Occasionally (often self-proclaimed) magic experts post on the boards, saying things about 9th level spells like, "You know, if someone tried to personally channel or focus anywhere near that amount of arcane energy from the weave, it would unbind their essence, and thankfully so, as it would create a larger tear were this not the case." Along with the usuals who come and spam, "Mages from Australia are all awesome and can really cast leet 5th level spells!" (Some people even argue that given enough progress and refinement, magic is indistinguishable from DnD-magic and that 9th level spells will {or could be} eventually possible.) But it's cool. These magical characters aren't really realistic beyond 5th level, they are instead heroic, approaching legendary. They don't abide by the same limits that we'd see in our everyday magical lives, but they are far from nonsensical, instead resembling characters from stories and myths. In fact, just by mentioning 12th level characters and allowing for their existence, I positing a greater level of competence than realistically attainable. And one thing I need to provide as an option is a 'subtle' character. Plenty of folk would want to play a character that strictly and closely mirrors the real life mystics that they are familiar with. So if I'm a designer, I've got a challenge in resolving the level of ability posited and required of a high level character and the feel and lack of flashiness desired. But I certainly wouldn't want to take a 5th level character's abilities and dress it up as a 20th level one in the pursuit of this archetype. Now let's just apply this evenly to nonmagical characters and extraordinary abilities. Isn't that neat? We now have a basic framework for considering realistic and heroic abilities that doesn't skew because "it's magic." We also have a nod towards the 'subtle' seemingly realistic at high levels character type and acknowledge the challenges as a designer to provide that subtlety. And it does a heck of a lot to explain what we're talking about when we mention high level characters and the sort of things that are necessarily entailed. Anyways, I think you could probably expand upon that, but I'd invite you to give it a shot before evaluating or designing game material.
a_psh 01-19-07, 05:47 PM	Translation: not every 20th-level swordsman character should be able to make stone-crushingly-powerful sonic booms come out of his sword?
Coffee_Dragon 01-19-07, 05:57 PM	I didn't fully get it, but if it means high-end fighter abilities should not be represented as unskippable Final Fantasy cutscenes where the fighter rotates in strobing lights shouting a few random words like "Dashing... Blossom... Strike!!!" and ends up emitting a shockwave of brilliant energy from hitting the ground with his weapon, then I'm all in favour.
Khael 01-19-07, 06:25 PM	As far as I can tell here... you either want to play in very low-level games, or have in effect a one-three class system (In D&D terms fighter/warrior, warlock/mage) But still thinking in D&D terms the system you want uses the NPC classes in palce of the PHB ones, since warriors aren't flashy, adepts have little magic to throw etc. Much more subtle, though I severly doubt how such a system could work fully.