Download the Uber Tier Characters rules here!
A recent thread here inspired me to finish writing up my rules for higher level characters.
While the D&D Gamma World game only allows character advancement to level 10, the related Dungeons & Dragons game goes up to level 30 in three tiers: Heroics (1 to 10), Paragon (11 to 20), and Epic (21 to 30).
These house rules expand D&D Gamma World to level 20 by introducing the Uber Tier (11 to 20).
Uber tier characters:
- Continue to advance in level as before, gaining 5 hit points per level, as well as level-dependent increases to attacks.
- Gain permanent Alpha Mutations which don't change at the end of rests or due to Alpha Flux.
- Gain additional Uber Feature choices while advancing in level.
- Continue to gain Vocation Feats. Uber tier characters invariably have multiple vocations.
- Do additional damage with basic attacks.
- Pick a Survivor Path which gives them access to Survivor Path powers – novice, utility, and expert powers that aren't based directly on their origins.
- Gain Survivor Path traits including critical hit benefits at 13th and 17th levels.
- Increase one ability score – based on Survivor Path – at 12th level and again at 18th level.
PS: Yes, most of these are crazy powerful. How much fun would "Uber tier" be to play if it wasn't over the top?! This is Gamma World!
I agree that it needs to be over the top. This is a game with psychic space monkies and zombie plants, after all.
This is pretty much the thread I was thinking about starting when I was posting my musings over in the other thread. Well, with the exception that I was going to solicit advice and bandy about ideas. It seems you already have a full fledged one.
A few questions, if I may:
Where did you get the idea for the Survivor Paths? Do you have access to older Gamma World editions? This is my first encounter with the setting, so I'm not aware if this was present in earlier editions or if you just created these paths from scratch from what little fluff we have been provided. This is curiosity, not critique.
My only other question has to do with the expansion of the basic attack that you suggest. Will this scale well with the level of HPs that opponents and players have at these levels? I haven't actually played 4th Edition D&D, so I'm not sure how they handle HP inflation. Without this change, are players likely to stand around whacking on a monster for a while after expending all encounter powers? It seems they have a large number of them by this time. Or is this change merely to make the basic attack semi-desirable for offing a lower level creature and hording the encounter powers for the BigBad?
I made basic attacks do more damage because weapons don't scale well at higher levels, and 20 levels without using weapons at all would be pretty boring.
Gamma World is so random in the power levels of players already I've not been building encounters using the system. I just pick a monster close to the PC's level, maybe even a bit higher and go from there. Sometimes they still dominate, other times they barely make it out alive. But in the end everyone has fun.
I think by now you have made more useful stuff for this incarnation of Gamma World then WotC has...
1) The Basic Attack ability in the main book says Hit: 1(W) + Str/Con or Dex/Int modifier + your level physical damage. The new version says (at 1st through 10th level) Hit: 1(W) + your level physical damage.
Was the ability modifier left out on purpose?
2) If you are playing from a single deck, rather than players having personal decks, and they take permanent Alpha mutations, do the mutation cards stay in the deck for other players to potentially get?
2. Yes, write the powers down.