E6 monster classes

[picklejuice]

E6 is sort of the "game within the game" of D&D. It cuts off advancement of players at level 6. After which you can still advance - every 5000 xp you gain a new feat. It keeps the characters in that "heroic" age and limits access to tone-breakng magics like the ability to raise the dead. It says a 6d6 fireball (which would arguably kill every single 1st level commoner it hits) is power enough.

To illustrate...

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Level XP
1st  0    Feat
2nd 1,000
3rd 3,000 Feat
4th 6,000
5th 10,000
6th 15,000 Feat
       20,000 Feat
       25,000 Feat
       30,000 Feat
       35,000 Feat
       40,000 Feat (PCs can be considered to be 7th level for CR and challenge purposes)
       45,000 Feat
       50,000 Feat
       55,000 Feat
       60,000 Feat
       65,000 Feat (PCs can be considered to be 8th level for CR and challenge purposes)
       70,000 Feat
       75,000 Feat
       80,000 Feat
       85,000 Feat
       90,000 Feat (PCs can be considered to be 9th level for CR and challenge purposes)
       95,000 Feat
      100,000 Feat
      105,000 Feat
      110,000 Feat
      115,000 Feat (PCs can be considered to be 10th level for CR and challenge purposes)

But the main focus in this thread is to look at how to fit monster classes into an E6 campaign.

ECL and racial hit dice would normally forbid 99% of monster PCs from an E6 campaign, but I love this "start at first level" monster class homebrew.

I was encouraged to start this thread as it has not been brought up before. So. To start off with, in addition to the normal E6 feats available here ...

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?202109-E6-The-Game-Inside-D-amp-D-%28with-PDFs!%29

Let's take the iconic Red Dragon and see what feats would be unavailable, and what new feats we can make to offer more advancement as a dragon...

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=269.0

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Lev7 Firey Arcana (Firey Arcana: At 7th and 16th level the red dragon adds one  spell with the fire descriptor of a level he can cast to his list of spells known.)
Lev 8: Locate Object (At 8th level it can use locate object as a SLA 1/day per 4 HD it has.)
Lev 9: Greed (Greed:At 9th level a red dragon can instantly discern the monetary value of any objects in his view. He can also memorize the number and type of each item and notice if anything is missing or added to that group of items with a new glance. )
Lev 10: Fire Lord (Fire Lord:At 10th level a red dragon casts spells with the [Fire] descriptor at +2 caster level and ignores any limit on caster level on such spells.)
Level 11: Arcane Skin (Arcane skin: At 11th level the red dragon gains SR equal to his HD+11.)
Level 12: Iron Scales (Iron Scales: At 12th level the red dragon gains DR/magic equal to half his HD.)

E6 Feats I just made up based on 6+ advancement:

Firey Arcana (Dragon) (E6)
Prerequisite: Red Dragon Class Level 6th
Benefit: Choose a spell with the fire descriptor of a level he can cast to his list of sorcerer spells known.

Locate Object (Dragon)
Prerequisite: Red Dragon Class Level 6
Benefit: Dragon gains Locate Object as a SLA 1/day

Greed (Dragon)
Prerequisite: Red Dragon Class Level 6
Benefit: A red dragon can instantly discern the monetary value of any objects in his view. He can also memorize the number and type of each item and notice if anything is missing or added to that group of items with a new glance.

Fire Lord (Dragon)
Prerequisite: Red Dragon Class Level 6
Benefit: A red dragon casts spells with the [Fire] descriptor at +2 caster level and ignores any limit on caster level on such spells.

Arcane Skin (Dragon)
Prerequisite: Red Dragon Class Level 6
Benefit: Red dragon gains SR 1 as an Extraordinary ability. If Red Dragon already has SR, this feat provides a +1 cumulative to SR, to a maximum of SR 17.

Iron Scales (Dragon)
Prerequisite: Red Dragon Class Level 6
Benefit: Red dragon gains DR 1/magic. May take this feat multiple times. Each time it's taken you add +1 to the DR, to a maximum of DR 5/magic.

And the rest I think might be too powerful for E6. Growth, Crush, Frightful presence, Hellfire, Burn, Revenge, Find the Path, Tail sweep, Discern location

Notes:

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Re: Fire Lord I'm not sure what that means "ignores any limit on caster level" O.o)

This being a much more feat-intensive campaign, I'd also take a look at all the monster feats generally available for use in constructing classes, so I'll post over on the feats thread too...

But specific to E6,

I think I'll round this initial "let's get the ball rolling" post with: Improved Natural Armor. With the level cap, no more HD means no more HD to advance natural armor as is the common tactic. I considered reintroducing Imp. Natural Armor as a monster feat one can use, but with BA possibly being capped too at +6 in general, I'm not so sure. Perhaps a cap of 4 Imp Nat Armor feats?

Sorry for whatever goofs I'm making, I might be an old hand at D&D, but I'm still a little clumsy when it comes to shared communities. I'd like to learn, so whatever errors I'm making I'd greatly appreciate it if you could IM me with suggestions.

Thank you.

[Raineh Daze]

Natural Armour is actually tied to an ability score in this scenario. The things that are tied to HD--DR and SR--you don't want increasing like that.

Why forbid Growth entirely? I can still easily get to Huge in the 6-level limit, and then just spend the feats on other features. Anthropomorphic Animal is hilariously broken in this. My advice would be to make it require increasing investment. One feat, powerful build; two feats, size category. Then two feats to get the effects of powerful build, one more to get the size category, etc.

[picklejuice]

Natural Armour is actually tied to an ability score in this scenario. The things that are tied to HD--DR and SR--you don't want increasing like that.

Why forbid Growth entirely? I can still easily get to Huge in the 6-level limit, and then just spend the feats on other features. Anthropomorphic Animal is hilariously broken in this. My advice would be to make it require increasing investment. One feat, powerful build; two feats, size category. Then two feats to get the effects of powerful build, one more to get the size category, etc.

No reason to forbid Growth.  I was unsure of how to handle it. I like your suggestion. Is there a list of "slight build/powerful build/monkey grip" size fiddling feats somewhere?

[Raineh Daze]

No; Powerful Build is a racial trait in pretty much all cases. Nearest writeup of it is in the Giant classes, I think.

[bobthe6th]

Giant... is the template I tend to use for growing humanoids with a long progression.