Key Our Cars

1. I like my players to be able to use improvised and secondary weapons, but at high levels they need their first-rate weapon’s enhancement bonus to have a decent chance to hit. I also like to be able to drop my players fun loot whenever it’s dramatically appropriate, and not have to worry about treasure parcels or the enhancement bonuses they need for level-appropriate challenges.

2. I don’t like how monster stats scale faster than PC stats. Over the course of 30 levels, monsters gain about 29 bonuses to attacks and defenses while PCs only gain about 25 bonuses. As a result, surviving at paragon and epic levels requires players to power game, have the right kind of leaders and focus a lot of attention on tactics. Some players don’t mind this, but I don’t like to play games where fine tuned tactics, warlords or power gaming are necessary.

Here’s how I broke up and cut my baggage loose:

1. Masterwork armor does not exist.

2. Weapon/Implement Expertise, and any future feats that grant a constant bonus to attack rolls or defenses, are not allowed.

3. At the third and seventh level of each tier (3, 7, etc.), PCs get a +1 enhancement bonus to weapon/implement attack rolls, weapon/implement damage rolls and all defenses. They also get a 1d6 critical die at these levels, which does not stack with the critical dice of any weapon or implement they might have.

4. At the first and fifth level of the paragon and epic tiers (11th, 15th, etc.), PCs get an extra +1 level bonus to all attack rolls and all defenses. When a character wears heavy armor, this bonus doubles for the purpose of AC.

And I haven’t looked back since:

1. I can now drop loot whenever I want. If I want to run a low-wealth campaign, or if my campaign has a dry spell, I don’t have to rebalance monsters. Characters can now hope to hit with secondary and improvised weapons. It’s about the characters, not their bling.

2. PC stats now increase at a mostly consistent +1 per level, losing at most two relative points at certain levels. Optimizers, player tacticians and warlords can get higher bonuses, but they’re not necessary for high level survival anymore–they just make the PCs more effective now. Because PCs hit more often, there’s less grind and swing-miss repetition. And if I need to tweak monsters to make them easier or harder for my players, I only need to lower or raise their stats by a flat amount, rather than having to scale the tweaks with level.