Board Thread:Midian Ideas/@comment-4701109-20150103214101/@comment-24302820-20150104090048

Keep in mind that tenth level is pretty advanced already. This is where world-class skill levels, major political players, fantastical level bumps, and the like reside. Just take telekinesis, for example. Assuming a character starts with the maximum possible proficiency level (barring Experienced) and gets a couple of increases per character level, by the time you're at tenth total character level you can move over four tons. With your mind. Without having to worry about fatigue or boloing the roll.

Also, Midian was explicitly designed so that all starting characters have theoretically even footing. An experienced person, prior to their active live as a PC, has things like the Experienced background, the possibility of political position (based on Backgrounds and Contacts), and an infinity of possible backstories. Character growth from that starting point is, again by design, pretty open-ended. This allows for a great deal of in-play customisation based on the wishes of the player and GM, and how the campaign actually plays out. This also doesn't hamper the GM's creation of potential NPCs. He or she can give arbitrary levels of classes or skills, based on the needs of the story. That is, I can have a death knight assassin wielding Death Shank, without having to worry about keeping the melee skill at a certain point for a level XXIV shadow lord. I can have master blacksmiths as first level nobodies instead of 5th level Experts with a +3 BAB.

Now with all of that soapboxery out of the way:


 * 1) Add Experienced, plus 1D8 additional Backgrounds. A new list (random or choice, but preferably the former) would be needed to supplement this.  Ideally, most of the things on this new chart would be backgrounds that suck, but would reflect the life experiences getting to that point, such as Injury or Tragic Event.
 * 2) Triple the starting wealth (from social class), or just add the Money background and make people pay for goodies out of pocket.
 * 3) Double the starting skills (from Knowledge) plus 2D12 upgrades.
 * 4) Add 2D6 contacts.
 * 5) Increase Reputation by 1D20 points.
 * 6) Add 2D8 Statuses. About Half of these could be not so good.  Alternately, 1D6 statuses could be chosen, and 1D10 random possibly crappy ones rolled.
 * 7) The player should be given a great deal of leeway in having things that the character could easily have acquired by that point, such as land, spells of their own design, combos, or unique gear of their own creation.

I have to ask, other than access to class-based level bumps, is there a reason for wanting this patch? Is this just an exercise in system mastery, or is there something else we are going for here?