RE: Max level for ECL races

[Harroghty]

ECL was never designed to keep people from playing it in Tabletop why is that believed to be an effective method at doing so here?

Not explicitly related to this conversation, but in line with its direction: one cannot directly compare a persistent online game with tabletop for a number of reasons. Similarly, direct comparisons between a persistent online game and reality (the real world, current, past, or future) fall short. The online environment requires balance in a way that tabletop games do not because those games are discrete, protean, and adjudicated by a single DM. A persistent online environment needs to be built for balance because there is not always a DM present in the moment, neither do those DMs have the same power or responsibility to change the world.

I don't mean to negate a productive conversation, but only to note that direct comparisons with tabletop are not always effective. In reference to the above quote, for example, in a tabletop game there is no reason to encourage or discourage any kind of play because the world stands up around the players, but here the players begin within an already existing world.

[Vaemar]

Yeah, that is exactly why I mentioned also NWN2 that was, also, a persistent online game.

Besides, the concept could be turned upside down and used to state, as I actually did at some point in the thread, that certain features taken from tabletop, like in this case high ecl's for some races, have no place here.

In general, however, I do agree with the idea. I think this is, possibly?, one of the reasons why here there are no cross-class skills or multiclass, disregarding of course how hard they would be to implement, since here the world does not revolve around a single group of players who are all online at the same time.

On the other hand I think referring to tabletop, for addressing matters of balance, is still very reasonable in general, because it is a system that while not being the most balanced still has some sort of stability to it. A good example of this is the ranger class: if all classes get the features from 3.5 edition D&d and rangers do not receive *any* of them, perhaps there is something wrong.

So to sum it up, I'd define comparisons to tabletop good in general but wrong in particular, and sometimes a double-edged sword.

[Yemin]

A fair opinion to have Harroghty, but even so. I hope my sentiment that if ECL is really a key feature of population control. It isn't doing a good job of it. A more direct measure would attain a better result, whatever those results are to be. As is evidenced with the previous mention that high ECL races aren't actually rare. Their just not seen very much on the surface.

It's good to point out though. usually when I post I make every effort to translate for this platform but it doesn't always get across.