Ealdremen Epic Eight

Ealdremen Epic Eight is a specific variant of popular "Epic 6/Epic 8" rules, which stipulate that a game's player characters cease to gain class levels at either level six or level eight; after this point, characters instead advance in some other way when they would normally gain levels, most commonly with feats being granted in lieu of character levels. The intention of these rules is to avoid some of the "unrealistic" growth of power or "rocket tag"-type strategies that only become more common as the game creeps higher in power. Proponents of this style of play also suggest that the game is more balanced between casters and martials at these levels, where martials without full base attack progression begin to get their iterative attacks and when casters start to get strong spells, but in very limited amounts.
These rules are not meant to be put into any game; they should be carefully considered if they fit the game in question first, and if the players will be content with a game that "caps" at a comparatively low level. These rules are best suited for shorter-term games, especially ones that are not meant to creep up in the scope typical of high-level adventures (such as a game going from solving a bandit problem at level two to trying to stop a world-ending plot by a demon). The reason these rules are ill-suited for very long-term games is that players may eventually feel like their characters have stagnated; even in the presence of rewards that are meant to replace gaining conventional levels, characters may fall back on the same routine strategies with little variation because their characters have access to a more limited suite of tools, or they may feel disgruntled failing at certain checks simply because their characters will never exceed a certain level where they would be able to easily beat those checks.
On the other hand, games that are meant to have a more "limited" scope or that are meant to focus more specifically on people who are more "ordinary" compared to other adventurers in Pathfinder may find use for these rules. Players that dislike the magnitudes of power that characters eventually acquire or who find the game most fun at middle levels are likely to find enjoyment in a short game that has rules such as these. With that said, a game that employs these rules should carefully consider "lifting" the cap if the game goes on long enough that the players want to advance their characters conventionally, as characters who remain under this rule system for long enough will be far and away more powerful than their character level would indicate, in a way that would be unbalanced if they were permitted to advance in subsequent class levels.
==Ealdremen Epic Eight Rules==
===Ealdremen House Rules===
Ealdremen House Rules are assumed to be in play unless otherwise stated, including background feats and alterations to certain feats or classes.
===Character Cap===
A character may not advance past level eight in any class. This is not necessarily true of non-player characters, but encounters made for Ealdremen Epic Eight games should be mindful of the limits the players have placed on them, while also bearing in mind that characters will continue to advance past level eight while still nominally being level eight.
===Character Advancement===
When a character would normally level up after reaching level eight in their first class, the character instead gains:
: A level in a new class every level. (See "Gestalt Levels" rules below.)
: A racial feat every even-numbered level.
: A standard feat every odd-numbered level.
: An ability score increase every fourth level.
====Gestalt Levels====
After reaching level eight in their first class, the character begins to gain gestalt levels in another class. Gestalt is a rules set that allows characters to have the features of multiple classes without "sacrificing" anything such as caster level progression or the accruement of specific class features. To facilitate this playstyle, gestalt operates as such in the Ealdremen Epic Eight rules:
: For simplicity's sake, characters cannot multiclass under standard Pathfinder rules; if they wish to take on features from another class, they will need to earn gestalt levels.
: Prestige classes are created with multiclassing in mind and cannot gain gestalt levels; as such, prestige classes are not allowed under Ealdremen Epic Eight rules.
: A character must be level eight in at least one class to gestalt level in another class.
: Every time the character gains a level, their base attack bonus increases according to whichever class they have that has the better base attack progression, even if they are not gaining levels in that class anymore. This prevents characters such as a fighter/sorcerer hybrid from feeling limited by what has access to "enough" attack bonus to keep them "viable" for what they want to do.
: Saving throws and skill ranks increase according to whatever class the character just leveled up in; due to the level cap, Ealdremen Epic Eight characters will have more feats than characters of a comparable class level, and they can use those feats to increase their saving throws or bonuses to certain skills if needed.
: When a character levels up, they may only advance one class at a time, not multiple, even if they have multiple classes not yet at level eight.
: Archetypes of classes that the character already has cannot be selected for gestalt levels; their levels count towards levels earned in the base class. For example, a fighter who has five levels in the Tactician archetype could not gestalt level another fighter archetype from level one; instead, those archetypes' levels would count towards their overall fighter levels and "cap" at level eight. Archetypes still follow standard Pathfinder rules, namely, that multiple archetypes on the same character cannot change or replace the same ability.
Category:Game Mechanics