Goal: Allow players to specify a character's ability at different levels, and provide a slider to move between those levels.
Example: I create a level 1 barbarian, Thagomizer. Then I give him another level of barbarian, and then I bump him to level 6. The UI provides me with a slider that lets me see Thagomizer at levels 1, 2, or 6.
[Implementation issues] Editing Thag at lower levels is tricky. Initially, you can pop up a warning saying that changing Thag at level 2 will blow away level 6. A more sophisticated approach would do the equivalent of a software merge, that is, carry over whatever choices you can, but disable any higher-level choices that aren't compatible. A third and easier approach is to provide a way to link together multiple characters which are really the same character at different levels, leaving it to the user to maintain coherence.
For the time being, what I've been doing is creating multiple copies of the character. I'll create it at level 20. Then I'll make a copy, and edit it to lower its level (and to remove the words "Copy of" from its name). I'll do this a few times, if needed, basically at any point where a significant choice is made in the build progression. It would be quite tedious to do it 20 times.
I don't even think it needs to blow away level 6... they already have the logic there for handling when you change a choice from a lower level at that newer features/choices rely on. For example, you can take a level 20 wizard and change your subclass choice at level 1, and any choices that depended on that original choice are deselected so you can choose them again. Basically all that needs to be done is have a master "hidden level 20" sheet for the character (you can generate this now, just make a new character and immediately after choosing a class, set the level to 20, all choices are left unmade until you make them), and then have a "proxy" temporary sheet that only shows you abilities up to a given level. If you change something at the lower levels, that change is made on the "master" level 20 sheet, and any choices you change would be reflected for all versions of that character.
The biggest issue, I suspect, would be for inventory stuff. There's currently nothing in place that would restrict your +3 armor from showing up on your level 1 version of the character, but I think that's probably fine for most people, asking them to build a level-controlled inventory system is probably a bit overkill.
That being said, I suppose doing the same thing manually, as ApostleO mentions wouldn't be the end of the world for most cases. Make your level 20 version of the character, and when you want to use a lower level version of them, make a copy yourself and then roll the level down to what you need. My use case for this functionality is mostly for being able to pull out a given character for one-shot adventures regardless of the level of the adventure, so manually making a lower level copy would work fine for that.
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Goal: Allow players to specify a character's ability at different levels, and provide a slider to move between those levels.
Example: I create a level 1 barbarian, Thagomizer. Then I give him another level of barbarian, and then I bump him to level 6. The UI provides me with a slider that lets me see Thagomizer at levels 1, 2, or 6.
[Implementation issues] Editing Thag at lower levels is tricky. Initially, you can pop up a warning saying that changing Thag at level 2 will blow away level 6. A more sophisticated approach would do the equivalent of a software merge, that is, carry over whatever choices you can, but disable any higher-level choices that aren't compatible. A third and easier approach is to provide a way to link together multiple characters which are really the same character at different levels, leaving it to the user to maintain coherence.
I'd appreciate this.
For the time being, what I've been doing is creating multiple copies of the character. I'll create it at level 20. Then I'll make a copy, and edit it to lower its level (and to remove the words "Copy of" from its name). I'll do this a few times, if needed, basically at any point where a significant choice is made in the build progression. It would be quite tedious to do it 20 times.
I don't even think it needs to blow away level 6... they already have the logic there for handling when you change a choice from a lower level at that newer features/choices rely on. For example, you can take a level 20 wizard and change your subclass choice at level 1, and any choices that depended on that original choice are deselected so you can choose them again. Basically all that needs to be done is have a master "hidden level 20" sheet for the character (you can generate this now, just make a new character and immediately after choosing a class, set the level to 20, all choices are left unmade until you make them), and then have a "proxy" temporary sheet that only shows you abilities up to a given level. If you change something at the lower levels, that change is made on the "master" level 20 sheet, and any choices you change would be reflected for all versions of that character.
The biggest issue, I suspect, would be for inventory stuff. There's currently nothing in place that would restrict your +3 armor from showing up on your level 1 version of the character, but I think that's probably fine for most people, asking them to build a level-controlled inventory system is probably a bit overkill.
That being said, I suppose doing the same thing manually, as ApostleO mentions wouldn't be the end of the world for most cases. Make your level 20 version of the character, and when you want to use a lower level version of them, make a copy yourself and then roll the level down to what you need. My use case for this functionality is mostly for being able to pull out a given character for one-shot adventures regardless of the level of the adventure, so manually making a lower level copy would work fine for that.