I'm writing a story in the post apocalypse setting and I need some real answers from you guys and what you would do if this scenario was real.
Back Story: Its our modern world and setting, when out of nowhere magic returns to the world. Magic has altered people's DNA/genes to the point where around 40% of the world's population transform into fantasy races. Also, only 1% of people get enhanced as a 1st through 6th Level Class/Subclass. There are also a extremely small amount of people who become powerful intelligent monsters like Vampires, Angels, Devils, Liches, Metallic Dragons, etc.
Plants and animals also get transformed by magic turning them into monsters. These monsters have a small crystals that form inside their hearts that is pure magical essence, pumping magical energy throughout the monsters body, granting them their insane magical abilities. These Essence Crystals can be harvested and are used for several things, they are used in the following ways: 1. Enhanced Individuals use them to level up... 2. Essence Crystals are used as a form of currency... 3. Essence Crystals can be used to craft magic items... 4. Essence Crystals can be used as a substitute for material components in Spellcasting... 5. If a non-Enhanced Individual absorbs 50,000 XP worth of Essence Crystals at once, they have a 50/50 chance to force a Awakening, enhancing them into one of the three Sidekick Classes. If they don't get Enhanced, then they die. However, they just don't die, they explode (dealing 10d6 force damage in a 10ft radius).
Leveling up is extremely hard and takes forever. • Whatever XP a monster has in its stat block, subtract the last number and that's how much XP the monsters Essence Crystal is worth. For example, a Zombie normally has 50 XP in its stat block, but in this scenario, the Zombie only has a Essence Crystal worth 5 XP. • The level progression for levels is also changed. Add a zero to the end of each level requirement to level up. Your progress also resets back to zero when you level up. For example, normally when you level up to 2nd level, it only requires 300 XP and then you only need 600 XP more to level up to 3rd Level. Now it takes 3,000 XP to level up to 2nd level, then your progression resets back to zero. You now need 9,000 XP to level up to 3rd Level.
The military has trouble killing these monsters as they are magically resistant or immune to all non-magical attacks. Because of this, entire areas around the country to the world are completely overrun with monsters and the military can't do anything about it. Russia used a nuke to kill hundreds of powerful monsters, which it did work. However, the monsters in the surrounding area got hit with nuclear fallout, which had unforseen alterations to them. Monsters were able to absorb the nuclear energy and transformed several more times, each time becoming more powerful than before, so guns and nuclear weapons are out of the question.
The monster apocalypse then ensues.
Scenario: You (a non-Enhanced Individual) found yourself in a city where everyone is trying their best to survive, with Enhanced Individuals living way better lives than you. Enhanced Individuals are using their magical abilities to kill monsters, making scavenging runs outside the city for supplies, etc. Because of this, Enhanced Individuals are given more food, water, supplies, better living quarters, etc., then almost everyone else.
You met a powerful Devil that can grant powerful abilities to anyone willing to sign a Infernal Contract. He is offering you a chance to become Enhanced. The following options are available: 1. You get Enhanced as a 1st Level Fiend Warlock. You can do whatever you want, however, the Devil will have you do favors for him every once in a while that you can't refuse. Your soul also belongs to the Devil when you die... 2. You get Enhanced as a 1st Level Sidekick Class of your choice. You will have to pay back the Devil 100,000 XP worth of Essence Crystals within 10 years. If you die before the 10 year period, your soul belongs to the Devil. As well, if you don't pay back the Devil within the 10 years, you instantly die and your soul belongs to the Devil. If you successfully pay back the Devil within the time frame, your soul belongs to you again and you still keep all your enhancements...
The question I pose to you is, what would you do in this Apocalyptic world where monsters are constantly roaming and they can't even be killed easily. 1. Except the deal from the Devil to become a Warlock or a Sidekick Class... 2. Don't except the deal from the Devil... 3. Something else...
P.S. I would like to know your reasoning behind your choice; family, religion, power, revenge, etc.
I a curious, do you have a playgroup that has already signed off on this?
Your levelling math has flaws—just getting from the first level to the second will take 100 times as long (XP is ten times slower; the level requirements are 10 times higher)—and that is before you get to your “you have to go from 0 to the level up amount” idea. Part of the fun of D&D is unlocking new abilities and feeling your players grow—you’re looking at such a rate of levelling that it could take months, or even years, to level up, particularly if you ever hit higher levels.
Another major component of D&D is coming up with your own character—a DM can place some limits on that, but you have a whole lot of limits. “Only okay these three sidekick classes or a Warlock. Hope you didn’t want to play something else! Oh, and you start as vanilla human, enjoy that also!” Limitations on classes are generally big no-nos (even if subclass limitations might be more accepted). Completely limiting your starting race is also a big issue. Frankly, your limitations are such that it really feels like you want a different system than D&D, since you are cutting out such a large key component of D&D.
There are other issues as well, but I think those are the two biggest ones.
The idea of your world could very well work, and a number of your other elements could form a solid basis for a campaign. But, if you do not already have a group, you are going to have a hard time convincing players to join with all the fundamentally antagonistic to D&D’s game design changes you are making. And, even if you do have players or manage to find players, you are going to have a hard time with player retention—it can be hard enough to keep players at the game’s regular speed (either folks get bored or life gets in the way), I cannot imagine how hard it would be if the game was slowed down 100x and folks didn’t feel like they were ever getting to advance in their RPG.
Regarding your actual question, I would pick the Warlock. This “sidekick class” thing is rather undefined and seems limited, and I would rather play a real class than deal with the uncertainty of a “sidekick class.” Additionally, a warlock pact can always be a good place for roleplay and story development, and exploring the warlock-patron relationship is a pretty fun aspect of the game.
I would just like to point out that “(post)Apocalyptic world where monsters are constantly roaming and they can't even be killed easily” pretty much describes every D&D setting that already exists. Just putting that out there. The only real difference is that you’re setting it in the immediate aftermath of the apocalypse instead of far enough into the future where people have already rebuilt to an extent.
Depending on my level of need, I'd either try to steal from the Enhanced people or work for the Enhanced people. The progression of Enhanced people is so slow and so few essence crystals available the Devil's deal seems a near certainty of ending up dead & enslaved by him. Even if enhanced, you're ability to kill monsters is only barely higher than the non-enhanced since magical weaponry would almost certainly be horded by the military, and enhanced people are likely to be impressed into serving the military since the Enhanced people do not have the monsters' resistances to conventional weapons thus regular people can effectively coerce Enhanced people into service. My main goal would be to obtain a magical weapon as that seems to be the key to killing monsters in this situation, and thus getting ahead.
I'm writing a story in the post apocalypse setting and I need some real answers from you guys and what you would do if this scenario was real.
Back Story:
Its our modern world and setting, when out of nowhere magic returns to the world. Magic has altered people's DNA/genes to the point where around 40% of the world's population transform into fantasy races. Also, only 1% of people get enhanced as a 1st through 6th Level Class/Subclass. There are also a extremely small amount of people who become powerful intelligent monsters like Vampires, Angels, Devils, Liches, Metallic Dragons, etc.
Plants and animals also get transformed by magic turning them into monsters. These monsters have a small crystals that form inside their hearts that is pure magical essence, pumping magical energy throughout the monsters body, granting them their insane magical abilities. These Essence Crystals can be harvested and are used for several things, they are used in the following ways:
1. Enhanced Individuals use them to level up...
2. Essence Crystals are used as a form of currency...
3. Essence Crystals can be used to craft magic items...
4. Essence Crystals can be used as a substitute for material components in Spellcasting...
5. If a non-Enhanced Individual absorbs 50,000 XP worth of Essence Crystals at once, they have a 50/50 chance to force a Awakening, enhancing them into one of the three Sidekick Classes. If they don't get Enhanced, then they die. However, they just don't die, they explode (dealing 10d6 force damage in a 10ft radius).
Leveling up is extremely hard and takes forever.
• Whatever XP a monster has in its stat block, subtract the last number and that's how much XP the monsters Essence Crystal is worth. For example, a Zombie normally has 50 XP in its stat block, but in this scenario, the Zombie only has a Essence Crystal worth 5 XP.
• The level progression for levels is also changed. Add a zero to the end of each level requirement to level up. Your progress also resets back to zero when you level up. For example, normally when you level up to 2nd level, it only requires 300 XP and then you only need 600 XP more to level up to 3rd Level. Now it takes 3,000 XP to level up to 2nd level, then your progression resets back to zero. You now need 9,000 XP to level up to 3rd Level.
The military has trouble killing these monsters as they are magically resistant or immune to all non-magical attacks. Because of this, entire areas around the country to the world are completely overrun with monsters and the military can't do anything about it. Russia used a nuke to kill hundreds of powerful monsters, which it did work. However, the monsters in the surrounding area got hit with nuclear fallout, which had unforseen alterations to them. Monsters were able to absorb the nuclear energy and transformed several more times, each time becoming more powerful than before, so guns and nuclear weapons are out of the question.
The monster apocalypse then ensues.
Scenario:
You (a non-Enhanced Individual) found yourself in a city where everyone is trying their best to survive, with Enhanced Individuals living way better lives than you. Enhanced Individuals are using their magical abilities to kill monsters, making scavenging runs outside the city for supplies, etc. Because of this, Enhanced Individuals are given more food, water, supplies, better living quarters, etc., then almost everyone else.
You met a powerful Devil that can grant powerful abilities to anyone willing to sign a Infernal Contract. He is offering you a chance to become Enhanced. The following options are available:
1. You get Enhanced as a 1st Level Fiend Warlock. You can do whatever you want, however, the Devil will have you do favors for him every once in a while that you can't refuse. Your soul also belongs to the Devil when you die...
2. You get Enhanced as a 1st Level Sidekick Class of your choice. You will have to pay back the Devil 100,000 XP worth of Essence Crystals within 10 years. If you die before the 10 year period, your soul belongs to the Devil. As well, if you don't pay back the Devil within the 10 years, you instantly die and your soul belongs to the Devil. If you successfully pay back the Devil within the time frame, your soul belongs to you again and you still keep all your enhancements...
The question I pose to you is, what would you do in this Apocalyptic world where monsters are constantly roaming and they can't even be killed easily.
1. Except the deal from the Devil to become a Warlock or a Sidekick Class...
2. Don't except the deal from the Devil...
3. Something else...
P.S.
I would like to know your reasoning behind your choice; family, religion, power, revenge, etc.
I a curious, do you have a playgroup that has already signed off on this?
Your levelling math has flaws—just getting from the first level to the second will take 100 times as long (XP is ten times slower; the level requirements are 10 times higher)—and that is before you get to your “you have to go from 0 to the level up amount” idea. Part of the fun of D&D is unlocking new abilities and feeling your players grow—you’re looking at such a rate of levelling that it could take months, or even years, to level up, particularly if you ever hit higher levels.
Another major component of D&D is coming up with your own character—a DM can place some limits on that, but you have a whole lot of limits. “Only okay these three sidekick classes or a Warlock. Hope you didn’t want to play something else! Oh, and you start as vanilla human, enjoy that also!” Limitations on classes are generally big no-nos (even if subclass limitations might be more accepted). Completely limiting your starting race is also a big issue. Frankly, your limitations are such that it really feels like you want a different system than D&D, since you are cutting out such a large key component of D&D.
There are other issues as well, but I think those are the two biggest ones.
The idea of your world could very well work, and a number of your other elements could form a solid basis for a campaign. But, if you do not already have a group, you are going to have a hard time convincing players to join with all the fundamentally antagonistic to D&D’s game design changes you are making. And, even if you do have players or manage to find players, you are going to have a hard time with player retention—it can be hard enough to keep players at the game’s regular speed (either folks get bored or life gets in the way), I cannot imagine how hard it would be if the game was slowed down 100x and folks didn’t feel like they were ever getting to advance in their RPG.
Regarding your actual question, I would pick the Warlock. This “sidekick class” thing is rather undefined and seems limited, and I would rather play a real class than deal with the uncertainty of a “sidekick class.” Additionally, a warlock pact can always be a good place for roleplay and story development, and exploring the warlock-patron relationship is a pretty fun aspect of the game.
This is for a story.
I was just wondering how many people would accept the Devil’s deal or decline it in real life.
I would just like to point out that “(post)Apocalyptic world where monsters are constantly roaming and they can't even be killed easily” pretty much describes every D&D setting that already exists. Just putting that out there. The only real difference is that you’re setting it in the immediate aftermath of the apocalypse instead of far enough into the future where people have already rebuilt to an extent.
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Depending on my level of need, I'd either try to steal from the Enhanced people or work for the Enhanced people. The progression of Enhanced people is so slow and so few essence crystals available the Devil's deal seems a near certainty of ending up dead & enslaved by him. Even if enhanced, you're ability to kill monsters is only barely higher than the non-enhanced since magical weaponry would almost certainly be horded by the military, and enhanced people are likely to be impressed into serving the military since the Enhanced people do not have the monsters' resistances to conventional weapons thus regular people can effectively coerce Enhanced people into service. My main goal would be to obtain a magical weapon as that seems to be the key to killing monsters in this situation, and thus getting ahead.