Asymetrical characters

My philosophy on RPGs is to make things work in a way that bucks a key current convention, player symmetry. By player symmetry I mean the deliberate design philosophy that all characters have the same capacity for problem solving and combat. I want players at different capabilities and levels playing together. Of course this creates different balance issues as I don't want players left out or to create one person running away with the group.


In order to facilitate my philosophy I brought back the old exponential experience curves. The curve gives lower level characters a chance to catch up as high level characters require so much experience to advance compared to low level ones. In addition some classes are on faster experience curves than others. This provides an exceptional opportunity for bringing balance in. More powerful classes can be put in slower advancement curves.

Now while I love asymmetry that doesn't mean that there isn't balance. Balance comes from different directions. Slow XP discourages certain classes mostly the high powered and magic using classes. The faster XP classes however while usually weaker start gaining followers faster. In my case PCs start gaining individual followers starting at level 4. It may sound early to most campaigns to add followers but it's taken my current group a year to get to level 3.So while the thief may be limited in their power getting followers faster means they can catch up with a more powerful caster class though additional characters.

While I like Pathfinder as a base rules set the leveling is way too fast.