psudodrake

Remedy Entertainment, starting with the game Control, began their "Remedy Connected Universe"

Alan Wake 1 and its semi-sequel "American Nightmare" just stood alone by itself, as did Control in its vanilla content, but then Control got the DLC "AWE". AWE introduced that the worlds of Alan Wake and Control were in the same world, and further introduced all of their symbolism, and it's here where the two start to strongly blend into each other.

In regards to Alan Wake 2, I need to draw your attention to certain things:

The first of which, is Mister Door. In the Vanilla version of Control, prior to AWE and Foundation, Jesse Faden speaks to her brother Dylan Faden. This is like the 5th or 6th time you talk to Dylan, but here's where he tells you about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A95jhVWDA94

He mentions that when he was in a "Dark Place" he met with a "Dark Man" named Mister Door.

In this same conversation, Dylan tells of a world where a "Writer" wrote a story about a "Cop", and in another world that Cop was real!

Door said he was in all of these worlds at the same time, which SUGGESTS some sort of connection to Quantum Break, another remedy game.

All of that bears weight in Alan Wake 2

Now paying attention to the AWE DLC, there is one thing that indicates the Dark Place and the Writer's Room in the game, and that is the black spiral found on a door within the Ocean View Hotel. Remember all of this.

Now onto Alan Wake 2

In this game, there are TWO protagonists... Alan Wake, who's in the Dark Place, and Saga Anderson, an FBI Agent who is in the real world investigating a string of murders.

Though Remedy calls Alan Wake 2 a "Survival Horror", it honestly is more of the same from Alan Wake 1. A lot of the gameplay elements remain the same there.

A Taken comes for you, shine a light on them to break their shadow armor, and then fill them full of lead. Rinse and repeat. That's the survival aspect of the game, plain and simple. You forage for some stuff, manage a limited inventory, beat up some bad guys... and where that all sounds droll and simplistic, it's the HORROR aspect that they dialed up to 11.

Alan Wake 1 makes you afraid of the dark. Alan Wake 2 makes you have convoluted dreams because it gets in your head so deeply! There are jump scares, sure, but it's a PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR... which is the best kind. Experiencing such horror will drive one to delve down into a level of madness to complete the game. There are plans within plans within plans.

The timelines of Wake and Saga are experienced by you in a linear format, but because time is meaningless in the dark place, what's REALLY happening is that the beginning of Saga's adventure is the end of Wake's adventure. They are playing in opposite directions with each other, meeting in the middle at some places.

Specifically all through Wake's experiences in the Dark Place, you will see the spiral symbol everywhere, especially in regards to the doorway to the Writer's room. Grafitti and signs are all guilt trips on him that he failed people he loves, telling him he's lost and will never get out, or he's going the wrong way.

Saga's experience in the real world is trying to uncover a vastly branching conspiracy that involves uncovering the origins of a cult she experiences, and likewise finding everyone's part in it in the people she meets with... while at the same time, the story that Wake wrote is twisting and changing her life with far-reaching effects. And interestingly enough, all through HER playthrough, you encounter the FBC (Federal Bureau of Control) with ever increasing regularity.

As an additional note, her partner... is one Alex Casey.

Remember Dylan's words where there was one world where an author (Wake) wrote about a cop (Alex) and in another world (the world Saga was in) that cop was real. That's her partner, and they have the same name. But... the man, the voice actor, face and talent of Alex Casey, is the same as Max Payne. Now that Remedy owns the rights to Max Payne, that means Payne's world is now in the Remedy Connected Universe too, exemplified by the world that Alan Wake is in being referenced as "Noir York" by some, which is the world that May Payne / Alex Casey takes place in. The reason for that is that Alan Wake uses that world as a backdrop to write within in an attempt to escape the dark place. So exciting!

Story version of Alex Casey is in the Dark Place in the form of story echoes (more on that inna sec) and he's Saga's actual partner in the real world.

Alan Wake's playthrough he changes the world he's within in one of two ways: through light, and through story.

Through light is an expansion on the flashlight gimick from the first game. In this case, Alan gets this tool (won't say what it is to avoid spoilers) where he can rob a bright lightsource from a place, or if he has light stored, give it to a place that needs light. Whenever he does this, the scenery INSTANTLY changes! Remedy learned a lot from Control, and they expounded upon that in this game, and it really shows. The second thing that he does to control the Dark Place is through story queues. He uncovers an echo, normally with Alex Casey in it acting out as the detective cop from his book, and in a site within the darkplace identified as a "Scene" he can go into his writer's room in an instant, and rewrite the scene with that queue. And again, INSTANTLY... the scene changes with different lighting, props, back drop, even enemies. I switched scenes once and instantly got grabbed by an enemy that just so happened to be in the room at the time. His method of progressing through the story, he needs to change these scenes with newer and newer queues.

And HERE... is where that psychological horror comes in. You might find yourself turning the lights on and looking over your shoulder, which isn't something I've done since the game F.E.A.R.

Saga's role is to solve a murder. And in the form of the BBC's "Sherlock" with Benedict Cumberbatch, she has a Mind Palace she calls her "Mind Place".

In this place she takes clues that she finds and places them on a wall with bits of red string linking thought chains together. Also in this place she can "Profile" people and really "Get into their heads" to find out what they're thinking, and she does that with multiple different people. Clues that she finds out in profiling people can be used as prompts to further her investigation and lead her to new places.

In each area, her goal is to enter into what is known as "The Overlap" which is a real place that layers itself into the Dark Place. The method of entering such a place deals with a measure of ritual and symbolism. In both the Overlap and the Darkplace, "Dream Logic" pervails. You can find yourself endlessly looping around corners, or teleporting from one place to another just because you went through a few choice doors.

There are collectibles in either world that makes the one person collecting them stronger, like extra inventory space and bennefits to healing or life, etc. Saga can earn charms that go on a charm bracelet her daughter gave her, while Wake finds words of power that increases his abilities. Saga also searches for these Alex Casey boxes with encouraging notes within them and these stashes from the cult she searches for, along with riddles that she uses these dolls with to get more charms.

There's a lot of forces in this game vying for control. Other than Saga and Wake just trying to get by, we have the Dark Presense that wants to kill wake and is constantly hunting him. His minions, dark entities, are all throughout the Dark Place and relentlessly follow and attack him.

And then we have Mister Door...

Based upon the conversation with Dylan Fater in Control, Mister Door has the ability to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. As is said in the game, when you have two rooms and a door in between them, the door is in both rooms.

At first, Mister Door is trying to redirect Alan Wake's actions... till he stops trying to do it subtly and starts to do it more directly. Do this... stop doing that... and then no more Mister Door. I have a theory about Mister Door that I'll reveal at the end here, but he's an enigmatic force that knows a lot more than he lets on.

Now... one thing that can be derrived from the AW2 trailers, is that the Ocean View Hotel is in Alan Wake as well. But not like it was in Control. In Control, the hotel was a single hallway with doors down both wings, and you can never get into the casino portion. Using "Dream Logic" (There's that phrase again), you navigate through the hotel and arrive in other places.

It's an entire level in Alan Wake 2... and a CREEPY one at that. But as always, the symbolism remains. The question is... can the hotel be used like a portal world like Jessie does in Control? That is suggested by the name alone, but isn't addressed in the game.

Returning characters from AW1 are as follows:

- Cynthia Weaver a.k.a. the "Lamp Lady", former Fiance of Thomas Zane, a poet and moviewriter... till Thomas wrote himself out of her life and tore a gaping hole in hers. She was the caretaker of The Clicker - which you BET returns in AW2 - only now her role as the lamp lady is over. So what happens to her now?

- Rose Marigold - in AW1, she was Wake's biggest fan. Still is, in fact, but in AW1 she got taken over by the Dark Presense as a Taken... briefly. She was released, and that didn't really leave her all to sane in the end. She's disjointed and happens to remember things from previous realities.

- Tor and Odin Anderson! THAT'S RIGHT! The "Old Gods of Asgard" make a triumphant return! 10 years into the future though, so... they're retiring. But wait... Saga Anderson? Tor and Odin Anderson? Is there a connection there??

Nevertheless, the Old Gods of Asgard are a favorite of Remedy. Never heard of them prior to a Remedy game, but they were in the retreat that Alan's wife sends him to in AW1, the same one with the douchebag running it that makes his way into the AWE DLC of Control, and had that wicked level at their farm where one of their songs is blazing, and your defending yourself from Taken, with firepots going off and everything. BUT! They are also the voice talents behind the song "Take Control" when you do the MADDENING Ashtray Maze in Control. Here it is for reference --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nudSXUMBEV4&t=70s

But in Alan Wake 2, they do not 1, but TWO songs, one with Alan Wake and again with Saga Anderson, that remain quite epic as always. Makes me wanna get their CD!

But their presence is REMARKABLY Viking in origin. Tor = Thor, Odin is of course the All Father and refers to himself as such in AW2. In Control there were also certain Viking references all over the place in the Vanilla game but also in the DLC "Foundation". Most notably being the Nail itself. Combine that with Norse references to Yggdrasil, and it's strongly suggested that the Oldest House is actually the Millenium Tree Yggdrasil in the shape of a 20th century sky rise.

But despite all of the Viking references... there is one friend we all know and love that makes multiple appearances both in the Dark Place and the Real World... and that's the Finn... AHTI!

Same dude! Doing simple things! Guiding us with his words of advice... and in all actuality, when you journey to the town of Watery as Saga Anderson, you happen upon the same little cabin on the water that you see Ahti at, dressed only in a towel, once he leaves on his "Vacation." He'd been planning to come to Cauldron Lake the entire time he was in Control.

But if Tor and Odin are Norse Gods, what is Ahti? The fact he can get around places he shouldn't suggests he's extra special like they are. A God... only not a Norse one, he's instead a Finnish god of the same name... which is a God of WATER. God of Water... Cauldron Lake... hmm?!!

Ahti helps you both out directly or indirectly here and there, by making paths available or opening locked doors. He's the Janitor! He can get you places, and if you need a key, the janitor always has it.

Now for gameplay.

Admittedly... I think my graphics card is finally hitting the end of the road. I need a new one, because I had to play the game on low everything, without Godrays or blenders or renderers working, and it was slow and choppy in places. I blame my machine, not the game. The game, if all of that is active and working in ultra, which you'd get on PC with a better card than mine, or on PS5, then it'll be immensely graphicly impressive as a game! It was graphicly impressive even on low settings.

As I mentioned earlier, the track of breaking shadow armor with light and then blasting a shadow or a taken is a throwback from the original game. The only thing I'm glad at is that there's no massive mechanisms like a steam shovel or a train car trying to run me over if I don't break its shadow armor first. Instead, they have barriers with multiple points you had to shine your light on. Those go down REAL QUICK with a flare.

The problem solving and environmental story and the puzzles are top-notch. There were some tricky math problems with Saga's playthrough that I found annoying, but I still solved. Worst case look up the solutions online.

Piecing the story together through Saga's deductive reasoning was fun and entertaining, and changing scenes and the world in the Dark Place with Alan Wake was engaging to find a puzzle piece, or a hidden item or stash, or to acquire a power or a weapon. Sometimes you had to be inside an enclosure before you change light or story prompts in a place, and in some places, BOTH were needed to get into places. Remember... Dream Logic.

Is it Game of the Year worthy? Mm... maybe. It's a contender, but I wouldn't hold my breath. But if you're a fan of Remedy games, you want this piece to the connected universe for the fullness of the story.

And the STORY! Goodness, does Remedy have good writers. The Story between AW1, American Nightmare, Control and AW2 where they're all interconnected is TOP NOTCH! Unparalelled.

You want more introspection upon their universe (and other games) then check this guy out: Gaming University --> https://www.youtube.com/@GamingUniversityUoG

This guy goes into psychological analysis of a LOT of control, making linkages and explaining things you wouldn't otherwise figure out. Plus his voice is great to listen to.

TL:DR - Alan Wake is a wonderful story. Graphicly stunning! And the "Survival" element is more of the same from AW1, but is passable. The Horor aspect though... deffinitely had me nervous, scared and anxious on more than one ocassion.

And now... SPOILERS!

Don't read past this point if you want to avoid them...

Here's what I think:

- There is a linkage between Alan Wake, Thomas Zane and Scratch. Who's Tom Zane? Tom Zane is a character who arrives as the diver surrounded in light in Alan Wake 1. He's a poet and a filmmaker who wrote himself out of existance to save his fiance Cynthia Weaver. But he TOO is trapped in the Dark Place. However... in AW2, Tor and Odin, whenever they refer to Alan... they refer to him as "Tom", not Alan. The fact that when you meet Tom in the Dark place and he looks EXACTLY like Alan is no coincidence either. Scratch was introduced in the followup to Alan Wake "American Nightmare." ANOTHER person who looks EXACTLY like Alan Wake. Is Tom Zane also Alan Wake also Scratch? What I will say is that AW2 confirms one of those things for sure.

- Mr. Door is Saga Anderson's Father - This is VAGUELY hinted at. Tor (Thor... guy is KNOWN for carrying a hammer around with him, first a toy in AW1 and then a real hammer in AW2) Anderson is revealed to be Saga's grandfather. That makes Saga a demigoddess at the least. They come right out and say that when you meet them in Watery. But Tor didn't like Saga's father. Saga's mother never mentioned him. But when Alan meets Mr. Door for the last time, Door says he involved someone he cares for a lot, and the only person he involved recently... is Saga. Between these two instances, it's strongly suggested that Door is Saga's father.

- Dr. Darling is in the Dark Place - Dr. Darling is the eccentric scientists who ran the science departments at the FBC till he... BECAME... something else. It's not said what or how he became anything, and this is a reference that happens so quickly you'll miss it. The first time Wake meets Tom Zane, there is a television you look at for story reasons, and there's a flash of Dr. Darling in that television!

It appears as if VCL (Vixen Controlled Library) is now offline.

I was notified by several fans, and I wish to thank you all for letting me know.

The bad news... the site is down. I have no idea if it's ever going to be brought back online.

The good news is that I've backed up all my stories, and you can find nearly all of them here.

Thanks for reading... and have a good weekend.

I've long been following the GoW series, all the way back from the PS1 days, through the PSP, and right up to current systems.

I played it on the PS4 (because I can't afford a PS5 yet) and it looks gloriously beautiful still. People say there isn't much of a difference between PS4 and PS5 versions.

Same as the previous game, but they added more life into it in the form of critters that move about. Not really important to the game, but it fills out the world more.

What also fills the world out, is that there is SO~OOO MUCH DIALOG! You're moving along and characters comment on this and that... or tell stories... or interact with each other. Like the previous game, but they do it more.

Combine that with the fact that you can go to all nine of the realms in one form or another and for the first time since the PS1 and PS2 days... I had a multi-disk installation. Some of you young whipper snappers might not know what that is, but it means that you have to switch disks to either play or fully install the whole game. I think Final Fantasy 9 was the last game I played that pulled that trick.

In a lot of areas, they use the exact same set pieces as the previous game, only they covered it with snow. You see that a lot in Midgard. Another place you see that is in Alfheim - place with the light and dark elves perpetually at war with each other - only the Temple of Light doesn't have a dark elf hive in it. You also enter it from the bottom instead of the top.

I don't say this often, especially with rising prices on games these days, but I do feel that this game warrants the $60 price tag. I WANTED to platinum this. I WANTED to get 100% on everything just to experience all that there was.

The neat thing is that Kratos doesn't exclusively run around with Atraeus the whole game. Not gonna spoil who else he tools with, it's too good of an addition.

Atreaus/Loki tools around with people other than Kratos as well. He's growing into a man now, and he has his own skills and abilities. The final battle of the game switches perspective multiple times... flawlessly too, with no camera switching or lag. It was pretty dang smart, to be honest.

The puzzles are imaginative, the Muselpheim Challenges aren't nearly as mind-numbingly difficult as the previous game, there's no poisonous labyrinth time killer anymore either. I platinumed this game, but I didn't platinum the previous one, if you know what I mean, for that reason... though I DID fight all the Valkyries, including Sigrun in the previous game.

And that is an important note, because this game assumes you fought and beat all the Valkyries.

Doing side quests opens up some of the fun in the game... like the crater in Vanaheim.

Overall, I found very little tedium in the game.

The two hardest bosses beyond the end boss are optional (I'll save that for people who don't want spoilers as to who they are), but yes, one of them is a Valkyrie. I'd destroy story if I said who it was. The other is the Berzerker King, who, he and his followers, replace the Valkyries in this game as the difficult optional bosses. I had to crank the difficulty all the way DOWN to wuss! To defeat them... otherwise I played most of the game on just above wuss.

The story is deeply engaging, starting right where the optional secret ending of the previous game ended with a dream sequence (provided you got 100% and activated it)

There is a secret ending to this game... but you don't have to 100% it, you just have to beat it.

They also go DEEP into Norse Lore in this one. The story is vast and you get more history from Mimir and others in this game to finish the story.

Oh yes, there will NOT be a third game in this series of GoW. They already announced it. This is the capper of the Norse mythology... and quite possibly the end of Kratos's story. Again... I'm not gonna tell you HOW that happens, it reveals itself in the ending.

What it is, however, is the beginning of Loki/Atraeus's story.

Now this is a bit of my own supposition... but I believe the Next God of War... will focus on Atraeus. I mean... the can't just leave it where they did! What's the end of the story?! And the history of Loki in Norse Mythology... that's where all the entertainment is found anyways!

And now for the downside... which aren't really downsides for me.

There were maybe a couple of spots where a load screen appears. That happens when I'm running and an area needs to load and it can't load everything in immediately. Then there was a visual glitch when I was changing difficulties at one point, but that's it.

The only character I had a problem with - and it's a nitpick - was Odin. Odin was supremely intelligent, sure, but his personality didn't come off as a man with a plan, but rather like he was some scheister from New York. A con man. And boy... does he work the long cons.

Thor was EXACTLY what I expected him to be like.

Other characters you kinda nod and go... ok... I believe that's a good portrayal... but Odin felt... off.

But as I said... it's a nitpick. And not enough to dock this game a rating.

I give it a 10 out of 10 on every level possible. A must for your collection (if this type of game is your thing, that is)

The Current edition of Dungeons and Dragons (5th ed) has a level cap of 20 for the most part. You can go over that, sure, there are rules for that, of course, but it doesn't feel... heroic. Epic.

The publishers who currently own Dungeons and Dragons (Wizards of the Coast... the same people who bring you Magic the Gathering) are dragging their feet when it comes to high level gaming. Even their website D&D Beyond has their character sheets capped at 20. I'm currently trying to see how my idea works with them, but in the meantime, here's something different:

As the experience lists for all toons regardless of class are all even, you can use the same XP chart for all of this.

Start your toons at 0th level characters. The reason for this is that no character, none whatsoever in the history of ever, starts off as an adventurer. This method will give you a means to start a toon off at their literal roots and develop their story. At the same time, I do this is so you can quick start the game rather fast. You toons won't have anything to their name and you don't spend an entire gaming sessions trying to develop a character, min/max them, pick equipment, etc.

Using this method I can typically fast start a game in under fifteen minutes.

Players pick their name, gender, race and other characteristics and then roll their stats. They get their racial abilities and their background abilities with base HP equal to their Constitution. Start them as children, or at least youthful party members. Dragonborn can be freshly hatched, Warforged could be right out of the forge or straight out of the box and similar.

The first adventure is their origin story. How did they start adventuring, how did they meet the other party members? Where'd the BBEG come from? Once you finish their first adventure, they become level 1

Now here's where it gets tricky...

The first class that a player can chose is extremely basic. This class, whatever it is, forms the core of their being, and they will subsequently be restricted to choosing between basic classes of Fighter, Thief, Mage, and Priest.

And a word here about Magic: as a further option, when a character choses their "Mage" class, they need to choose their path-to-power. Mage is a broad term, and it could be a standard Wizard, but it could also be a Sorcerer, or even a Psionicist... perhaps a Warlock, where they must make a pact with a patron of some sort to gain their power. As a part of this optional magic system, once a toon has chosen their path-to-power, they might not be able to explore another path for a long... ass... time. And choosing one path might make something happen to their other classes.

For instance, what happens to a Paladin who suddenly gains a demonic Patron and goes Warlock? That Paladin falls, don't they? Depending upon the DM, that could mean that all Paladin class levels get turned into something like a Death Knight - or - they LOOSE all their Paladin and maybe even Cleric levels (see below) when they spec into this particular path to power.

Sometimes a fall to a character is just as important as their rise in their development...

Also, Certain Paths-to-power would likewise allow or disallow access to certain classes. But then... what IF a Cleric chose Warlock but their Patron just so happened to be a Celestial or an Angel? In that way, the power would coincide... get creative.

Beneath that you have the Advanced Classes, which cannot be higher than their associated base classes. As an example, say a character wants to be a cleric. To be a cleric, you have to have a character base level of 1, and have trained as a level 1 priest and a level 1 fighter in order to be a level 1 Cleric.

Note that you have to dual class into Fighter/Priest before you can become a Cleric. Why? Because Clerics train both in their faith and in their sword before they set out from their church on quests for their faith. The method of dual classing first again establishes a back story. Where they someone of the cloth who picked up a sword, or were they someone who lived and died by the sword who found their god and decided to serve them?

For your perusal, here are some of the other Advanced Classes I found in the PHB and what would be needed to acquire them with this gaming method:

- Barbarian (Fighter)

- Bard (Rouge, Mage)

- Cleric (Fighter, Priest)

- Druid (Mage)

- Monk (Fighter, Priest)

- Ranger (Fighter, Rouge, Mage/Druid)

Beneath the Advanced classes are the Heroic Classes. Continuing our previous example, let's say that the Cleric continues in martial training and becomes a Paladin. To be a level 1 Paladin , they would've had to first choose either fighter or priest as their base class, then chose the other fighter or priest class to dual class, then choose Cleric, and then they could chose Paladin.

Each step of this there is RPing. How do they approach each step to finally take their oaths and become a Paladin for their god?

And to go to a level 2 Paladin at this point, they'd first have to level Fighter and Priest, and then Cleric to level 2, before they could finally make Paladin a Level 2.

Within the Default PHB, there is only one Heroic Class that I can see, which is Paladin, and we discussed how to access Paladins above.

But Paladin is a name. You can very much change it into "Knight" or "Dragoon" or "Cavalier" depending upon the feats of the character. Heck... depending upon your Campaign, this role can even be "Dragon Rider".

Another option is to change up the "Path-to-Power" I discussed earlier. One must be a Wizard before they can be a sorcerer, before they can become a warlock. It's up to the GM ultimately.

I can also consider that the role of Ranger Can also be considered a Heroic-Level Class, because if you see above, it's the only role where I consider that three basic character classes, or two basic and 1 advanced, are needed in which to acquire it. consider Aragorn for example.

Some Homebrews have also created "The Witcher" class after Andrzej Sapkowski's books, and would be another triple-basic class role of Fighter, Rouge, Mage in order to acquire it. And as we know how The Witcher 3 ended (possibly, depending upon your choices) we see someone who didn't go through the Trial of the Grasses become a Witcher. Character development! Glee!

Looking outside the core PHB, there's also the possibility of "Artificer" to be a Heroic Level class. And this is a continuation of the Path of Power. Wizard > Sorcerer > Artificer.

Now... something to consider:

According to the current D&D Rules, when you multiclass into any class beyond the first, then each class that you're going to has a stack of what you gain - Feats - when you multiclass into that class. Same goes for this optional rule you're reading now...

For example: If you look at Paladin, who in the typical character generation rules when you start off with them, you start off with a piece of heavy armor. Not when you multiclass. Instead, you get Medium armor, and if you already have medium armor (like with Fighter) then you don't get anything here. Instead, in order to gain Heavy Armor, you must spend a feat to obtain it.

Again, with our Paladin example, this is considered "Earning your Platemail." Roleplay this act. They earn a feat, they spend it in Heavy Armor, which equates to the character training in practice heavy armor before they get their first set... most likely a breastplate or something similar.

Enforcing this Multiclass restriction is a balance decision to keep things from growing too big too fast. They will get a LOT of feats... and this method is a sink to keep them from growing too powerful too early. Yes, the goal is to reach a level of power gaming... but that's down the line.

Further to this, are the Specializations of each class. Regardless of class, once you get to third level in that class you can choose ONE (1) specialization. I am seeing some Homebrew high level rules out there for leveling a character level over 20 to choose a second specialization, but say you want a 2nd specialization in Paladin for example. That would mean that you'd need to also level Fighter, Priest and Cleric over 20 as well... so a Pally at level 23 would literally have a total of 92 levels of all their different character classes to get that way.

That said, there is a good damn reason why someone would stick with one of the basic classes and spend all their XP there instead. A fighter that's spent all their XP just in the fighter class will be able to dual-specialize at level 46 as opposed to level 92 like the Pally did, so in half the time.

And a word on Specializations...

Some specializations start digging into other of the basic skills. Let's take the Blade Singer as an example. The Blade Singer is a Fighter Class... that has magical abilities. so therefore, before a GM let's their player spec into that class, you can have them level a magical class up to level 3 as well. Or not. Maybe that Blade Singer Specialization is HOW they get introduced to their Path-Of-Power and maybe they don't want to expand upon it beyond that point. Up to the DM.

As your toons gain levels, you will of course be adding the appropriate HP Dice, adding feats, and so on based on the class.

Magic-users raise at a D4, Rouges as a D6, Fighters as a D8... and so on.

But... as these are HEROIC characters, an additional optional rule is that they automatically get the MAXIMUM HP available per level. And yes... it can quite possibly get them into high level gaming quickly as this absolutely makes damage-spongy characters real quick, because they're gaining hit points, spells, abilities and so on as their classes advance. So why do it?

We'll use Batman as an example. Batman is a Genius, Billionaire, Philanthropist, Detective, Pilot, Escape Artist, Master of Disguise... Fluent in Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, French, Latin, German, Russian... Master of 127 forms of armed and unarmed combat, including Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Muay Thai, Karate, Boxing, Jui Jitsu, Ninjutsu with degrees in Criminal Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Biology and High Technology Applications... just like the meme.

Batman is a mortal among literal gods like Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern... but what makes Batman so awesome?

Two Words: His Villains.

To have characters of this overwhelming capability, you must have enemies of the same caliber.

That's where Monsters with Character levels come into play. That's where hordes come into play, like Dynasty Warriors.

Having run this with my friends, my campaign went on for 5 YEARS because it was so fun, and by the end I had them going up against the actual Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

But... this is still under development and I have not yet used it in the current version of D&D. The last version I used it in was 2nd ed... mainly because that's where we had all the books, and we didn't want to move any higher.

Now... a caveat, since I'm on the subject of 2nd ed. And that Caveat is: Dark Sun's Dragon Kings.

The Sphere of Dark Sun is a D&D World that lies in Infamy, and ranks up there with Ravenloft. But the Dragon Kings expansion was geared for high level gaming, and within it's pages are what I will term "God-Tier Classes". And those Classes are transforming your toon into Greatest Elementals, Preservers... and Dragons.

Since the Magic System - I think - hasn't evolved much since 2nd ed... you can still incorporate this tier of classes. Getting to it is half the fun.

But all you mad ones out there, please let me know what you think. Ask questions! I'll do my best to flesh it out.

In my stories, I have a band called Six Inch Heroes of Chaos or SIHC (sick... and thank you Fellania-BloodClaw for coming up with the name).

In times past I've referred them to Nightwish, but just in case you haven't investigated Nightwish, please allow me to introduce you now:

It is my honest opinion that Floor Jansen (Current lead vocalist) is a Siren.

On lists of top female vocalists, Nightwish has had 2 of the top 5, and Floor is definitely my number one.

She's also dating the drummer for Sabaton, so there's also that :)