Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Felonious Monk 10-30-04, 02:53 AM	Do you usually start out at level one and shoot for level 20? Have you even ever made it that far? Do you go Epic or just tie up loose ends and retire at level 20? Do the characters change roleplay-wise or is the level 20 version basically what the level 1 version wanted to become? In the campaign I ran, we spent about twelve sessions getting to level 6. Then the particular adventure stopped and I handed over the reins to another DM, who started us at level 3 (we're at 9 or 10 right now). I guess we have a short attention span, because those are the two greatest changes in level in a campaign. What's the largest stretch of levels you've ever gone through?
xmcknight 10-30-04, 04:23 AM	We normally start either 1st or 2nd. It is player choice. No we don't go to 20. We normally manage to kill the PCs off around 10 to 15. That is not me killing them as the DM, that is the players getting tired of the same character and wanting to play something new. Also, we tend to play lower magic games. So it gets really hard staying alive past 10th level if you don't have a huge stash of magic items.
simen_88 10-30-04, 12:14 PM	The current record with my F2F group is level 2.
Seeker95 10-30-04, 04:35 PM	I start at level 1. Many of the higher level powers are very attractive until you consider the sacrifices that must be made along the way. Starting your campaign at a higher level tends to involve having players select powers that they would have ignored because of the prerequisites and requirements that they would not have chosen. It's like long term investment. Everyone would love amillion dollars in the bank when they retire. But few seem willing to invest $100 a week from the day they get a job (assuming you start after college) and leave it alone until you retire. They can think of so many other things to do with the money along the way. Level advancement is the same way. My current campaign just hit 8th level in six months. My highest attainment is 15th level, but that was under 2e. I will not play epic level because I do not want to learn a completely new ruleset. However, if my players do not complete the campaign objectives by 20th level, I will expand the level advancement anyway... home rules for all of it.
The Shaman 10-30-04, 05:23 PM	My last D&D game actually topped out at around 13th level - due to one player moving out of state and another traveling for work about 300 days a year ( :mymy: ), that's where we left off. The game was planned with epic levels in mind, and could've continued for some time. My Modern game has reached 10th level for all three characters. The adventures are planned through about 16th level or so - no provision for epic levels. My new D&D campaign setting will include the possibility of divine ascension, but that said, I don't think I'm going to use the epic rules - I'm still considering this one. My new Modern game is planned through about 15th -18th level - no idea on anything beyond that point,
Nature-boy 10-30-04, 10:47 PM	When we first started, our characters made it to about 4th level. We were newbies. The next game made it to 12th and now we're currently at 8th level. This one may make it all the way.
Dartanel 10-31-04, 01:29 AM	I actually managed to take a character from 1 to 20. Caerderon Vaelis, started as a 1st level spear wielding barbarian paladin (2nd efition) A joan of arc style outcast from his people. Chased out of his tribe at the age of 16 for following a heretic goddess. (Athena in a world which used the Greyhawk pantheon) Chased the vision of her south where he joined a group of adventurers fighting to save the world. Converted to 3e at level 5. In a run lasting a year of real time, made it to level 13 in a month of game time. (Our quest was literally on a 30 day timer) Took of year off in game. Had a couple breaks of several months out of game and two TPKs, but somehow we managed to complete the story, acheiving 20th level and saving the world from a would-be god lich. All told took us over two years to get there.
StrahdVonZarovich 10-31-04, 01:05 AM	Actualy two of my team-mate made to Epic, but you know what ? Back then I wished I would never get to that point, because it just seemed useless...or should I say overpowered as hell ! Epic Spells, Artefacts, and related materials seemed too....godly poweresque for me to support. Thats why, I reacted so badly when some guy I once knew, bought the Epic Handbook, I just kept telling him that we'd never use such a thing. Right after he bough the damn book, he kept forcing me(well asking me rather very often if you prefer, until I continualy accepted) to DM for him until he reached lvl-21(Epic). And you know what he just din't stop after that ! he continued until he reached lvl-25 ! By this time, he had acquired this darned and acursed feat which would allow him to slay one opponent rather directly, if the opponent in question failed his fort throw, he had a stone of earth elemental control (greater I think), about 6 millions gold pieces, a +6, keen, masterwork dwarven waraxe, a shield with heavy fortification and fire resist on it (15), a special ability which would enables him to mirror back spells of any sort, a cloack which would boost all his saves by +4, a +5 mithril dwarven plate, a +5 shield, and many other things... The Paladin which was in our group also reached lvl-21, but unlike the dwarf player, he stoped there, after obtaining his cloak of Epic Charisma which would gave him +4(I think, someone corrects me if i'm wrong) and his Holy avenger(that one was NOT from ME). After seeing how these two got so powerful, I never wanted to heard from Epic again, but as a consolation prize I earned one free lvl from the Paladin Char, when he DM for us again, making my elven wizard 13 lvl ! (Yay for me !)That char still lives as of now though, and I can say I'm quite proud of him, since it took me about 3 year and a half to get my char this far. Now though, I reconsidered about being Epic, I think it have quite numerous advantages, including interesting feats, and abilities, but I'll see once I reach that lvl, if I do reach that lvl one day. In 2e terms, the highest one I ever got was a Fighter/Cleric 6/6, he died during a tournamend where a Ninja mimicked himself into 9 ''lesser'' selves. He killed me,first by severing my left arm, and then finishing me by severing my head.
Bowlich 10-31-04, 02:45 AM	For the campaigns I've ran: First Campaign: one through about seven before interested died in it. Second Campaign: one through around 17 or 19. Third Campaign: one to thirty eight. Fourth Campaign: one to ten (I intentionally made the rate in which players gained levels incredibly slow). Current campaign: started at level seven and I'm planning on going epic into the low twenties.
darczero 10-31-04, 04:10 AM	Do you usually start out at level one and shoot for level 20? Have you even ever made it that far? Do you go Epic or just tie up loose ends and retire at level 20? Do the characters change roleplay-wise or is the level 20 version basically what the level 1 version wanted to become? In the campaign I ran, we spent about twelve sessions getting to level 6. Then the particular adventure stopped and I handed over the reins to another DM, who started us at level 3 (we're at 9 or 10 right now). I guess we have a short attention span, because those are the two greatest changes in level in a campaign. What's the largest stretch of levels you've ever gone through? Yes, Yes, Both, Yes, Unimportant, 15 in one session.\ Most new games my group plays/runs begin at level 1. I say most, because there is the occasional game where it calls for level 4 or something like that. I've got about five characters, all currently retired, between level 17 (Lich, ECL +4 for total of 21) and 29 (Drow, ECL +2, for a total of 31). All but one earned every single level (there's a Paladin in there who replaced the Lich due to alignment conflict). As above, most characters I play are adventurers, and I don't personally believe in self-termination. I never write up a character that has goals or motivations that have a specific, foreseeable, and unavoidable end to them. I have roleplayed one character for two years straight, through a game with fairly slow advancement (started at 1st, ended at 23rd). She had more personality and Character grow on her over those two years than any other character I've seen, before or since. The game she came from was very intense, both on Roleplay and Combat. Over those two years, she turned from a naive little Wizard to an extremely well-versed introvert that collected blood samples and bottles of various other substances, with over 500 spells in her collection. The 15 levels in one session was actually my 29th level Drow character. Twelve of those levels were from one encounter (no, I have no idea what the DM was thinking; maybe he just wanted us to be Epic so he could throw Gods at us, which he later did). That game actually didn't last very long (two or three months total).
Ainaelin 10-31-04, 07:48 AM	Hi... We usually begin at level 1, but have occasionnally begun at higher levels (3 or 5, and sometimes even higher, like last time when we introduced a player in a level 12 group, and she had her level 2 Dwarf Fighter raised to a level 12 Eldritch Knight) Our higher level character is a Ranger/Fighter 14/1 (total 15), who was created in AD&D 1st Ed. and was Level 9 when we began playing 3.0. But we have many campaigns running at the same time, according to the players available, which makes it impossible to have a smooth, flowing run in any campaign. It sometimes happens that we stop playing a particular set of characters for 2 years and then play them only 2 sessions... I have about a dozen characters in as many campaigns/adventures... and I am currently running about 5 adventures as a DM. As for the evolution of a character, it all depends on the players, and the circumstances. Some characters don't evolve (personnality-wise), others do, and as far as the build, it's all the same. For instance, I had a 2H-sword-wielding Rogue/Fighter, that I began at 4th level, as a Neutral mercenary, a fighting Scout, really. Then he traveled with a Priest of Shaundakul (Forgotten Realms) and began to be more compassionate, choosing his missions accordingly (NG). Recently, he met with a traveling Monk who taught him his martial arts. My character began to learn hard discipline and he is now a LG Rogue 4/Fighter 6/Monk 1 (we don't play with multi-class penalties), and I think he will evolve as a Monk only from now on. He is compassionate, courageous, somewhat wiser than in his youth, and I will, as a player, look for a means to give him a Monk Tatoo as soon as possible (from the Magic of Faerun, I think), which his "Sensei" had and told him about. :D My higher level character is level 14, and I began her at level 1, but I always have played her as an MPC (Master Player Character, a PC of the DM)