Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nessaj 11-26-06, 12:43 AM	/rant So I'm sitting here looking at 9th level spells for my 3rd level Wizard and it suddenly occured to me that not once have I ever had a character even make it that far. I just felt the need to ask; I hear occasionally from people here about great games spanning years; characters that start in low-level and actually make it to level 20, or even to epic levels. Every game I've ever been in (played D&D for 3 years now; maybe 10 or so significant games) has never gone for more than a year, and never more than 8 levels of advancement. Seems to be the norm for me. Kinda makes me feel like I'm wasting my time when I plan out my characters straight to level 20. You know..."Oh, I'd love to take Sudden Maximize at level 3, but if I can take Empower at level 9, it will be much more useful...But oh look, the game ended at 9. Bah." It seems in my experience that the DM's I've played with tire of their game and wish to try something new. Which is fine; DM's do this for fun too. Just thought I'd see just how often people play straight through to 20. :confused: /endrant
Thunder Dragonbane 11-26-06, 02:06 AM	I have never done so under 3.0/5 rules. I have done so under earlier editions of the game. And to actually manage to do so seemed to be a real achievement compared to now because of the lessened EXP charts. Now a days you almost always hear of games starting at 15th lvl and needing Munchkin Multi Classed characters just to "Win", which has never been the object of the game.
pinkbunny 11-26-06, 04:24 AM	I've allways liked starting at lvl 1 I'm in a game where we've gotten to around lvl 10
draco1119 11-26-06, 04:42 AM	I've never made it that far, but I hope to in my current campaign. DM runs a game every other week, and on the off weeks runs a game (in the same world) with a different group. They started at level 4 (as did we) over a year ago and have made it to level 16/17. Westarted 2 months ago and I've made it to level 8. :)
KurenaiYami 11-26-06, 04:50 AM	Highest I've ever gotten (legitimately) was level 3. Aww...I made myself sad...
draco1119 11-26-06, 04:54 AM	I've made it to level 7 from level 1... :)
Aryxbez 11-26-06, 05:04 AM	In a campaign I still play in, started at 1st and we are now currently 10th /12th lv
J.Augustus Rose II 11-26-06, 05:06 AM	It all depends. I think the higest we've ever played from level 1 was to 15th level. We almost always start at 1st level though.
Odimax 11-26-06, 08:53 AM	The characters in our current campaign are: Sorcerer 13 Fighter 13 Spirit Shaman 10/Fighter 2 Rogue 10 (Me) The Sorcerer and Fighter were played from level 1. The Spirit Shaman was played from level 4, I think. I was a Rogue 9/Assassin 3 played from level 1, but my character died 3 times over the course of the campaign (no one else has died even once yet). Upon the 3rd time, I chose to make a new character, which is the Rogue 10. We play once a week, for about 4-5 hours. This campaign has run for about a year and a half now, I think. This is the highest level any of us has played from level 1, other than our DM, who has done a lot more gaming than the rest of us.
Romtos 11-26-06, 09:02 AM	My group once made it from lvl 1 to lvl 11. We started at lvl 5 now, and one of the PC's reached lvl 11.
Rahlious 11-26-06, 09:18 AM	We always started a level 1. Some people made it as far as 8th level in different campaigns. In the most recent game we started at level 8 for the reason that we've never got to have high(er) level characters.
Greenstone 11-26-06, 09:31 AM	[QUOTE=Thunder Dragonbane;10738830]I have never done so under 3.0/5 rules. I have done so under earlier editions of the game. And to actually manage to do so seemed to be a real achievement compared to now because of the lessened EXP charts. In 2nd Edition I took a char from 1-17 level, it took a two year campaign to do it. In 3.5 edition I have always started at level 1. There is nothing like running from goblins ;) I have a currently a char at 6th level that started at 1st.
Rivelstraz 11-26-06, 09:50 AM	I DM'ed a 2 years campaign that brought players from level 4 to 18-19. Some others from 3 to 10 or similar. In one of my current campaigns, they started at level 2 and they are 8 now and I had in mind reaching level 15-16, but we barely play anymore. As a player, I've never advanced more than 3 levels.
WarColonel 11-26-06, 10:27 AM	My favorite character, Llwaran Kirunin, Rogue Elf, was one of two characters (along with Kolokotroni, Mindbender) to make it level 1 through 20 with out dieing. We had about 6 or 7 players at any time (a total of 10 between PCs and DMs) in a campaign that lasted all of sophomore, junior, and half of senior year. Our death is actually posted on the Heroic and Unforgettable Deaths thread, and after our DM killed us off, Kolo's soul was raised and he became a champion of Olidamara while Llwaran became a Demi-god of Chaos, Good, Trickery and Stupidity. My favorite line for him is still used in all of our groups: "Guys, I'm about to do something stupid." Between partion diety, relatives, plot hooks, we've done everything. I had one player play his paladin son, a half-elf who tried his best to distance himself from his father's legacy. We've had weapons of legacy built around iconic equipment, guest appearances. The reason we went from 1 - 20 was because we had 4 main characters who we just couldn't part with. Heck, Kolo's player has been taking all of his notes and writing our campaign into a story. Doing the full levels, you need to care truely about the characters being played. When we got bored, we switched DM's or spliced in a one shot. But thanks to the hilarity that ensued and the dedication of two DMs, we were able to surmount that hurdle of one through twenty. P.S. - Llwaran was the first character I ever played in any D&D.
denner 11-26-06, 10:30 AM	I just stared a campaign. 1 time: Pre-loot. A dream our characters had on how our city was build. 2 time: We where children. 3 time: Now we have grown up (and got lvl 1) So you see we actualy started before lvl 1, and the plan is to go all the way to epic.
alecthemad 11-26-06, 11:36 AM	The furthest I have legitimately taken a character is fifth. Usually because the games fell apart then due to poor DMs. I have run a campaign which took the players to 15 and I think that is the limit for me. They were starting to get out of hand. But I still have the dream of running a game to 20th level. But it seems at my age, 38, I have to advance the players every other game to have a hope of doing so.
alecthemad 11-26-06, 11:36 AM	On a side note I never plan my characters past 9th level. It seems the most realistic.
Onikani 11-26-06, 11:48 AM	Most campigns i play in start between level 1 and 3. The highest i have ever made in in such a campaign was level 9. We played (almost) every week for 6 hours for about a year. I am currently DMing a game with a different group. We started at level 1, and we'll play as long as the players want to. I use the 4 encounters per day/session so they'll level about once a month. I honestly doubt we'll make it to 12th level - but if we can keep it up for a year, then sure. :)
Sir Ferdinand 11-26-06, 01:11 PM	Not once have I reached 20th level. Actually I only have ONE character that has ever even reached 10th level (my latest Paladin build, in a game which we might never play again), and he is exactly at the 10th level. We start the games usually at 1st or 2nd level, in some rare occasions at 3rd level. That 10th level Paladin was started at 2nd level if I remember right. We used to play the game quite often back in early 2000, and we often went from 1st level to 5th to 6th level, sometimes to 7th level, but for some reason or the other, the games always ended, or we just wanted to quit. I'd really like to continue that latest Paladin game, but I don't think it'll happen. I played with my brothers but we've lived in different cities for couple of years now, and we could only play the game during some weekends maybe 5-6 times a year. During the past year we haven't played at all, only one online campaign, which is a dfferent game, and it has barely started either.
Kursk 11-26-06, 01:13 PM	I've done it under 1st & 2nd Ed. That would equate to about 50th level in 3.X I've made to ~16th level in 3.X Just need a good group of mature players & DM.
RevIron 11-26-06, 02:10 PM	Starting at 1 - best to date was a ninth level Cleric. The highest at end character went from 15 to 13 simply by virtue of using lots of casting of wish (the XP cost could drop you a level in that campaign). My highest ever character never got off the ground because there weren't enough feats in print at the time - if I'd found them he'd have been a Bard 400 NPC in the campaign I was then running.
KirkBb 11-26-06, 02:13 PM	1-16 was the farthest I have ever gotten
Nessaj 11-26-06, 02:18 PM	Wow...The overwhelming consensus seems to be that it does not happen very often. Which is suprising...I was expecting more than a few power-gaming ppl to come in and say "yea, we did it in 6 months..." My Personal Campaign History: 1st ever game: started at 5th, ended at 10th Longest running game: started at 2nd, ended at 9th over 1 year Highest level game: started at 12th, ended at 15th over 6 months Closest current game: started at 8th, left off at 14th over 6 months...On hiatus indefinitely. Current active game: started at 2nd...Been month and a quarter; just hit 3.5th. I have some hope for my current game; the DM running it is the one who ran both my first AND my longest-running games. So I've been pressing him to keep this one going a bit longer than his others...Or just level us faster.
Sphyre 11-26-06, 04:10 PM	My very first character that I ever played was played from level 1-21. It was 2 people hack and slash, and many things vulnerable to AoE spells so there was one session I ended up killing 39 level 5 fighters at level 7 due to 3e haste and a wand of fireballs i made, so from 1-21 was made in about a year. I was way out-shining the other player, and other people were showing interest in wanting to play too, so at that point we started a new campaign. I have also played a character from 1-13, and others to lesser levels. I do notice, though, that I enjoy leveling up at least once every 2-3 sessions depending on how long we played each session. I know in the past we've spent 6-9 hours playing D&D per session, and that can also influence the leveling rate. I currently have been DMing a game that started at level ECL 3 (I much prefer DMing a bit higher level stuff, kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and the like get boring) and the players at level 9, close to level 10 now, and it's been running for about 5 months now, weekly, albeit some sessions are as short as 2-3 hours. I think it's more of a difference it playstyle if anything. I know a lot of DMs don't like to DM higher levels because they don't want their players to be overpowered, they like to give small amounts of treasure and things of the like, but I much prefer to empower my players... I like running big monsters too... I don't have a problem challenging powerful characters, and it seems you get to play with a bit more content than you get to at low levels... when you have 10 levels of spells (including cantrips/osirons) and PrCs that the first level isn't obtainable until level 5-10, there's a lot of content that people simply don't use, I like to use that stuff... So yeah, I like DMing, and playing level 5-20, I don't like epic because it then becomes a bit too much of "alright who won initiative? Ok you won"
Norhg 11-26-06, 05:54 PM	Certainly, seen people get even higher. However, looking at spells already is probably not the best of ideas I mean, there will be new spells around when you get there :D
treetrunker 11-26-06, 06:18 PM	Well, I think the question has been answered. Here is my horror story about leveling. Have any of you ever played the Fire Emblem games? You get about 20-30 allies, and can generally use up to 15 in any single fight. My DM was OBBSESSED with them, and so through the course of the game, I ended up with about 20 different allies. Mind you, this was a ONE-ON-ONE GAME!!!!!! Actually I was controlling two characters. The battles were exactly like Fire Emblem, and he did my part of the dialogue for me, just like the video game. "What do you want to do now...Oh, you'd like to go the beach, cool!" I had no choice about what went on. Anyway, in 3 two hour sessions, I took both of the characters from lvl 1 to lvl 13, scary huh?
Ashok_Lal 11-26-06, 07:22 PM	Well... now you mention it, no. I've got a thief campaign that started at 1st level & is now 17th level. but i havent played it in about 6 months. Started another campaign at 1st level. SOOOO close though.:weep: :(
Fortebraccio 11-26-06, 07:29 PM	My first, current and only 3.x PC is a Fighter5/Rogue4. ECL 9 after two years and a half of campaigning...and we play at least once per week. Probably this has something to do with the DM erroneously making our characters level up once per thirteen sessions for more than two years. :)
the_fenris_wolf 11-26-06, 07:29 PM	I have only played one game from level 1 as all the rest of the group thinks it is boring to begin the adventure all weak. But the campaign we did, we got up to level 8, it took us a year though as we basically only play once a month and onlu\y for 5 hrs at a time !!!! I am sad toooo !!!
Regular_K 11-26-06, 07:37 PM	The farthest I've gotten from level 1 is to level 4. The farthest I've taken my players to is to level 6.
CyRenol 11-26-06, 07:54 PM	in my very first campaing,when i did't knew much about the game and 3.5 had just got out (i think im not sure when it had come out) my first character, a female druid archieved lv80 and became a deity ( if i remember correctly she had archieve deityness by lv 40-50 ) and my secondary character a sorcerer to lv 60 it was a 3 year camaping ( it was longuer, the story i was playing was actually part 2 of an alrethy finish campaing) so we (me an my party) if you think, there is no challenge at that lv,try figthing a collosal+++ tarraske with a million hp (literally) and 10k fast healing and a defence automatic spell that activated every round,it took us (party of 16 players or close) to finish that thing.now i barely go above lvl5 because the DM went to another school and im stuck with newbie dm's that railroad and cheat -_-;;:weep: i found my lvl 50 sheets while i was looking for some more blank sheets http://img182.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scan0001li9.jpg i don't know how much the image will last there if you look at the skill points and lvls you will see the infinitness of my noobieness
Chrono Nexus 11-26-06, 07:59 PM	now i barely go above lvl5 because the DM went to another school and im stuck with newbie dm's that railroad and cheat -_-;;:weep: You sound pretty convincing... I usually start at between 1-6. I prefer low level campaigning. From start to end, the highest I have ever gone with one character is 9, but it only stopped because the campaign ended prematurely.
turalisj 11-26-06, 10:05 PM	I'm planning on keeping my online game going until atleast level20. With the rate that the pc's are going, they'll gain a level every two months. ^_^
KingSpoom 11-26-06, 10:46 PM	... it probably reflects poorly on the community. 99% of the time, all of the groups I've been in have started at level 3. Twice have we started at level 1 (once when we first played, and once again for a specific campaign idea). Once have we started at level 5. We have also created level 20 characters with the explicit intent to run an arena style deathmatch. I believe the bulk of dnd play is done between level 3 and level 11, and a decent portion between level 1-3 and 11-15.
turalisj 11-26-06, 10:57 PM	... it probably reflects poorly on the community. 99% of the time, all of the groups I've been in have started at level 3. Twice have we started at level 1 (once when we first played, and once again for a specific campaign idea). Once have we started at level 5. We have also created level 20 characters with the explicit intent to run an arena style deathmatch. I believe the bulk of dnd play is done between level 3 and level 11, and a decent portion between level 1-3 and 11-15. I'll second that, all of it. Don't know whether to put a sad or smiley face...
Braids 11-27-06, 02:53 AM	I really only play levels 1-10...after that we lose interest.
angryman 11-27-06, 02:59 AM	The highest level I've played was level 18, and at the time I was an abjurer/incantrix/archmage. Even though the DM nerfed the Incantrix (hell, I asked him to), at that level, you're pretty god-like. Let's see what I remember. * I defeated a Pit Fiend solo. * I killed the BBEG in the first round (a half-demonic wrym red dragon), admittedly I was lucky that the DM rolled a 2 on it's fort save. * I cast Mord's Disjunction (mastery of shaping) to remove all 10 (!) buffs off another BBEG, but excluded the pile of treasure & my friends. This indirectly made us win * I killed 3 beholders in one round. * I managed to trap the sneakiest & slipperiest NPC in the world. Anyway, high level is fun, but it's very high powered. And that was just me!
Dethro 11-27-06, 03:13 AM	I've played in a few games... Most often we start out at around 5-10th level... The highest I've ever been in a standard game was 18 (or 19?).
Selena Ombrenoire 11-27-06, 04:08 PM	I managed to skyrocket one of my character from level 1 to level 24 in 6 months. :clap: The DM was really a powermonger... every character had 2 or 3 templates and 2 or 3 prestige class. No RP, just pure hack 'n slash against homemade monsters. :fight!: We were leveling once or twice every session (and we even leveled 4 times in one session !) Beside that character, the highest character I got is my level 10 amazon 2nd edition (level 11 is epic in 2nd edition). I've been playing this character for 4 years... we're really cheap on XP. The thief is level 20+... because he's gaining 2xp/gp :D
albinomonkeyking 11-27-06, 08:24 PM	Took one campaign from 4-25, the one I am in now has gone 4-21 and we are close to finishing it up. I am in another game that we have gone 4-10 in (yeah, the DM just doesn't like those levels). Games I am currently running, the one which has 3 sessions left, 2 of them are basically just rping and fun, the last one is the final battle, the characters are...22-24, I can't remember, we haven't played in a bit. The game I am currently running all my players are at level 20. Guess we just level em faster.
Mr. VanderMeer 11-28-06, 06:02 AM	My current campaign started at level 1 and is now at level 16. I do not think I'll make to 20 since the fun has slowly died and I want to start a new campaign. The world has been saved from the Githyanki Incursion. What more do you want? But I do think it's pretty impressive. As a player I've never been able to play for more than 8 consecutive levels.
SamiPeikko 11-28-06, 08:29 AM	We started one campaign at level 5 and most of the characters just reached 20. All the characters have died at least once, the bard just died 4th time. I will have to modify the character soon for epic play. I can't actually remember when we satrted, but we have been playing more than a year, maybe two. And we are playing 3.0. Other campaign I am in started at level 2 and is now going at level 8. It is supposed to end around levels 14-15, but there may be a sequel for the same characters.
Zumarai 11-28-06, 09:03 AM	In first edition, the rest of the players and myself made it to 16th. But since 1989 I have rarely played – almost always the DM. I have been running a solo campaign on and off since about 1988, and the character has made the transition from 1st to 2nd and finally 3rd edition – ECL 23. Aside from that, I've never DM'd a campaign above 11th level. In the current Planescape campaign I'm running the players started at ECL 3, and after 8 months have made it to ECL 11, and we're still going strong. I plan on taking the characters to at least ECL 20, maybe even higher (not much).
hiroshimahamster 11-28-06, 10:51 AM	Most people don't - usually cos the players get bored or the DM tpks them because they're bored. I got my halfling wizard from 7th-13th level (she took over from a deceased elven necromancer cos she was a poor build and to be honest I lost interest in her. I was surprised I made it to level 7 - she only had a con bonus from level 4! :eek: ) That halfling has to be my all-time favourite character that I've created and she's made a reappearance in the campaign (with added cleric levels) that my players have almost finished. She will be in the next one too, but she'll be dead by then (100 years later, same game world)... I just have to make sure my brother doesn't figure out who the Avatar of Faith is... :angelhide He said he'd kill me :raincloud :tantrum: :weep: if she made an appearance in my new roleplay (he thinks she's too powerful - well, she is an epic level Evoker/Cleric of Pelor!). But what he doesn't know can't hurt him! :cheer: :P
Darth Sephiroth 11-28-06, 12:43 PM	I've had two characters from 3.0/3.5 get past level 20. Though I had several with 2nd edition. One of which was someone the DM kept trying to eliminate that survived by sheer luck through several levels.
2nd Ed Paladin 11-28-06, 12:55 PM	A sample: From my noob/munchkin days: 2E - Paladin 1-20 (involved a fair amount of excesive XP from the DM) 2E - Cleric 1-20 (this was closer to the actual rules, just involved a monty haul of magic items) After I learned how to play 2E - Wizard 1 -11 2E - Cleric of Tempus 1-12 (Killed Bane in the FR time of troubles module) 2E - Fighter 1-13 Current HO monk 1 - 6 Paladin of St Cuthbert 3-7 Dwarven cleric - 11-13
Sphyre 11-28-06, 04:04 PM	2E - Paladin 1-20 (involved a fair amount of excesive XP from the DM) I much prefer to give a fair amount of XP for doing more than simply killing monsters. They get experience from it, yes, but killing things is only half the game, so about half the exp they get is from killing things. I've actually change the player who says "lets go kill things and get lewtz"'s additude to actual great role-playing because he is being rewarded for doing more than just killing monsters. Yeah, they level up faster this way... but I prefer it this way better than focusing on monster killing.
lord_blackfang 11-28-06, 05:20 PM	In the first DnD campaign I ever attended I played a bard from level 4 (joined a few weeks into the game, I think they started at 1) to 23 :cool: Earned my own pocket dimension and everything. When your average Perform roll is 45, people tend to notice you :cool:
Sethbob 11-28-06, 08:29 PM	I made it from lvl 1 to lvl 7 legit in Hackmaster. I played my albino, gnome hating, NE human fighter named Krugg "the Thugg". That was the first character I ever made.
Obox_Ob 11-28-06, 08:47 PM	Well, I'm planning to run the Age of Worms adventure path from Dungeon all the way through. With weekly games. Until it finishes or I finish university. That gives me about 5 years, and given the pace of AoW, I can confidently say I expect my players to hit level 20 within a year to a year-and-a-half. Personally, I have PLAYED from Level 1-Level 20. However, we were marathon gaming for a whole summer, so it's hardly the norm.
Pyke_Moonshadow 11-29-06, 09:10 AM	Most campaigns I play/run start at 1st -3rd level and end between 9th and 12th.
Retromancer 11-29-06, 10:40 AM	Well, I think the question has been answered. Here is my horror story about leveling. Have any of you ever played the Fire Emblem games? You get about 20-30 allies, and can generally use up to 15 in any single fight. My DM was OBBSESSED with them, and so through the course of the game, I ended up with about 20 different allies. Mind you, this was a ONE-ON-ONE GAME!!!!!! Actually I was controlling two characters. The battles were exactly like Fire Emblem, and he did my part of the dialogue for me, just like the video game. "What do you want to do now...Oh, you'd like to go the beach, cool!" I had no choice about what went on. Anyway, in 3 two hour sessions, I took both of the characters from lvl 1 to lvl 13, scary huh? wow. I think I would have been able to put up with that for 1 session before stabbing him in the face. That sounds unbearable. You weren't playing D&D. You were playing Warhammer.
Rauric 11-29-06, 07:56 PM	Played in several campaigns that ended by 6. I ran one that ended at 9. Sad.
Magetastic 11-29-06, 09:58 PM	i usualy get through 5 or 6 levels before the DM has a "Great" new concept for a campain that our main characters backstorys don't fit.:mad:
LycaonDarkmoon 11-30-06, 04:21 PM	This a really good question, now that I think about it. Personally I've only played 1 character from 1st level, that was my very first Wood Elf Ranger in 2E. Got to 9 and died. DM was continuing the campaign so he let me roll a crazy overpowered Drow rogue that was a master of knife throwing...got him to 19 before the game ended. In 3.x I've never started lower than 3rd, usually because the DM is letting people use +1 or +2 races. Max I've ever played to was CL18/ECL20 (lvl 18 Half Elf Ranger/Werewolf. As a DM I made the mistake early on of starting characters at lvl 1. I discovered that I lack the ability to make an adventure that is survivable by lvl 1 characters no matter how hard I try (first time I DMed 3.0 I killed my whole party in the 1st round of the 1st encounter!). Now I start at lvl 3, give everyone some more room to develop their backgrounds and makes it a tad easier to keep them alive through the first few games.
Lord Karsus 12-01-06, 01:56 AM	We have also created level 20 characters with the explicit intent to run an arena style deathmatch. -Ah, I've done that before, in SWRPG. -Anyway, the furthest I've gone with a single character was from level 1 to level 15. Sadly, in the end, the entire party was wiped out by a Death Slaad, and a group of Beholders that it had enthralled. Hmm...Some high points include: -Obtaining an Intelligent Vorpal Scimitar (Joy of Death) -Slaying a Twelve-Headed Lernaean Hydra singlehandedly -Beheaded the BBEG Lich in a surprise round, before the thing even realized that us PCs had breached it's inner sanctum.
MindLich 12-01-06, 12:02 PM	How do you people advance so fast. I'm DMing and my group is only level 4, after exactly 10 months.
Father Dale 12-01-06, 01:14 PM	I've had two characters start at lvl 1 and make it to 20 or beyond. One was a LE elf wizard/archmage in a Dragonlance campaign. Started at 1st and 14 months later was lvl 20. Lost a couple levels along the way but got them all back eventually. The other was a paladin who started at lvl 1. The DM in this campaign was a super monty hauler, and it was a very high powered but very fun game. Started off at 1st lvl with Full Plate of Speed and a Luckblade with 3 wishes in it. Got Divine Rank 0 at 10th lvl. Had to end the campaign because the DM moved, but we ended up at 25th lvl with Divine Rank 6. The other campaigns I've played in usually go for about 5 levels. We'll start at any level, depending on the module being played or the other related campaigns. But after about 5 levels something else comes up to play or another guy has a campaign idea and those guys fall by the wayside. We have another Dragonlance campaign where the party started at 5 and is now about 15, but the party members have changed multiple times so that nobody is still in the original party. Lots of deaths in this campaign. I've also run some low epic stuff (low to high 20s) as a DM. I think we started at 21 and are now about 27.
Roivas 12-01-06, 08:25 PM	I've run the gammut I guess. I've started characters at 20th level, played 0th level characters, and been from 1st to 18th for the longest spanning game. Of course I've seen games die during character creation, kind of sad. But that doesn't mean I'll never play a character from 1st to 99th level. Just that it isn't too likely. As far as playing 0th level characters, it was odd we couldn't select a class until after our first adventure. Meaning we had everything a commner had, and all our ability scores were average for our race. So since I choose a race that didn't get common as a free launguage I couldn't speak to the other players. Too bad that game didn't go on.
zae 12-02-06, 01:05 AM	I flat-out don't play games under 5th level, and prefer the 6-10 range. Apparently no game is complete without me, as a few games have had the starting level boosted to 5th just so that I'd play. Before I instituted this rule, I did join a game that started at 2nd, and was just hanging around, not enjoying it that much for a few levels - unimportant people doing unimportant tasks in nonspectacular ways, overcoming mundane challenges. Especially in that low-magic world. That game, along with one of the ones that was boosted to 5th, are both at 15th level and still going strong. Chances are they'll hit 20th or maybe even go a little further. Other games, if online they never go beyond the level they start at (though I'm running one where the players have gone from ECL 7 to ECL 9). If tabletop, keeping my rule in mind they start low-ish and continue for a little while before the DM loses interest or the game has to go on hold or whatever. There was one Planescape game that started at 15th, reached partway through 17th, but then the DM folded the game due to time constraints. A shame, that one was looking like a lot of fun.
Chrono Nexus 12-02-06, 01:12 AM	I flat-out don't play games under 5th level, and prefer the 6-10 range. Apparently no game is complete without me, as a few games have had the starting level boosted to 5th just so that I'd play. Before I instituted this rule, I did join a game that started at 2nd, and was just hanging around, not enjoying it that much for a few levels - unimportant people doing unimportant tasks in nonspectacular ways, overcoming mundane challenges. Especially in that low-magic world. That game, along with one of the ones that was boosted to 5th, are both at 15th level and still going strong. Chances are they'll hit 20th or maybe even go a little further. Other games, if online they never go beyond the level they start at (though I'm running one where the players have gone from ECL 7 to ECL 9). If tabletop, keeping my rule in mind they start low-ish and continue for a little while before the DM loses interest or the game has to go on hold or whatever. There was one Planescape game that started at 15th, reached partway through 17th, but then the DM folded the game due to time constraints. A shame, that one was looking like a lot of fun. Wow. This is the first supportable defense for enjoying high level and disliking low level games I have ever heard. It really looks like you put more thought into it then > power = >fun! Bravo. I don't dislike low level games... my favorite range is 3-8 though. After that things seem to get more routine, somehow.
TarlSS 12-02-06, 01:58 AM	Leveling from 1-20 is fun. I did so in one semester's time, just by having the players level every session. While it might be appealing for DMs to hold back on XP, alot of the game is just enjoyed by having your character advance in power. As long as you plan things appropriately, and make things clear, you can level at any way you like. For players, leveling is something that makes them extremely satisfied. Everyone likes to level, and there's really not much of a good reason you should keep them at a snail's pace.