5 Reasons that Low-Level Play is Better than High-Level Play
Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 07:14AM I’ve always preferred low-level play, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized why.
1. Patterns are boring.
High-level characters know their place in the party and they are expected to be those set pieces. Deviation risks character death and the wrath of your fellow PCs, particularly for buffing casters that decide to change out their “signature” spells. Critters are deadlier and less forgiving of mistakes or experimentation at higher levels, too.
The bottom line? High-level characters often do the same thing over and over. Lower-level characters do not (or, at least, they haven’t had the time to settle into boring patterns yet).
2. Magic Items Matter
Low-Level Play
DM: “It’s a +1 dagger.”
Player: “Fricking sweet! Dibs!”
High-Level Characters
DM: “It’s a +3 flaming dagger.”
Player: “Anyone gonna use this? Disenchant it and upgrade my amulet already.”
3. Terrain Matters
A single sorcerer with spider climb turns all the floor traps, waterfalls, and catwalks in your game world into so much boring scenery. A sorcerer with Fly doesn’t even notice as these things pass her and her companions by. Teleport, dimension door, and +40 to jump checks makes the average encounter’s terrain moot.
As OOTS has poked fun at, a blazing building still only deals 1d6 fire damage per round to the PCs, turning an incredibly exciting encounter into another hack-fest in a room.
Unless you’re low-level, that is.
4. Solid Tactics Matter More
Reconnaissance, then tower shields in front of polearms wedged into a chokepoint with archers and artillery at their back with sneaky strikers flanking the foe makes for pretty solid tactics, until every enemy you meet can trample you to pieces or drop multiple fireballs and beath weapons on your carefully laid plans.
At higher levels it often boils down to hitting harder and quicker than the enemy and falling back on your most powerful spells to turn the tide in an arcane instant. Want to synergize your spells with the cleric? Why bother? Deal that big damage, just like you did last fight, and the fight before that, and the fight before that...
5. Fewer Dice, Quicker Decisions, Breezier Play
Remember how simple life was when you only had to roll this?
Play is faster and easier while maintaining a very high level of granularity at low levels. Your plans are simpler and easier to adjudicate. There are fewer arguments about those “problem” spells like stone shape, and fewer dice to roll for common spells and/or powers.
The Most Bangs for my Gaming Minute
There are other, less tangible reasons that I prefer low-level play, many of them story and plot-related.
I’ve always loved origin stories, for instance, and it’s fun (for me) to start small and work towards something, rather than power-leveling and being surprised at what’s available to me while keeping my eyes open for a bigger bonus, not a completely new item. My admittedly limited experience with higher-level play has always felt... messy, and quickly becomes boring with certain characters (although my current 3.5 wizard and his improved pixie familiar are rather fun to play at 12th level).
I imagine that the higher levels in 4E will be as much (and maybe more) fun than lower levels, and I’ll know if that’s the case in a few months as my abridged Raven Queen adventure, starting at 6th level, kicks off this weekend.
Questions for you
1. I’d like to play a game where you start as a child in a border town where real swords are rare. As you level, time passes and you grow into the hero we're all used to playing. I want every stage of the character's development to matter. Know of anything like that?
2. How do you feel about low-level vs. high-level play in D&D? I’m particularly interested in hearing if any of you are playing paragon- or epic-tier 4E games right now. How are they going?
3. How does your favourite system stack up at different levels of play?
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Reader Comments (9)
1. That sounds like something you can do in Pendragon, from what I've heard of the game. I've never played it myself, though. I think you could also do it in Houses of the Blooded; characters in that game start as young teenagers by default, anyway. That one is tied to a setting, if that matters.
2. I've always played in games that start at low level, and I've never made it past level 7 or so. Though my friend keeps promising to run us a one-shot with lvl 14 pretty pretty princesses. (Mine is a tiefling hellock - cliche on an adventurer, hliarious on a princess.)
3. I don't have a favourite system, but the highest I've gotten is in Iron Heroes, and I have to say my man-at-arms just keeps getting more and more fun to play as the levels go by.
I prefer higher-level play. I guess I've just spent too many sessions swinging at orcs and missing. Then they swing at me and miss.
Goblineer, it sounds like your DM should read my post from earlier this week about spicing up low-level encounters.
Still, I understand the feeling. I've had it a couple of times in the past, but that kind of thing really can be addressed in zillions of ways.
Hey Swordgleam, how's it going?
1. Pendragon, eh? It looks like it has some interesting ideas (and support all the way until last year, at least, so somebody's gotta be playing it. It's garnered some high praise, as well, but I just don't know if I care about chivalry and historic play as much as I do about freedom of choice and stabbing monsters.
Regardless, I'd better look into it some more. Thanks for the hot tip.
2. Okay, what the heck is pretty pretty princesses? *researches* Okay, but, how is it run? What qualifies as that sort of game? Examples please.
3. Swordgleam! Stop teaching me new things! You're going to break my expanding horizons.
I was intrigued with Iron Heroes early on, but never picked it up and know no one who did. I'm glad to hear about your man-at-arms but I'm wondering how high a level you are, and how it compares with the average fighter for number of dice rolled and combat options. That sort of thing.
You should do guest articles for blogs about the many different systems you've played.
1. Personnaly, I'd run the character's childhood as 2-3 seperate mini-adventures.
The first one would be the characters' childhood. Maybe they go on a treasure hunt in the village's tavern's basement, effectively a scaled down dungeon filled with insects and rats, maybe a rat-king as the boss (either a super rat, or if you want freak realism, a bunch of rats wielded together). I'd say they're all 10, more or less, and count them as level 1, but take out a few of their abilities (to allow them to feel the growth, a bit, see next step). For DnD 4E, It'd say don't give them their daylies yet, but the wizard will know a thing or two about magic missiles, the fighter can wack 'em around with a wooden sword, etc.
Second step would be early teenage years. Run another mini-adventure, a friend of theirs from town gets lost in the forest/cave/ruins. Give them a taste of the dungeon for the first time. By that time, the characters are all truly level 1.
And finally, a late teen phase, maybe a year or so before they go out. This one should mostly be there to solidify the links between the party, maybe hint the campaign to come. Give them a last, local adventure, big enough to raise them to level 2, without it feeling to outlandish.
Through this, you'll get your players to build relationships almost automatically, will have many endearing childhood moments (which will build the older characters later on), and, most importantly, by that time your players will care about not only themselves, but the rest of the team, on an emotional level.
2. Well, it ultimately depends on the feel you want for your game. I haven't played, or ran, high level games in 4E, I got to 5 or so yet, but I'm hoping to get a bit further on my next campaign. On paper, anyways, the players never have enough ressources the bypass everything you can make them face. Traps get a bit more insane as you go higher in the level chain (but hey, that's the astral sea for you), but they won't bypass all you shoot at them. There's no powers in the game, up to my knowledge, that allows characters to teleport or fly at-will. Rituals can get similar effects, but when off to save the princess from another dimension, it's not a good idea to stop in the middle of an inverted floating castle to sit down and chant for 30 minutes.
3. I can't say I have a favorite either. Normally, for me, anyways, the fun isn't as much in leveling as it is in discovering more about the character. My favorite character yet was a 3rd edition Necromancer, and I hated the paperwork behind mages in that edition. Leveling up would be rather unimportant to me. Although it is true that getting new, neat stuff is always fun!
1. Oh dear god that would kill me. I would literally slit my throat with the book. If I failed to do this, I suppose I would have to continue playing. But I'd damn well TRY to kill myself. And trying is what really counts.
2. I was playing in a paragon tier game that fell apart because play-by-posts always invariably fall apart sometime or another, and it was very fun. I liked being able to write a detailed backstory of my accomplishments, being able to tell war stories of my earlier times (that didn't really happen but I get to make up) and generally begin competent. Having more powers and being able to pull off cooler tricks in combat also helped. So both for roleplaying and crunch, I enjoy having a character already developed and seeing them become even BIGGER damn heroes, rather than starting at nothing. Though every once in a while I do play low level, at least in games where it is good, like 4e and Cthulhutech. A starting character in Cthulhutech can do a huge amount of stuff, which is great.
3. Maid: RPG doesn't really have levels of play. But if it did, they would probably be fun, hilarious and badass just like the rest of the game right now.
I’ve found that I prefer to play characters I that middle band (7-15th level). They’re still weak enough that a lot of monsters still pose significant challenges and they’re tough enough that a couple of bad rolls won’t usually result in anything to catastrophic (like death).
When I was playing a really high level game (in 3.5e) we found that the only real difference upon reach Epic was that we dealt more damage and the monster had more hit points. Although I haven’t played an Epic Tier game in 4e yet I like that you can retrain powers every time you level. It eliminates the predictability that you talk about. It also allows you to potentially adjust a feat or power for upcoming games if you have an idea of your overall objectives.
I greatly prefer low level games to high level ones. At high levels it becomes too super-heroic and I'd rather use other systems for that.
Hey Kimyou,
1. That’s pretty much exactly the idea I had to fulfilling my dream, but I never found the players interested in the game (and I also never made it happen). That experience would be, for me, extremely satisfying, and I think (as you point out) very, very good for character development.
I also appreciate the suggestion for 4E… not bad.
2. I think you’re right. My “gripes” were aimed squarely at my 3E experiences, where clever rooms and cool traps at mid-levels suddenly became not even a distraction for most PCs.
3. Oh yes, I do love to level and gain new treasures and things, but I’ve had years of that. I think I’m ready for some truly mundane heroism.
@ Wyatt
1. Heh. Well, to each his own, of course. I understand that most RPers are looking for escapism in a very large, heroic way, but my tastes are for smaller (not lesser) fare, even I do love the idea of ascending to Godhood, too.
2. Ah, so you do appreciate lower-level stuff. Is it the game system then? You can do quite a bit as a 1st-level anything in D&D, IMO.
3. Yet another game I know nothing about, but I’ll have to check it out now.
Hey Ameron,
Hmmm… now you see? Your description of high vs. Epic-level play really seems a boring, and illustrates quite well what I’m talking about. When I level up, I don’t just want to roll more dice or add more numbers, I want cool things to happen, and the impetus to make them happen at my fingertips. There’s just so much possibility at lower levels.
I also really like creating new characters though, and I’m sure that adds to the appeal for me.
Hey there, Stuart
Hm. Interesting observation. I’m not sure if I’ll ever break away from swords and magic in my RP games, but I’d be willing to look elsewhere, particularly with WotC’s despicable republishing schedule. But I digress.
I'm doing well, though my schedule has exploded out of control lately.
I'm not sure exactly what my friend is going for, but I know the storyline is that a bunch of princesses are rescuing a prince, and possibly competing for his affections, and also that the intended atmosphere is a mix between creepy fairy tale and hilarious misadventure.
Iron Heroes is fantastic! Jarl is a Man-at-Arms 6 / Berserker 1 right now. There's a lot of different dice involved, but that's because the point of a man-at-arms is to have every weapon possible and do everything in the book with all of them. I picked up the level of berserker because now I can throw melee weapons. How many characters do you know who can say, "I killed him? Awesome. Cleave time! I throw my second masterwork bastard sword at the other guy!"? There isn't exactly a character class that's simple to run, since token pools make things a little complicated, but I can fit everything I need on one sheet of paper with no trouble. I do have my inventory on the back, plus a wishlist, but that's all.
It's funny, because compared to most gamers in the blogosphere, I feel like I've barely played any games at all. My wishlist of games I'd like to play is far longer than my list of games I've been in.